Geodatabase
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A geodatabase is a database with extensions for storing, querying, and manipulating geographic information and spatial data.
The geodatabase was popularized by ESRI's ArcGIS version 8. Geodatabases allow behavior to be assigned to structures and objects in ways that more closely relate to the way they behave in the real world. Some of the geographic datasets that make this possible include feature classes, attribute tables, relationship classes, domains, raster datasets, network datasets, topologies, and many others. Geodatabases can be stored with a variety of commercial database management systems, such as Microsoft Access or Microsoft's SQL server, and can be opened and manupulated using that program. Software such as ESRI's ArcSDE or ArcGIS can control the data in the database or act as middleware for other clients.
Basically, a Geodatabase stores integral objects and relations between them. Each object is mainly composed by three parts: geometry, descriptive (or attributed) and behavior (so called intelligent objects).
Storing geographic information in a geodatabase has numerous advantages over flat files (called Shapefiles in the GIS world). The advantages can come thanks to the middleware (such as ArcSDE) or from the querying power of the RDBMS. Another significant advantage gained with the enterprise level Geodatabase (requires ArcSDE and a RDBMS) is the ability for multiple users to simultaneously view, edit, and query the database without conflict. Multiple versions of the database can easily be spawned from the default version. These advantages can help to streamline work flow in a multiple editor production environment.
See also
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