A set of numbers that represents a specific location on the Earth’s surface. Geographic coordinates can be in latitude and longitude, or in another coordinate system such as Universal Transverse Mercator.
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Category: Location
A geographic information system (GIS) is software for capturing, storing, analysing and presenting data that has a location attached to it. What separates a GIS from an ordinary database is that it understands space: it can answer questions about distance, containment, adjacency and overlap rather than only about values.
What a GIS actually does
The core capability is spatial query and analysis — finding what falls inside a boundary, what lies within a given distance, where two datasets intersect, or how a value varies across an area. Around that sit data management, cartography and visualisation.
Vector and raster
GIS data comes in two broad forms. Vector data represents discrete features as points, lines and polygons — a shop, a road, a boundary. Raster data represents continuous surfaces as a grid of cells, such as a digital elevation model or satellite imagery. Most real analysis combines both.
Common tools
ArcGIS is the dominant commercial platform; QGIS is the established open-source alternative. PostGIS adds spatial types and operations to PostgreSQL, which is how much production spatial analysis is actually run.
GIS and location intelligence
GIS is the toolset; location intelligence is what an organisation does with it — turning spatial analysis into commercial decisions about where to open, where to advertise and where demand is moving.
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An XML-based language for encoding geospatial data. GML can be used to represent points, lines, polygons, and other types of features.
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The imaginary surface of the Earth that best fits its gravity field. The geoid is used as a reference surface for measuring elevation and for mapping the Earth’s surface.
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A JSON-based format for encoding geospatial data. GeoJSON can be used to represent points, lines, polygons, and other types of features.
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The process of determining a location, typically using GPS or other similar technology. Geolocation can be used to find the coordinates of a specific location, or to find the location of a given set of coordinates.
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The study of the Earth’s physical features, including its rocks, minerals, and fossils. Geology can be used to understand the Earth’s history and the processes that have shaped its surface.
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The science of measuring and managing the Earth’s physical features. Geomatics is used to collect, analyze, and store geospatial data.
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The branch of mathematics that deals with the properties and relations of points, lines, surfaces, solids, and higher dimensional analogues.
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The process of extracting geographic information from text, typically in order to create geographic features or extract coordinates.
James is the head of marketing at Tamoco