It consists of a variety of categories including spatial analysis, remote sensing, and geovisualization. The field and study of GIS extends much further than digital mapping and cartography. Otherwise, you would not be able to see them. In this case, you would want to make sure that high school points and street lines are layers above neighbourhood boundaries. Placement of layers is important for visual purposes as it will help you understand the various types of data and present your findings in an easily understandable way. Each dataset would exist as its own layer in your GIS. If you were using GIS for a municipality project, you might have vector data like street data (lines), neighbourhood boundary data (polygons), and high school locations (points). Each spatial dataset may be referred to as a layer. A user will typically use multiple spatial datasets at one time and compare them or combine them with one another.
This includes management, manipulation and customization, analysis, and creating visual displays.
These are programs or a combination of programs that work together to help users make sense of their spatial data. The most common way that spatial data is processed and analyzed is using a GIS, or, geographic information system. GIS & Location Intelligence Raster & Aerial Imagery LiDAR & Point Clouds Using Spatial Data What is a GIS? Each of these locations is given the exact coordinates of reference for that location on the surface of the Earth. The data used in geocoding are addresses and location descriptors (city, country, etc.). Georeferencing is the process of assigning coordinates to vectors or rasters so they can be oriented accurately on a model of the Earth’s surface. Georeferencing and geocoding are different but similar processes since both involve fitting data to the appropriate coordinates of the real world. Each axis represents the angle at which that line is oriented with respect to the center of the Earth, and so the units are measured in degrees (°) *more on projections and coordinate systems below Georeferencing and Geocoding Normally, an x and y-axis are used in mathematical systems, but in geography, the axes are referred to as lines of latitude (horizontal lines that run east-west) and longitude (vertical lines that run north-south). To identify exact locations on the surface of the Earth, a geographic coordinate system is used. Each of the buildings, in addition to their location, may have additional attributes such as the type of use (housing, business, government, etc.), the year it was built, and how many stories it has. For example, you might have a map displaying buildings within a city’s downtown region. Spatial data can have any amount of additional attributes accompanying information about the location. Any additional information, or non-spatial data, that describes a feature is referred to as an attribute. Spatial data contains more information than just a location on the surface of the Earth. Raster data quality varies depending on resolution and your task at hand. However, in the spatial world, this may specifically refer to orthoimagery which are photos taken from satellites or other aerial devices. Each pixel within a raster has a value, whether it be a colour or unit of measurement, to communicate information about the element in question.
Raster data is data that is presented in a grid of pixels. Vector data and the file format known as shapefiles (.shp) are sometimes used interchangeably since vector data is most often stored in. Vectors are best used to present generalizations of objects or features on the Earth’s surface. Connecting points create lines, and connecting lines that create an enclosed area create polygons. There are three main types of vector data: points, lines, and polygons. Vector data is best described as graphical representations of the real world. To properly understand and learn more about spatial data, there are a few key terms that will help you become more fluent in the language of spatial data. Spatial data can exist in a variety of formats and contains more than just location specific information. See more: Why You Should Care About Spatial Data The Basics Spatial data, also known as geospatial data, is a term used to describe any data related to or containing information about a specific location on the Earth’s surface. No matter what your interests are or what field you work in, spatial data is always being considered whether you know it or not.