National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis

Recent developments in spatial relations have led to their use in numerous applications involving spatial databases. This paper is concerned with the retrieval of topological relations in Minimum Bounding Rectangle-based data structures. We study the topological information that Minimum Bounding Rectangles convey about the actual objects they enclose, using the concept of projections. Then we apply the results in R-trees and their variations, R+ and R* trees in order to minimize disk accesses for queries involving topological relations. We also investigate queries that involve complex spatial conditions in the form of disjunctions and conjunctions and we discuss possible extensions.