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THE INTEGRATED WORKFLOW AND SOFTWARE SYSTEM FOR GIS 
DATABASE UPDATE BASED ON GEOSPATIAL IMAGIES 
Wang Mi a , Hu Fen a , Liao Anping b , Lu weihua\ Zhang Liyong 3 
“State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying Mapping and Remote Sensing (LIESMARS)Wuhan 
University 430079, China 
b National Geomatics Centre of China, No 1 Baishengcun Zizhuyuan, Beijing 100044 
KEY WORDS: GIS Database Update, Geospatial Images, Integration, Multi-Source Information Conformity, Scheme 
Configuration 
ABSTRACT: 
Although the image-based update strategy is becoming one of the most desirable choices in keeping the up-to-date state of GIS 
database, now in China, the traditionally adopted workflow and arts for update are still scarcely affected by the current advanced 
technologies and methods, which is quite inharmonious with the high demand for fast data update. Considering the current technical 
and financial feasibilities in practical applications, this paper studies on the design aspect of the efficient software system for GIS 
database update based on geospatial images, in which the operation mode of integration is emphasized; next, a brief discussion of the 
system function architecture also is included; finally, the integrated software system Geomapupdate for national 1:50000 GIS 
database update based on geospatial images is introduced, as a typical case study. It is a platform exclusively servicing the current 
GIS database update businesses of our country and supported by National Geomatics Center of China (NGCC) and designed by the 
research group of State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying Mapping and Remote Sensing (LIESMARS) 
Wuhan University. Practices manifest that Geomapupdate is a successful case study attempting to realize the highlighted integration 
concept for GIS database update; and it is able to improve the traditional update efficiency by more than 20%, which has been 
witnessed in the 1:50000 GIS database update business of China recently and laid a base to achieve rapid updating GIS data. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
The up-to-date state is the key factor that evaluates the 
utilization value of GIS databases, which becomes the focus in 
the application field of GIS at both home and abroad nowadays 
(Speren 1996; Dowman 1998; Fritsch 1999; Jiang and Chen 
2000; Chen et al., 2004; Dekker 2004; Bouziani et al., 2007). 
In china, construction of the national fundamental geospatial 
database has been completed in the past “tenth five-year plan”, 
and the primary task has turned to the geographic database 
updating aspect in the new “eleventh five-year plan”, during 
which State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping enlarges the 
capital, material and labour input, planning to organize the 
domestic surveying and mapping departments to jointly 
complete the updating mission of the national 1:50000 GIS 
database, mainly through the approaches of image-based 
integrated interpretation and surveying or map generalization. 
Under the new circumstance, many spatial data producing 
departments gradually transfer the traditional collecting- 
oriented data producing mode into the updating-oriented data 
refinement mode, during which continuous explorations and 
achievement are made to the advanced methodologies for 
spatial data update. The quick and sustainable GIS database 
update is closely linked with the continuing up-to-date data 
sources and efficient mechanisms for update. With the rapid 
development of airborne and spacebome sensor technologies, 
now it is easy to acquire the real-time or near real-time high- 
resolution images of land covers; meanwhile, the intelligent 
combination of imaging sensors with various additional sensors 
also contributes to the gradually automated and intelligent data 
processing technology. All of these developments indicate that 
the image-based updating strategy is a most desirable choice for 
GIS database update, due to the abundant up-to-date 
information it provides (Gunst and Hartog 1994; Knudsen and 
Olsen 2003; Holland et al., 2006). 
However, in China, the update workflow in traditional 
operation mode is fixedly followed by three main steps: image 
interpretation indoors, field validation and supplement, data 
revision indoors. Such a serial workflow is unsuitable for the 
fast GIS database update command due to the long updating 
cycle induced by the disjointed indoor and field working mode. 
The current field validation and supplement mode is scarcely 
renovated by the contemporary electronic technology and 
almost continues to adopt the traditional analogized photo or 
printed map based surveying and revision pattern, incurring 
disharmony and inconvenience in operation consistency and 
information sharing between the work indoors and in field. 
Besides, there is a vacancy in the integrated software system 
exclusively provided for the current image-based data updating 
business, so much so that the accomplishment of workflow has 
to rely on combined operations on software from different 
specialized fields, e.g. Arclnfo, Maplnfo, Photoshop etc., 
without a uniform criterion for professional operators to comply 
with, which to great extent increases the operation complexity 
and discontinuity. All of these limitations have been exposed 
during carrying out the traditional GIS database update business 
based on geospatial images. Considering the problems from 
both efficiency and quality aspects, reformation of the 
traditional image-based update methodology relies on the full 
realization of the integrated workflow and software system 
based on which the update process is carried out. 
Regarding the technical and financial feasibility in practice, the 
second chapter of this paper explores on the design aspect of the 
efficient image-based software system for GIS database update, 
in which the operation mode of integration is discussed in detail;