5.1.1. Geographic features and geographic objects

Geographic features are features of the Earth, natural (e.g., rivers) or artificial (e.g., buildings), physical (e.g., roads) or abstract (e.g., administrative division). Each sector has its own set of geographic features that are core to the implementation of its programs and activities. Those core to the health sector, for example, include but are not limited to: health facilities, vaccination points, settlements, ambulances, patients, roads and administrative divisions.

GeoPrism Registry does nevertheless only handle geographic features for which it makes sense to establish and maintain a master list. These include fixed features such as health facilities, schools, bridges, or villages; artificially-created features such as administrative units, foci or health areas; or mobile features such as vehicles or individuals. A master list for other geographic features would either not be necessary (e.g., roads, rivers)* or not applicable (e.g., continuous features like topography or population distribution). A geographic object, or Geo-Object, is itself the computer representation of a geographic feature. It can be represented as a point, line, or polygon on a map (more details on this in the next section).

*GeoPrism Registry does nevertheless provide the possibility to handle geographic objects represented by lines and can handle roads and rivers should master lists exist for them.