Physical Database Design for Raster Images

In order to extend database technology beyond traditional applications a new paradigm called \externalization of database functionality" has been proposed in research and development. Externalization of database functionality is a radical departure from traditional thinking. Traditionally, all data is loaded into and owned by the database, whereas in the new paradigm data may reside outside the database in external repositories or archives. Nevertheless, database functional-ity such as query processing, optimization, physical database design, indexing and more general replication support is provided. In this paper we explore the applicability of our Concert approach when raster image data from photogrammetry and cartography are used. We report on investigations of a joint project where engineering applications such as 3D building reconstruction and raster image mosaics are supported by database functionality. We speciically mention advantages with respect to tertiary storage integration and database memory mapping thus directly supporting application speciic algorithms.