System and method for processing and display of geographical data

A method of operating a computer based graphical system for displaying geographic information comprising the steps of:

• (a) displaying graphical representations of geographic information in a first display area;
• (b) displaying of textual geographic information in a second display area;
• and
• (c) responding to user input means to control the information presented in said first and second display areas.

A method for modelling and storing data in a relational database related to geographic data defining a spatial extent comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing data defining each geographic object within a spatial extent;
• (b) partitioning said spatial extent into cells using a partitioning strategy;
• (c) generating a unique cell identification for each said cell;
• (d) grouping said data defining each geographic object by said unique cell identification to form cell grouped geographic objects;
• and
• (e) storing said cell grouped geographic objects in a database record corresponding to said unique cell identification.

A method for modelling and storing data defining attachments in a relational database related to geographic data defining a spatial extent comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing unique attachment data to define each of a plurality of attachments;
• (b) assigning a unique attachment identification code to each said unique attachment data;
• (c) providing a unique category description to define each of a plurality of category descriptions;
• (d) grouping each said unique attachment data at least one said unique category description to form category description grouped attachment data;
• and
• (e) storing said category description grouped attachment data in a database record corresponding to said unique category description.

A method for modelling and storing data defining attachments in a relational database related to geographic data defining a spatial extent comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing unique attachment data to define each of a plurality of attachments;
• (b) assigning a spatial index to each said unique attachment data to define the location of said unique attachment data within a spatial extent;
• (c) providing a category description for each said unique attachment data;
• (d) grouping said unique attachment data by said category description and said spatial index to form category grouped attachment data;
• and
• (e) storing said category grouped attachment data in a database record corresponding to said category description.