These materials may be used for study, research, and education, but please credit the authors and source: Kenneth E. Foote and Donald J. Huebner, The Geographer's Craft Project, Department of Geography, University of Texas at Austin. All commercial rights reserved. Copyright © 1996 Kenneth E. Foote and Donald J. Huebner.

1. GIS as Representations of Reality

2. Basic Types of Representation: Raster and Vector Reality

2.1. The Raster View of the World

2.2. The Vector View of the World

2.3. Graphical Comparison of Raster and Vector Systems

3. Organizing Attribute Data

3.1. Flat Files and Spreadsheets

3.2. Hierarchical Files

3.3. Relational Files

3.4. Flat, Hierarchical, and Relational Files Compared

4. Representing Relationships

5. The Example of Topological Relationships

6. Object Oriented Databases

7. The Idea of Expert Systems

8. Required Reading

10. Examination and Study Questions

 Last revised on 9 October 1999. LNC.