Shapefile
The Shapefile format is a widely used vector format for geographic data, introduced by Esri in the 1990s. A "shapefile" is in practice a set of files: at minimum .shp (geometry), .shx (index), and .dbf (attributes). Optional are .prj (coordinate system), .cpg (character encoding), and index files for spatial querying. The format supports points, lines, and polygons (including multi-part), but not multiple geometry types in one file. Attributes are stored in the DBF part, with limits on field name length and number of fields. Coordinate systems are not stored in the .shp file itself; the .prj often contains a WKT description of the CRS. Shapefiles are still common in GIS workflows, government data, and exchange with legacy systems. They are supported by almost all desktop and many web GIS tools. Drawbacks include the legacy structure, lack of proper null values, file size limits, and the fact that one logical layer is spread across multiple files, which can cause errors when moving or sharing. For new projects and web applications, GeoJSON or GeoPackage is often recommended. For integration with Dutch sources such as PDOK, data is often offered as Shapefile alongside WFS and GeoJSON; in uploads to GeoApps and similar platforms, Shapefile is a supported import format.
Software
Computer programs and applications used for working with geographic information. GIS software can be desktop-based (such as QGIS or ArcGIS) or web-based (such as GeoApps), and provides tools for data analysis, visualization, and map creation.
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Spatial Analysis
Analyzing geographic data to discover patterns, relationships, and trends. Spatial analysis includes techniques such as buffering, overlay, proximity analysis, and clustering to gain insights from location-based information.
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Spatial Data
Geographic information that describes location, shape, and relationships between objects. Spatial data can be represented as vector data (points, lines, polygons) or raster data (grids, images) and contains both geometric and attribute information.
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