A simple concept for storing and retrieving geographic data has been developed. It has been implemented in FOR TRA N and BA SIC and each pachage was developed for machine independence. The FOR TRA/V pachage is used for highway location studies and interpolating ground heights for highway design.
Two separate developments of computer applications have existed in the past. On the one hand, information-processing techniques were developed to handle large quantities of data in connection with commercial or business applications. On the other hand, engineering and planning applications paid little attention to information storage and retrieval problems, as the relevant data could often be handled 'in core'.
Recently these two developments have met in many applications, particularly those where Ideational data (e.g. geographic and planning data, ground geometry) must be extracted from large files before the 'scientific' type of computation can take place. The present paper intends to be a contribution in this context.
The present project has developed a simple but original concept for storing and retrieving geographic data (geodata), and two packages, one in FORTRAN, the other in BASIC for minicomputers have been implemented. Each package was developed for machine independence, and to be suitable for a whole range of applications using Iocational data for planning and design. The initial work was supported by a research grant of the NATO Scientific Affairs Division.
The FORTRAN package has been extensively tested on the IBM 360 of University College, London in two application areas: costing 'route segments' for highway location studies and interpolating ground heights for highway design ('digital ground model').
The BASIC package has been tested on the Wang 2200 minicomputer of Dar AI-Handasah Consulting Engineers for interpolating ground heights for highway design, and details of this work are given in a separate publication 1.
Further development work is now in progress at the Polytechnic of Central London, in cooperation with PTRC, for application to a wider range of planning and design problems using minicomputers.
Application to 'large problems' is also in progress at University College, London, in the context of a development project of TRRL and HECB (Department of Transport): the 'broad band route selection' system. This system will accept Iocational cost data and engineer-