Concept of Data Integration

Data integration refers to the process of combining data from

different/multiple sources, scales and formats to provide users
with a unified view of the information. It involves consolidating
data from disparate sources, transforming it into a common
format, and making it available for analysis, reporting, and
decision-making purposes.
It helps organizations to develop collaborative culture, saves
time and boost efficiency, reduces error and delivers more
valuable information.
Factors to be considered during Data Integration
A GIS project normally involves multiple datasets. Mainly
fundamental cases appear while integrating multiple datasets
from various sources:
● the datasets may be from same area, but differ in accuracy
● the dataset may be from same area, but differ in choice in
representation
● the dataset may be from adjacent areas, and have to be
merged into a single dataset, and
● the dataset may have different project systems
Importance
● Comprehensive Analysis: GIS integrates spatial data from
various sources, including satellite imagery, aerial photography,
survey data and administrative boundaries and enables
comprehensive spatial analysis, allowing users to gain insights
into complex geographical phenomena and relationships.
● Decision-Making: Integrated GIS data provides helps in
decision-making across different sectors such as urban planning,
environmental management, agriculture, emergency response,
and public health.
● Improved Data Quality: It involves consolidating data from
multiple sources and improving quality by removing errors, and
redundancies across datasets.
● Enhanced Spatial Analysis: It enables advanced spatial
analysis techniques, such as overlay analysis, proximity analysis,
spatial interpolation, and network analysis.
● Support for Interdisciplinary Research: Data integration in
GIS supports interdisciplinary research by enabling
collaboration among researchers from different disciplines, such
as geography, environmental science, urban planning, and public
health.
● Improved Emergency Response: By combining spatial data
on hazards, infrastructure, population demographics, and critical
facilities, emergency responders can identify vulnerable areas,
plan evacuation routes, allocate resources efficiently, and
coordinate response efforts during natural disasters and other
emergencies.
Overall, data integration is essential in GIS as it enhances data
quality, supports comprehensive spatial analysis, facilitates
informed decision-making, and enables effective resource
management across various sectors and disciplines.
Process of Data Integration
The process of data integration involves several steps to combine
and unify data from multiple sources into a cohesive dataset.
Below are the key steps involved in the data integration process:
● Identify Data Sources: The first step in data integration is to
identify the sources of data that need to be integrated. These
sources could include databases, files, applications, sensors, or
external services.
● Extract Data: Once the data sources are identified, the next
step is to extract the data from these sources. This typically
 involves querying databases, accessing files, or capturing data
from sensors.
● Cleanse and Transform Data: After extracting the data, it's
essential to cleanse and transform it to ensure consistency,
quality, and compatibility. This may involve:
• Data Cleaning: Removing duplicates, correcting errors,
and standardizing formats to improve data quality.
• Data Transformation: Converting data into a common
format, unit of measurement, or structure to facilitate
integration. This may include merging datasets,
 reformatting data fields, or translating between different
coding schemes.
● Resolve Schema and Semantic Differences: Data integration
often involves dealing with schema and semantic differences
between the datasets. This includes:
• Schema Mapping: Mapping data attributes from different
sources to a common schema or data model.
• Semantic Mapping: Resolving semantic conflicts and
aligning vocabularies, data dictionaries to ensure
consistent interpretation of data elements.
● Merge and Integrate Data: Once the data is cleansed,
transformed, and mapped, it can be merged and integrated into
a unified dataset. This involves combining data records or rows
from different sources based on specified criteria, such as keys
or relationships.
● Handle Data Consistency and Redundancy: Data integration
may lead to issues such as data redundancy or inconsistencies.
It's essential to address these issues by:
• Ensuring Data Consistency: Maintaining data consistency
across integrated datasets by enforcing data validation
rules and integrity constraints.
 • Resolving Data Redundancy: Identifying and eliminating
redundant data to minimize storage requirements and
improve efficiency.
● Validate Integrated Data: After integration, it's crucial to
validate the integrated dataset to ensure its accuracy,
completeness, and reliability. This involves:
• Data Quality Assurance: Conducting quality checks,
validation tests, and data profiling to identify anomalies
or discrepancies in the integrated data.
 • Error Handling: Handling errors or discrepancies
discovered during validation by either correcting them or
flagging them for further investigation.
● Publish Integrated Data: Finally, the integrated dataset can be
published or made available for consumption by users or
applications.
By following these steps, organizations can effectively integrate
data from multiple sources, ensuring that it's accurate, consistent,
and usable for analysis, reporting, and decision-making
purposes.
Join and Relate Spatial and Attribute data
Joining and relating spatial and attribute data is a fundamental
operation in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) that allows
users to combine spatial features with associated attribute
information for analysis and visualization.
Join
● It combines two data through key values.
● Values in one or more key are matched across the data and
the information is combined based on matching values and the
name of fields need not to be matched.
● Join can be defined based on either attribute or by location.
Attribute Join
Basically, attribute join is feasible while joining a table of data to
a layer based on the value of the fields where the join cant be
performed based on the spatial location of the data.
For this, the field name need not to be exactly matching but the
values on the key field should match else, null value will appear
after appending while keeping all records.
The datatype of the field should be same i.e. join integer to
integer, float to float, string to string etc.
Steps to perform Attribute join in GIS Environment
● Right click the layer or table that need to be joined
● Select “join and relates’ and click join.
● Click ‘What do you want to join to this layer?’ arrow and
select “join attribute from table.”
● Click the field that join will be based
● Choose the table to join, it can also be browsed.
● Choose the join field on that table.
● Choose whether to keep all records or only matching
● Lastly click ‘Ok’.
Example: where attribute join can be applied: Suppose we have
the district boundary data and we want to access the population
of a district from its attribute but we have the population data on
simple table. In this case, we can perform attribute join, to merge
the tables into attribute table of the district layer.
Spatial Join
Basically, spatial join is performed while joining two layers
based on the spatial location of features where join cant be
performed based on the values of the field i.e. when layers don’t
share a common fields.
With the spatial join, we can find any of the following:
• The closest feature to another features
• whats inside a feature
• what intersects a feature
• How many points fall inside each polygons
Unlike attribute and relationship class join, results from spatial
join create a new output layer. This provides a permanent
association between two layers.
Steps to perform spatial join by ‘join data’ dialogue box in GIS:
● Right click the layer to which you want to join attribute select
‘join and relate’ then click ‘Join’.‘Join Data’ can be accessed by
‘Table Option’ in attribute table
● Click ‘what do you want to join to this layer?’drop down
arrow and select ‘Join data from another layer based on spatial
location’.
● Click ‘layer’ drop down arrow and select the layer you want
to join to the target layer, you can also browse the layer.
● Choose the approximate query according to the requirement for
the join.
● Click ‘Ok’; a new layer is added on the map containing the
joined data.
Relate
Unlike, joining table, relate tables simply defines a relationship
between two tables. The associated data isn’t appended to the
layers attribute table instead, you can access the related table
from layers attribute.
For example, if you select a building, you can find all the tenant
that occupy the building. Similarly, if you select a tenant , you
can find what building it resides in.
Join can establish only a one to one or many to one relationship
between tables. E.g. Join can find only the first tenant ignoring
all the other tenant that is associated with each building.
But relate can establish one to many and many to many
relationship.
Steps to perform relate
● Right click the layer you want to relate , point ‘Join and
Relate’ then click ‘Relate’.
● Choose the field in the layer on which the relate will be
based.
● Chose the table or layer to relate to or load the table from
disk.
● Choose the field in the related table on which to base the
relate.
● Type a name for the relate.
● Click ‘Ok’.

Projection and Transformation of Spatial Data

Projection and Transformation are essential components of
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for accurately
representing and aligning spatial data. Here's a concise
overview:
Projection
 Purpose: Projection is the method of representing the Earth's
curved surface onto a two-dimensional map or screen. It
minimizes distortion while preserving specific properties like
distance, area, direction, or shape.
 Types: Common projections include cylindrical, conic, and
azimuthal. Each type balances distortion differently based on
the intended use of the map and area of interest.
 Parameters: Projections require parameters such as
projection type, central meridian, standard parallels, and
origin, which influence the characteristics of the projected
map.
  Selection: Choosing the right projection depends on factors
like the area of interest, purpose of the map, and scale of the
data.
Transformation
 Purpose: Transformation converts spatial data from one
coordinate reference system (CRS) to another. It ensures
alignment when overlaying or analyzing data from different
sources with different CRSs.
 Methods: Transformation methods include affine
transformation, which scales, rotates, translates, and skews
 data, and datum transformation, which converts coordinates
between different datums to correct for differences in the
Earth's shape and orientation.Various methods of coordinate
transformation include : i)Affine transformation ii)Helmert
transformation
 Accuracy: It's crucial to consider accuracy when selecting
transformation methods, as they can introduce errors.
Choosing appropriate methods and parameters is essential
based on the data's accuracy requirements and intended use.
In summary, projection and transformation are vital processes in
GIS for accurately representing spatial data on maps and
aligning data from different sources. They ensure that GIS
analyses and visualizations are reliable and meaningful,
considering the characteristics and accuracy of the data and the
intended use of the map.
Integration of Cadastral Data
Cadastral data typically includes information about land parcels,
property boundaries, land ownership, land use, and related
attributes. Here's how the integration process may be
approached:
● Data Collection
 • Gather cadastral data from multiple sources such as
government land registries, cadastral surveys, land
administration agencies, local municipalities, and private
surveying firms.
• Cadastral data may exist in different formats, including
paper records, digital files, survey plans, and databases.
● Data Standardization and digitization
• Standardize cadastral data to ensure consistency and
compatibility across different sources.
 • Paper maps are scanned in the scanners and parcel
boundaries are then digitized in a feature class within a
database.
• Normalize attribute fields, coordinate systems, units of
measurement, and coding schemes to facilitate
integration.

● Data Transformation
• Convert cadastral data into a common format or schema
suitable for integration.
 • Transform coordinate reference systems (CRS) and
projections to ensure spatial alignment and accuracy.

● Attribute Integration
• Combine attribute data associated with cadastral parcels,
such as property ownership information, land use
classification, valuation data, and legal descriptions.
• Establish relationships and linkages between cadastral
parcels and related attribute datasets.
● Data Management and Storage
 • Organize integrated cadastral data into a centralized
repository or database management system.

● Data Sharing and Dissemination

• Publish integrated cadastral data through web services,
mapping applications, and data portals for public access
and use.
• Provide data documentation, metadata, and user guides to
support data discovery, interpretation, and utilization.
● Continuous update: data maintenance, updates, and revisions
to keep the integrated cadastral dataset current and accurate.