Geoscience Data Structures

What do we actually want?

CNRS
MEOM

All-inclusive


Raster Data

Raster data is any pixelated (or gridded) data where each pixel is associated with a specific geographical location. The value of a pixel can be continuous (e.g. elevation) or categorical (e.g. land use). If this sounds familiar, it is because this data structure is very common: it's how we represent any digital image. - Data Carpentry

Discrete

  • GeoTiff
  • Rasterio

Continuous

  • xarray
  • array
  • dataframe

Vector Data

Vector data structures represent specific features on the Earth’s surface, and assign attributes to those features. Vectors are composed of discrete geometric locations (x, y values) known as vertices that define the shape of the spatial object. The organization of the vertices determines the type of vector that we are working with: point, line or polygon. - Data Carpentry

Points

Lines

Polygons


Key Differences