geo-spatial

What is spatial data, geodata, geo-spatial, GIS data, geographic data?

You will all the time see various uses of the words defining the data used in GIS and remote sensing literature. But what's right from amongst spatial data, geodata, geo-spatial data, GIS data, and geographic data?

Geographic means 'pertaining to geography (the study of the surface of the earth)' and 'referring to or characteristic of a certain locality, especially in reference to its location in relation to other places' (Macquarie Dictionary)

Spatial originated from Latin 'spatium', which means space. Spatial means 'pertaining to space' or 'having to do with space, relating to space and the position, size, shape, etc.' (Oxford Dictionary), which refers to features or phenomena distributed in three-dimensional space (any space, not only the Earth's surface) and, thus, having physical, measurable dimensions. In GIS, 'spatial' is also referred to as 'based on location on map'.

Spatial has broader meaning, encompassing the term geographic. Geographic data can be defined as a class of spatial data in which the frame is the surface and/or near-surface of the Earth. 'Geographic' is the right word for graphic presentation (e.g., maps) of features and phenomena on or near the Earth's surface. Geographic data uses different feature types (raster, points, lines, or polygons) to uniquely identify the location and/or the geographical boundaries of spatial (location based) entities that exist on the earth surface. Geographic data are a significant subset of spatial data.

Geo-spatial is another word originated to make the things differentiate from geography. Since 'geo' is from Greek 'gaya' meaning Earth, geo-spatial thus means earth-space. NASA says 'geo-spatial means the distribution of something in a geographic sense; it refers to entities that can be located by some co-ordinate system'. Geo-spatial data is to develop information about features, objects, and classes on Earth's surface and/or near Earth's surface. Geo-spatial is that type of spatial data which is related to the Earth, but the terms spatial and geo-spatial are often used interchangeably. United States Geological Survey (USGS) says "the terms spatial and geo-spatial are equivalent".

Geodata is any type of data as a service served by a web server