geotieto

Geotieto is the Finnish term for geographic information or geospatial data. It covers data describing the location and characteristics of natural and built features on the Earth's surface, including coordinates, topological relationships, thematic attributes, and temporal information used to analyze change over time.

Geotieto is produced from various sources, such as satellite imagery, aerial surveys, ground measurements, cadastral records, and crowdsourced observations. It is stored in vector formats (points, lines, polygons) and raster formats (gridded imagery), often accompanied by metadata that documents data provenance, accuracy, scale, licensing, and lineage. Common coordinate reference systems used include WGS 84 and local national systems like ETRS89.

Standards and services support geodata interoperability. The Open Geospatial Consortium defines web services and vector/raster formats (WMS, WFS, WCS, GML, GeoJSON). ISO 19115/19139 standards govern metadata. In Europe, the INSPIRE directive seeks harmonized access to geospatial information across member states.

Applications of geodata are wide-ranging: urban and regional planning, transportation and logistics, environmental monitoring and natural resource management, disaster risk reduction, agriculture, and location-based services. Geotieto enables thematic analysis, map production, and decision support, often integrated in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and web mapping platforms.

Access and governance issues include data licensing, privacy and security, data quality, currency, and interoperability. The term Geotieto thus denotes both the data and the underlying infrastructure—data models, repositories, and tools—that support the use and sharing of geographic information.