Construction Applications of Relational Data Bases in Three‐Dimensional GIS

Abstract

A geographic information system (GIS) is a hybrid between computer‐assisted drafting and data‐base programs, where geographically characterized information retrieved from the data base is displayed on a graphical representation of a site. GISs, however, have been developed by specializations interested mainly in two‐dimensional land surface applications, and they generally lack three‐dimensional capabilities. By contrast, many civil engineering applications require three‐dimensional characterization of a site. This paper describes a method of extending the PC Arc/Info GIS to represent boreholes as complex three‐dimensional objects and to include such borehole data in a regional geotechnical data base. Borehole data in the form of boring logs can be graphically displayed entirely within the Arc/Info environment through the creation of pseudo‐coverages using the Arc/Info drawing and annotation capabilities. For more advanced engineering analyses, it is necessary to interface data contained within the data base with external programs. This paper illustrates this possibility by an interface to HOOPS, an object‐oriented graphics library, to construct a three‐dimensional representation of soil strata.