6 Data Models
6.1 Geospatial Data Is Special
One of the reasons there is a steep learning curve for Geographic Information System (GIS) is due to the diversity of the geospatial and attribute data formats involved with most GIS projects. Some of the commonly used geospatial formats include shapefiles, geodatabases, KMLs, GeoTIFFs, ERDAS imagine files (.img), AutoCAD Drawing Exchange Format files (.dxf), GPS Exchange Format files (.gpx), and GeoJSON files. GIS data can also be in tabular form (e.g., Excel, CSV, TXT, and dBase files). This diversity comes from the different fields (e.g., image processing, computer-aided design, and database management system) that have contributed to the genesis of the geospatial ...
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