GIS Dictionary

[government] In census geography, any incorporated or unincorporated city, town, or community.

[geocoding] The formal or common name of a location, such as the name of a school, hospital, or other landmark. For example, “Memorial Hospital” is the place name for the … Read more

[surveying] In surveying, a high-level organization of parcels; a survey document containing data from a recorded subdivision survey plan, or from a legal description. Often, many parcels are defined in … Read more

[coordinate systems] A two-dimensional measurement system that locates features on a plane based on their distance from an origin (0,0) along two perpendicular axes.

[data conversion] A set of rules used to define a consistent method of building point, line and polygon features from spaghetti-digitized data. For example, planar enforcement includes rules that polygons … Read more

A projection that transforms points from a spheroid or sphere onto a tangent or secant plane. Because its directions are often true, the planar projection is also known as an … Read more

[data editing] The process of creating multiple line features by splitting longer features at the places where they intersect other line features. This process is often applied to nontopological line … Read more

A survey of a small area that does not take the curvature of the earth’s surface into account.

[aerial photography] Two-dimensional; showing no relief.

[aerial photography] A two-dimensional map that serves as a guide for contour mapping, usually prepared from aerial photographs.

[cartography] A map that displays only the x,y locations of features and represents only horizontal distances.

[aerial photography] Deviations in the horizontal positions of features in an aerial photograph caused by differences in elevation. Planimetric shift causes changes in scale throughout a photograph.

A survey diagram, drawn to scale, of the legal boundaries and divisions of a tract of land.

[software] In computing, the operating system of a machine, such as the UNIX, Linux, or Windows operating systems. Platform may also refer to a programming language or development environment, such … Read more

[ESRI software] The time mode in which data is displayed using the ArcGIS Tracking Analyst Playback Manager, replaying either real-time or fixed-time data.

[ESRI software] The span of time defined by the Start and End text boxes in the ArcGIS Tracking Analyst Playback Manager. This window can be set to include the temporal … Read more

[printing] A printing device that draws an image onto large-size paper or transparencies. Although pen and electrostatic plotters have largely been replaced by large-format inkjet printers, the term plotter is … Read more

[surveying] Acronym for Public Land Survey System. The description of the location of land in the United States using a survey system established by the federal government in 1785. The … Read more

[ESRI software] Acronym for Production Line Tool Set. A software package that allows users to prepare and maintain data for maps, perform quality assurance/quality control tasks, and create map sheets. … Read more

[ESRI software] A tool used to batch load a personal or enterprise geodatabase from a variety of sources (coverages, shapefiles, or geodatabases). The PLTS data loader uses a cross-reference database … Read more

[ESRI software] In PLTS, a tool for managing layer representation, such as symbology and label expressions.

[Internet] A small software application that extends the functionality of a Web browser.

[ESRI software] An additional read-only data source provided by either ESRI or a third-party developer. It may be a data source forming part of the core ArcObjects or an extension.

[surveying] A line that corresponds to the direction of gravity at a point on the earth’s surface; the line along which an object will fall when dropped.