Creating Buffers on Surfaces

Authors: Li, Xingong; Larson, Christopher M.; Rex, Arthur B.

Source: Cartography and Geographic Information Science, Volume 32, Number 3, July 2005 , pp. 195-212(18)

Publisher: Cartography and Geographic Information Society

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Abstract:

Creating buffers is an important function used in geographic information systems (GIS) to perform spatial analysis. However, delineating buffers for setbacks in conservation and planning applications is problematical in mountainous areas. A typical vector buffer function in GIS calculates two-dimensional (2D) Euclidean distance (i.e., planimetric distance) instead of surface (or slope) distance and results in an inaccurate representation of buffers when they are verified in the field. A method of delineating buffers on surfaces in the raster data model is presented in this paper. An efficient implementation of the method is achieved through the use of a min-heap and a hash-table based location index. The method is tested and analyzed on both hypothetical and real surface datasets.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1559/1523040054738945

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