Grid (spatial index)

It eventually resulted in a thesis entitled "A Hierarchical Coordinate System for Geoprocessing and Cartography" that was published in 1999.

[1] This grid was also employed as the basis of the rotatable globe that forms part of the Microsoft Encarta product.

Criteria for optimal discrete global gridding have been proposed by both Goodchild and Kimerling[2] in which equal area cells are deemed of prime importance.

with associated grid square identifiers, and may be considered a perfectly acceptable example of a spatial index (in this case, typically organised by feature name, though the reverse is conceptually also possible).

The individual cells of a grid system can also be useful as units of aggregation, for example as a precursor to data analysis, presentation, mapping, etc.