Industry Terminology: GIS Format
Historically, "coverage" is the term typically applied to the legacy Arc/INFO format developed by ESRI. The Coverage model at that time was a revolutionary concept, extending CAD formats into more spatially aware data that featured linked attributes. Coverages processed using the BUILD and CLEAN commands are 2D planar datasets that maintain topological information, thus a polygon "knows" which segments of its perimeter it shares with adjacent polygons. Due to the lack of processing power in computing at the time of its development, the Coverage model employs indexed binary files to store spatial and attribute data separately as opposed to utilizing a RDBMS.
This has changed with the advent of raster database technology like rasdaman which makes efficient ad-hoc filtering and processing feasible.
Read more about this topic: Coverage Data
Famous quotes containing the word industry:
“You must, to get through life well, practice industry with economy, never create a debt for anything that is not absolutely necessary, and if you make a promise to pay money at a day certain, be sure to comply with it. If you do not, you lay yourself liable to have your feelings injured and your reputation destroyed with the just imputation of violating your word.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)