Spatial Query

Spatial query is the act of performing spatial mathematical calculations or returning a spatial primitive from spatial operations, such as determining the area of a polygon, determining the distance between two points, or measuring the perimeter of an area.

A more specific query example might be, “Find me all the street segments where the speed limit is 50 mph.” A more complicated query might combine a boundary layer that has information about the population in an area. And the query might be “find me all the ZIP codes in the State of Tennessee where the population is greater than 25,000 people.” Both are examples of geospatial data analysis.

See also Spatial union and Point-in-Polygon.