Map Data

Map data includes points, lines, and polygons.

• Points represent anything that can be described as an x, y location on the face of the earth, such as shopping centers, customers, utility poles, hospitals, or cellular towers.
• Lines represent anything having a length, such as streets, highways, and rivers.
• Polygons describe anything having boundaries, whether natural, political or administrative, such as the boundaries of countries, states, cities, census tracts, postal zones, and market areas.

Map data is defined according to one of two models used to represent data in a GIS, the vector model or the raster model. The map above uses the vector data model to represent Japanese fortifications just before D-Day, transportation networks, and features such as airports. Learn more and see the full map.