There are many ways to create, organize and use geospatial data. Here we outline several strategies that create the conditions that allow a project to tightly integrate the geospatial data with other OCHRE data. In the spirit of OCHRE's item-based data model, the goal is that each spatially-aware item in OCHRE knows how to draw itself -- and preferably only itself -- on a map. The ability to do this depends on how the data is organized, with some strategies allowing more integration more efficiently than others. The strategies described here are listed in order from the least itemized and integrated to the most itemized and integrated, and we outline the features that each strategy makes possible.

Three of the four strategies require that the core geospatial data be represented in an ArcGIS-style geodatabase format. See Creating a Geodatabase to learn how to create an OCHRE-compatible geodatabase.

Integration by Discovery

In this strategy we provide specific access to the details of a feature table from a compatible geodatabase that contains shapes and descriptive attributes of items which also exist in OCHRE. Relevant OCHRE items will examine the feature table to see if they can discover information about themselves there. These geodatabase items are loosely integrated with their OCHRE items

Integration with Itemization using Shapefiles

This strategy does not require the use of a geodatabase and so it can be used with shapefiles produced by any system, not necessarily an ArcGIS-based product. Here a shapefile is treated just like any other OCHRE Resource item, identified by its file name and linked to the OCHRE item of which it is a representation. This is a highly itemized and highly integrated model and was the original model for Organizing Geospatial Data in OCHRE.