Vektdata

Vektdata, in a GIS context, refers to spatial data represented by discrete geometric features such as points, lines and polygons. Each feature encodes its position and shape, while attributes stored in an accompanying table provide descriptive information such as name, type or measurement. This is in contrast to raster data, which represent space as a grid of cells with values.

Vector data are organized into layers and defined within a coordinate reference system. Common formats for exchanging vector data include Shapefile, GeoJSON, GeoPackage, GML and KML. Data may be stored with explicit topology, where rules ensure consistent relationships between features, such as shared boundaries between adjacent polygons or the connectivity of network lines. Coordinate reference systems allow data from different sources to be aligned and analyzed together through transformations.

Quality and accuracy are important considerations for vektdata. Issues such as positional precision, scale, and generalization can affect the fidelity of features. Digitizing errors, attribute inconsistencies and gaps in topology are common challenges, often mitigated by metadata, validation tools and topology checks.

Applications of vector data are broad. They include urban planning, cadastral mapping, transportation networks, environmental monitoring and various spatial analyses such as buffering, overlay, intersection and proximity queries. Vector data also support routing, site suitability, and feature editing within GIS workflows.

Compared with raster data, vector data are efficient for representing discrete features and precise boundaries, while raster data are often preferred for continuous fields and large-area analyses. Many GIS tasks integrate both data types to leverage their respective strengths. See also GIS, spatial data, raster data, topology.