Spatial data: What is it and how does it work?
No matter your interests or field of work, spatial data is constantly being considered, whether you are aware of it. Geospatial data, also known as spatial data, is any data that relates to or contains information about a specific location on Earth’s surface.
Understanding the Basics
Spatial data can come in many forms and contain more than just location information. You will become more proficient in the language of geospatial data by becoming familiar with a few key terms.
Vector
The best way to describe vector data is to describe it as graphical representations of the real world. Vector data can be divided into three main categories: points, lines, and polygons. A line connecting two points, and a line creating an enclosed area, is a polygon. Vectors best represent objects or features on Earth’s surface. Shapefiles (.shp files) are often used interchangeably with vector data since vector data is also stored in .shp files.
Raster
In raster data, pixels are organized into a grid. In a raster, each pixel contains information about the element it represents, whether it’s a color or unit of measurement. Images are rasters. Specifically, in the spatial world, orthoimagery refers to photos taken from satellites or other aerial devices. The quality of raster data depends on the resolution and task.
Attributes
Besides the location of a point on the surface of the Earth, geospatial data contains much more information. Attributes are any additional information about neither spatial nor geospatial features. Additional attributes can be added to spatial data to describe the location.
You might display a map showing the locations of buildings in a city’s downtown area, for instance. Besides the building’s location, another attribute is its use (housing, business, government, etc. ), its age, and how many stories it has.
Geographic Coordinate System
Using geographic coordinates, we can pinpoint earthly locations. Geometry uses latitude axes (horizontal lines running east-west) and longitude (vertical lines running north-south) instead of x and y axes. Angles are measured in degrees (°) concerning the axis orientation of the Earth’s center.
Georeferencing and Geocoding
Despite their differences, geocoding and georeferencing are processes of fitting data to real-world coordinates. By georeferencing, vectors and rasters are oriented correctly on a model of the Earth’s surface through the assignment of coordinates. Addresses, city, country, and other location descriptors are used in geocoding. There is a reference coordinate for each of these locations on the surface of the Earth.
