Geoinstances

Geoinstances are individual records that represent geographic features within a geospatial dataset. Each geoinstance combines a geometry, such as a point, line, or polygon, with a set of attributes that describe the feature, including name, type, measurements, and other properties. In many GIS models, a dataset defines feature classes (for example, City, River), and a geoinstance is a concrete occurrence of one of those classes.

Geoinstances appear across data formats and systems. In a spatial database, each row in a feature table is a geoinstance. In GeoJSON, a Feature object is a geoinstance that pairs a geometry with a properties object. In RDF-based systems that use GeoSPARQL, an individual resource can be an geoinstance of a geographic class, enabling semantic querying of location data.

Examples help illustrate the concept. A point geoinstance might represent a city with coordinates and attributes like population and country. A polygon geoinstance could define a park with its boundary and attributes such as area and land use. A line geoinstance might model a road with a route geometry and properties like road type and speed limit.

Applications of geoinstances include mapping, spatial analysis, data integration, and time-enabled or spatiotemporal queries. They support data interoperability by providing a consistent representation of real-world features across formats and systems, and they are central to most geospatial workflows.

See also: geographic feature, geometry, feature, dataset, GeoJSON, GeoSPARQL.