Types of geospatial data

There are many types of geospatial data that you may work with in Foundry. It is important to understand what type of data you have when planning how to use it.

There are two main types of geospatial data: raster and vector. Geospatial data with a temporal component is known as geotemporal data.

All example images use notional or open source data.

Raster data

Raster data consists of a matrix of cells organized into rows and columns, in which each cell represents specific information. Examples of raster data include satellite imagery sources, scanned maps, and digital elevation models (DEMs).

Learn more about processing raster data.

Vector data

Vector data is used for storing data that has discrete boundaries and represents these data as points, lines, and polygons. Examples of vector data include points representing cities on a map of the United States, lines representing roads in a state, and polygons representing electoral district boundaries.

Learn more about processing vector data in transforms.

Geotemporal data

Additionally, some geospatial data may have a temporal component, such as the location of a vehicle over time or satellite images taken at different times. These data may be referred to as geotemporal data.