Practical GIS

Using Vector Data Effectively

In the previous chapter, we learned how vector data compares to raster data. Although every feature can only represent one coherent entity, it is a way more powerful and flexible data model. With vectors, we can store a tremendous amount of attributes linked to an arbitrary number of features. There are some limitations but only with some data exchange formats. By using spatial databases, our limitations are completely gone. If you've worked on a study area with rich data, you might have already observed that QGIS has a hard time rendering the four vector layers for their entire extent. As we can store (and often use) much more data than we need for our workflow, we must be able to select our features of interest. ...