SDM Data Source

Abstract

SDM would be like water without a source or a tree without roots if it was separated from its data resources. The development of new techniques promotes the service features of spatial data. This chapter will explain spatial data based on their contents and characteristics; review the techniques for acquiring spatial data; introduce the structure of spatial data based on vectors, raster structures, and their integration; discuss the process of modeling spatial data; explain spatial databases and data warehouses in the context of seamless organization and fusion; and introduce the National Spatial Data Infrastructures (NSDI) of nations and regions, highlighting China’s NSDI; and based on NSDI, discriminate Digital Earth, Smart Earth, and Big Data, in which SDM plays an important role.