Common terminology in GIS applications

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Common terminology in GIS applications

Terminology and Explanations

Spatial data

Spatial data is information that pertains to a particular location on the Earth's surface. This sort of geographical data is often referred to as georeferenced data.

Attribute information

Attribute information is the non-spatial information that helps describe features present in geographical space.

Database

A database is a collection of one or more datafiles or tables stored in a structured manner. It is a collection of information about things and their relationships to each other.

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Database Management System (DBMS)

A Database Management System is a software package for the storage, manipulation and retrieval of data from a database.

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs)

Digital elevation models are

representations of elevation measurements for locations on the earth's surface
used to examine surface features (topography)
generated from contour maps, photogrammetric analysis of stereo aerial photographs, or automated analysis of stereo remotely sensed data (Aranoff, 1989)
commonly in grid format with each grid cell containing an elevation value.
Digital elevation model 29kb

For an explanation of other GIS terms, refer to the Glossary

More?
http://www.geog.ubc.ca/courses/klink/gis.notes/ncgia/u38.html
will provide background reading on digital elevation models

Try the discussion and exam questions if you would like to review your knowledge.

Think!
How would you now define GIS? How does this definition compare with the one you created at the start of this section?

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