A to Z GIS | Explore this related guide, featuring updated terms and graphics and developed in coordination with Esri’s GIS Dictionary team.
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[standards]
A measured, observed, calculated, or interpreted value that differs from the true value or the value that would be obtained by a perfect observer using perfect equipment and perfect methods under perfect conditions.
[standards, data architecture]
In a GIS database, a spatial or attribute value that differs from the true value. An error may also be understood as the totality of wrong or unreliable information in a database. A spatial error can be positional (incorrect coordinates) or topological (features do not properly connect, intersect, or adjoin). An attribute error can be the result of incorrect quantities or descriptions or due to missing or invalid values. There are many processes that can potentially introduce errors to a GIS database, for example, as the result of human errors, flawed instruments, map digitizing errors, data integration errors of scale, data collection or conversion errors, and so on.
[standards, data architecture]
In geodatabase topology, violation of a topology rule detected during the validation process.