The representation of parcels and parcel relationships in a land information system

A number of functionally independent cultural parcels are in common use. These include the legal parcel, assessment parcel, farm parcel and administrative parcels. Many independent Land Data Systems have been developed on the basis of individual parcel definitions. The development of successful Land Information Systems is dependent upon the integration of these single purpose systems. This integration requires an ability to incorporate a variety of distinct parcel definitions and determine the relationships between these definitions. This thesis examines some common parcel definitions and evaluates their relationships on the basis of six fundamental topological relations. A set of basic operations on parcels and parcel maps are defined and used in conjunction with the basic parcel relationships to develop a model for the representation of cultural parcels. The model is tested on theoretical data and then against three different combinations of real data sets. The tests on the cultural data of the one rural and two urban data combinations proved successful. The model is reliant upon a separate identifier for each distinct parcel definition and a knowledge of the topological relationships between each parcel represented in the model.