realplaces

Realplaces is a term used in geographic information contexts to refer to real, physical locations on the Earth’s surface. It contrasts with fictional, virtual, or conceptual spaces. In practice, realplaces are defined by geospatial coordinates and are recognized by authorities or reliable data sources.

In digital mapping and navigation, realplaces form the foundation of maps, addresses, coordinates, and places of interest. They are represented in GIS databases with attributes such as name, type, coordinates, elevation, and legal jurisdiction. Data are collected from surveys, satellite imagery, government registries, and crowd-sourced contributions. Realplaces enable standardized location referencing across platforms and services.

Applications of realplaces include navigation and routing, logistics and supply chain management, urban planning, tourism, environmental monitoring, and emergency services. They support address validation, geocoding, route optimization, and location-based services that rely on accurate positioning.

Challenges associated with realplaces involve data quality and updates, duplicate or conflicting place names, and varying boundary definitions. Privacy concerns, especially for exact residential locations, can complicate data sharing. Naming conventions differ by country and language, requiring harmonization and careful disambiguation in multilingual datasets. Scale and granularity, from broad regional units to precise coordinates, also affect usability.

History and status: The importance of realplaces grew with advances in GIS, satellite imagery, and the internet, making real-world locations central to digital maps and services. The term itself is informal and descriptive rather than a standardized label, but it underpins the concept of actual locations used in mapping and geolocation systems. See also geographic information system, geocoding, places, points of interest.