“Raster data”, on the other hand, deals with real-world phenomena that vary continuously over space. It contains a set of values, each associated with one of the elements in a regular array of points or cells. It is usually associated with a method for interpolating values at spatial positions between the points or within the cells. Since this data structure is not the only one that can be used to represent phenomena that vary continuously over space, this International Standard uses the term “coverage,” adopted from the Abstract Specification of the Open GIS Consortium [1], to refer to any data representation that assigns values directly to spatial position. A coverage is a function from a spatial, temporal or spatiotemporal domain to an attribute range. A coverage associates a position within its domain to a record of values of defined data types.