- Lars Arge1,
- Jeffrey S. Chase1,
- Patrick Halpin2,
- Laura Toma1,
- Jeffrey S. Vitter1,
- Dean Urban2 &
- …
- Rajiv Wickremesinghe1
482Accesses
79Citations
Abstract
As detailed terrain data becomes available, GIS terrain applications target larger geographic areas at finer resolutions. Processing the massive datasets involved in such applications presents significant challenges to GIS systems and demands algorithms that are optimized for both data movement and computation. In this paper we present efficient algorithms for flow routing on massive grid terrain datasets, extending our previous work on flow accumulation. Our algorithms are developed in the framework of external memory algorithms and use I/O-techniques to achieve efficiency. We have implemented the algorithms in the Terraflow system, which is the first comprehensive terrain flow software system designed and optimized for massive data. We compare the performance of Terraflow with that of state-of-the-art commercial and open-source GIS systems. On large terrains, Terraflow outperforms existing systems by a factor of 2 to 1,000, and is capable of solving problems no system was previously able to solve.
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Authors and Affiliations
Department of Computer Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708
Lars Arge, Jeffrey S. Chase, Laura Toma, Jeffrey S. Vitter & Rajiv Wickremesinghe
Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708
Patrick Halpin & Dean Urban
- Lars Arge
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- Jeffrey S. Chase
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- Laura Toma
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Arge, L., Chase, J.S., Halpin, P.et al. Efficient Flow Computation on Massive Grid Terrain Datasets.GeoInformatica7, 283–313 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025526421410
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