[postgis-users] Rasters - fields

[Havard Tveite]

Just to add to the raster confusion :-)

I think a "field" datatype would be more useful than a
raster data type.  A field is a function from a (spatial)
domain into some other domain (for instance a scalar -
scalar field).  Examples of phenomena that are best
represented as fields (continuously varying phenomena):
Precipitation, temperature, terrain height, radiance, ...

A field could be defined over 1, 2, 3 or more dimensions.
A field should be a "black box" datatype, having only a
set of operations/operators.
The field datatype could (internally) be represented
using a raster, a TIN, or ...

Quite a challenge to define and implement!  Something for
PostGIS 10.0 ?

For examples of operations on fields, see:
Andrej Vckovski: "Interoperable and Distributed Processing
in GIS", Taylor & Francis, 1998.

-- 
Håvard Tveite
Department of Mathematical Sciences and Technology, UMB
Drøbakveien 14, POBox 5003, N-1432 Ås, NORWAY
Phone: +47 64965483 Fax: +47 64965401 http://www.umb.no/imt