====== Geographic Information ======

Geographic information, as the name suggests, is a specific type of information integrating localization properties of the earth’s surface. It has three components: spatial, temporal and thematic, as illustrated by J. Dangermond’s cube:

{{ :glossaire:informationgeographique.png?direct&300 |}}

The cube of geographic information (Dangermond 1983)

These three components can answer various questions by interrogating the geographic database using spatial and attribute queries. The spatial component: what do we find here? Where is this type of entity? Is this entity similar to its neighbors? The temporal component: when was this? Which entities appeared after this date? The thematic component: what is this? Is this different from that? The power of a GIS comes from its ability to answer questions combining these three components. Example: what is the nature of the objects that appeared during this last decade near this other object?
See: [[english:glossary:informationsystems|Information Systems]], [[english:glossary:entity|Entity]]
\\ [[glossaire:information_geographique|[French: Information géographique]]]