Landscape Project Version 3.1 - State of New Jersey

32 | Landscape Project Version 3.1 | CONSERVING IMPERILED WILDLIFE OF NEW JERSEYGIS - Acronym for geographic information system. An integrated collection of computer software and data usedto view and manage information about geographic places, analyze spatial relationships, and model spatialprocesses. A GIS provides a framework for gathering and organizing spatial data and related information sothat it can be displayed and analyzed.GPS - Acronym for Global Positioning System. A system of radio-emitting and –receiving satellites used for determiningpositions on the earth. e orbiting satellites transmit signals that allow a GPS receiver anywhere onearth to calculate its own location through trilateration. Developed and operated by the U.S. Department ofDefense, the system is used in navigation, mapping, surveying, and other applications in which precise positioningis necessary.raster - A spatial data model that defines space as an array of equally sized cells arranged in rows and columns, andcomprised of single or multiple bands. Each cell contains an attribute value and location coordinates. Unlikea vector structure, which stores coordinates explicitly, raster coordinates are contained in the ordering of thematrix. Groups of cells that share the same value represent the same type of geographic feature.union - A topological overlay of two or more polygon spatial datasets that preserves the features that fall within thespatial extent of either input dataset; that is, all features from both datasets are retained and extracted into anew polygon dataset.vector - A coordinate-based data model that represents geographic features as points, lines, and polygons. Each pointfeature is represented as a single coordinate pair, while line and polygon features are represented as orderedlists of vertices. Attributes are associated with each vector feature, as opposed to a raster data model, whichassociates attributes with grid cells.CONVERSIONSArea:1 hectare = 2.47 acresDistance:1 meter = 3.28 feet1 kilometer = 0.62 miles