Object oriented database structure

Object-oriented database structures originated out of the concepts of object-orientated programming languages. Their use in GIS has been encouraged by the need to handle complex entities more sophisticatedly than as simple point, line and polygon features, and also because of the problems that arise in the database due to GIS operations like polygon overlay.

Object-oriented approaches combine the speed of hierarchical and network approaches with the flexibility of relational approaches.

The data are defined in terms of a series of unique objects which are organised into groups of similar phenomenon (object classes).

Relationships between different objects and classes are established through explicit links (Burrough and McDonnell, 1998).