Journal of Geographic Information System, 2010, 2, 120-123
doi:10.4236/jgis.2010.22018 Published Online April 2010 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jgis)
Study on Provincial Land Use Database Remittance
Standard Establishment
Wenfeng Liao1, Shiwu Xu2
1Land Resources Information Center of Guangdong, Guangzhou, China
2Faculty of Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China
Abstract
In order to realize county-level land use database remittance, establish the provincial land use database and
realize annual change statistics, this paper analyzed the requirements for establishing the provincial land use
database remittance standards. It proposed the principle of establish the standard compile, introduced the
standard establishment process, described the standard main content, and demonstrated technical reasons for
standard topologic relationship, expression method for land use data time dimension, data file naming rule,
land use element classification, land use database digital dictionary file composition, land use spatial objects,
etc. It provides reference for the standard establishment of provincial land use database remittance.
Keywords: Land Use, Database, Remittance, Standard
1. Introduction
At present, China is building county-level land use data-
base. The database construction for the national level
should adopt software recommended by Ministry of
Land and Resources. There are several database con-
struction scales, 1:2000, 1:5000, 1:10000, etc. As data-
base building uses various platforms and various scales,
provincial land use database needs to be established to
achieve county-level land use database remittance, build
provincial land use database and realize annual change
statistics. This database should be flexible to change in
different software. The standard provincial land use da-
tabase should set uniform data use feature classification
code, layer division, data file naming rule, unified spatial
data, attribute data and data dictionary structure, unified
conversion format and metadata formats, etc [1].
2. The Standard Establishment Principle
Standard building must follow certain principles. Provin-
cial land use database remittance standard establishment
principle mainly includ es the following.
2.1. Standard Should Orient to Requirement and
Data Result
The standard orients to data classification, storage, sharing
and transfer in routine land use basic data management.
It sets common contents, formats and takes the require-
ments and result data as the description object. This
standard doesn’t involve in process data and processing
method.
2.2. Standard Independence
From the data standardization aspect, the standard com-
pile takes data analysis as the core. It starts from man-
agement requirement and doesn’t base on any current
GIS software platform or application software.
2.3. Standard Sharing
Standard basic characteristic is sharing, therefore in
standard establishment process, the national and provin-
cial norm and stipulation should be taken as the b ase. As
for data expression model, Literature [2] is the reference.
As for data expression, literature [1] and provincial re-
lated stipulation is taken as base.
2.4. Scientific and Open Standard Classification
Data classification changes with data change and the
demand development. It requests standard classification
has to reflect current situation and meet the requirements.

W. F. LIAO ET AL.121
3. Standard Establishment Process
Provincial land use database remittance standard estab-
lishment generally has the following process.
3.1. Requirements Analysis
Firstly, analyze the county-level land use database re-
mittance requirement, and fully understand data source
complexity. Secondly, fully understand the multiplicity
of county land use database that involved the software
and hardware platforms, that is, the smallest set can not
be used as standard. While it’s difficult to achieve can
not be divorced from the actual development of the
standard, Thirdly, carefully investigate and analyze ex-
isting data resources and systems platforms, ensure the
standard has nothing to do with software and the con-
nected resource are not affected.
3.2. Standard Comp i lation
According to the standard guidance, set clear stand quo-
tation standard and the integrant part, then divide stan-
dard layer, compile the format, and compile the standard
(draft).
3.3. Ask for Standard Comments and Test
Ask for opinions of standard related department and sec-
tors extensively, then carry out remitted test of different
county-level land use database, after continuous revision,
and get the final standard.
3.4. Standard Expert Argumentation
Standard expert panel discussion was held and will give
lots of valuable suggestions for the final revision.
3.5. Standard Publishing
Standard publishing is a process for publish, receive and
accept. When the Standard has established, the publish-
ing department can hold a release conference, or in web-
site forms. Related department should prepare to explain
any related questions to th e public.
4. The Standard Main Content
The main content of provincial land use database remit-
tance standard includes the following aspects.
4.1. Scope
It sets standard main content and applicable scope.
4.2. Quotation Standard
Lists the reference and quotation norm and stipulation of
national and provinc i a l related standard.
4.3. Terminology
Define Standard related special terms and terminology to
guide.
4.4. Land Use Database Remittance Content
It contains land use features, such as landownership, par-
cels, line features, and sporadic parcels. It also includes
other relevant features such as, land use data processing,
management and analysis which mainly include the fun-
damental geographic features, the administrative region
features and the raster features, etc [1].
4.5. Land Use Database Remittance Form
Vector data is remitted in standard map sheet or a county-
level administrative region form. Raster data is remitted
in standard map sheet form. Land use database data dic-
tionary and metadata is remitted in county-level admin-
istrative region form.
4.6. Land Use Database Remittance Scope
All features remittance in administrative region. Other
features outside the administrative region are not remit-
ted. For initial data remittance, all features will be remit-
ted. When remitted data changes, all the involved fea-
tures need to change (including additional and unused
features).
4.7. Data Features Classification, Coding and
Characterization in Land Use Database
Because different features have different purposes and
usage methods, the land use database data features
should be classified management. The larger class is
classified in face method, while smaller ones use line
classification method [1]. According to different feature
characteristics, the land use database data feature are
divided into basic geographic information, land use,
raster, basic farmland, land ownership and other features
[1].
4.8. Land Use Data File Naming Rule
Land use data in data use database remittance and data
conversion will follow the following naming rules in
describing other files, including land use standard map

W. F. LIAO ET AL. 122
sheet data file name rule, and land use data file naming
rule base d on admi n i s t r ative region [1].
4.9. Land Use Database Structure
Give detailed description for the land use database spa-
tial data structure, the attribute structure, the dictionary
structure and an attribute code, etc [1].
4.10. Land Use Database Metadata
Lists land use database metadata form, define a two-
dimensional data table for the land use database metadata
which contains, data item, data type, value field defini-
tion, etc [1,3,4].
4.11. Land Use spatial Data Conversion Format
Describe data format content and grammar rule for vari-
ous data conversion, such as vector data, the raster data,
the metadata and the data dictionary [1,2 ].
4.12. Appendix
It includes land use terminology, spatial objects defini-
tion, land use vector data transfer format sample, land
use database data dictionary transfer format samples and
land use database metadata samples, etc.
5. Technical Description
Technical description for standard establishment of pro-
vincial land use database remittance.
5.1. Topologic Relationship
In standard, the description of th e topologic relationship,
should not only ensure data completeness and consis-
tency, it also should reflect the princip le that the standard
has nothing to do with platform software. Topologic re-
lationship allows a certain data capacity and requires
fully expression of spatial objects. In other words, any
face-shaped geometric object should ensure that the co-
ordinate’s co nnectio n str ing s are clo sed . Th e bound ar y of
different spatial geometric objects is overlapped in spa-
tial position, which need s separate description [2].
5.2. Land Use Data Time Dimension
Representation
Fully express the historical condition of land use another
request for land use data expression. The specific ex-
pression form is as follows, firstly, different periods land
use data should be completely recorded. This method is
intuitive but data is redundancy which is suitable for
non-GIS platform management system. Secondly, estab-
lish base year background data and record changed data
in different time period. In this situation, data redun-
dancy is much smaller and easier to manage. While it
needs spatial analysis to completely express land use in-
formation which is suitable for GIS platform. As the
provincial land use database is based on the GIS platform
management system, land use database remittance gen-
erally adopts the second method.
5.3. Data File Naming Rule
Data file in Standard only refers to remitted and trans-
ferred data file. In the process of data collection, proc-
essing and management, software usage, application, and
management should be consistent with the naming rules.
It has to establish conversion rules or procedures with
standard naming rules.
5.4. Land Use Features Classification
In land use data management, features classification code
can use the user-defined code, provided that it has to
establish correspondence rule with standard classification
code system. It has automated transformation program.
What’s more, the feature classification should be in ac-
cord with the standard.
5.5. Land Use Database Data Dictionary File
Composition
Land use database data diction ary file usually consists of
three parts: the first part is the file header, the second
part is the data dictionary structure, and the third one is
the data dictionary data.
5.6. Land Use Spatial Objects
Land use vector data constitutes by the spatial geometry
data and attribute data. The two are connected by spe-
cific identification code. Identification codes with the
same geometry data and attribute data describes the same
space objects. The spatial objects in land use data gener-
ally refers to its specific featu res. Space objects expr ess ed
by land use spatial geometry data can be divided into
zero-dimensional object, one-dimensional objects and two-
dimensional objects [1,2] according to thei r geomet ry.
6. Conclusions
According to the above principle, process, content and
method, “Guangdong Province Land Use Database Re-

W. F. LIAO ET AL. 123
mittance Standard” has been formulated and published.
This system has also been successfully in Guangdong
Province’s county level land use database remittance and
provincial land use database construction. This system
has played important role in administrative land use data
management.
7. References
[1] The Ministry of Land and Resources P.R.C. TD/T
1016-2007 Standard for Land Use Database, The Minis-
try of Land and Resources P.R.C, Beijing, 2007.
[2] General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspec-
tion and Quarantine of P.R.C, Standardization Admini-
stration of the Peoples Republic of China. GB/T 17798-
2007 Geospatial Data Transfer Format, Standards Press
of China, Beijing, 2007.
[3] The Ministry of Land and Resources P.R.C. TD/T 1016-
2003 Core Metadata Standard for Land and Resources
Information, The Ministry of Land and Resources P.R.C,
Beijing, 2007.
[4] State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, CH/T 1007-
2001 Metadata for Digital Products of Fundamental Geo-
graphic Information, Surveying and Mapping Press, Bei-
jing, 2001.