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GIS Dictionary

Definitions for GIS terms related to operations such as analysis, GIS modeling and web-based GIS, cartography, and Esri software.

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resolution

1. [cartography] The detail with which a map depicts the location and shape of geographic features. The larger the map scale, the higher the possible resolution. As scale decreases, resolution diminishes and feature boundaries must be smoothed, simplified, or not shown at all; for example, small areas may have to be represented as points.
   
2. [graphics (computing)] The dimensions represented by each cell or pixel in a raster.
   
3. [graphics (computing)] The smallest spacing between two display elements, expressed as dots per inch, pixels per line, or lines per millimeter.
   
4. [ESRI software] In ArcGIS, the smallest allowable separation between two coordinate values in a feature class. A spatial reference can include x, y, z, and m resolution values. The inverse of a resolution value was called a precision or scale value prior to ArcGIS 9.2.