Digital geospatial data can be stored using a vector data model where cartographic features are represented using points, lines, and areas (polygons) that are stored as a set of one or more X/Y coordinates. A raster data model, on the other hand, represents cartographic features as pixels. A major difference between raster and vector data is that raster data represent geography as the interior area of a cell, whereas vector data encode the boundaries between different areas.

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