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Research dossier · History & Society

Geographic data and information

data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a geographical location

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ121809790 ↗
Source-derived summary

Geographic data and information is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a location relative to Earth (a geographic location or geographic position). It is also called geospatial data and information, georeferenced data and information, as well as geodata and geoinformation.

Geographic data and information is stored in geographic databases and geographic information systems (GIS).

There are many different formats of geodata, including vector files, raster files, web files, and multi-temporal data.

Spatial data or spatial information is a broader class of data whose geometry is relevant but it is not necessarily georeferenced, such as in computer-aided design (CAD), see geometric modeling.

Fields of study

Geographic data and information are the subject of a number of overlapping fields of study, mainly:

Geocomputation

Geographic information science

Geographic information science and technology

Geoinformatics

Geomatics

Geovisualization

Technical geography

"Geospatial technology" may refer to any of "geomatics", "geomatics", or "geographic information technology."

The above is in addition to other related fields, such as:

Cartography

Geodesy

Geography

Geostatistics

Photogrammetry

Remote sensing

Spatial data analysis

Surveying

Topography

Geospatial analysis

Geospatial intelligence

See also

Earth observation data

Geographic feature

Geomatics engineering

Georeferencing

Ubiquitous geographic information

Satellite imagery

References

Further reading

Roger A. Longhorn; Michael Blakemore (2007). Geographic Information: Value, Pricing, Production, and Consumption. CRC Press.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Geographic data and information” as data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a geographical location. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2007—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Geographic, data and information can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a geographical location. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q121809790. The first chronological checks are 2007.

Critical limits

Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Geographic data and information”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Geographic data and information primary sources, Geographic data and information archive and Geographic research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Geographic data and information”?
  2. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
  3. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Geographic data and information” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.