Abstract
The term scale has many meanings, some of which survive the transition from analog to digital representations of information better than others. Specifically, the primary metric of scale in traditional cartography, the representative fraction, has no well-defined meaning for digital data. Spatial extent and spatial resolution are both meaningful for digital data, and their ratio, symbolized as L/S, is dimensionless. L/S appears confined in practice to a narrow range. The implications of this observation are explored in the context of Digital Earth, a vision for an integrated geographic information system. It is shown that despite the very large data volumes potentially involved. Digital Earth is nevertheless technically feasible with today's technology.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 114-120 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation |
Volume | 2001 |
Issue number | 2 |
State | Published - Dec 1 2001 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Geographic information system
- Remote sensing
- Scale
- Spatial resolution
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Global and Planetary Change
- Earth-Surface Processes
- Computers in Earth Sciences
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law