geographic data are organized in a geographic database. this database can be considered as a collection of spatially referenced data that acts as a model of reality there are two important components of geographic data: the geographic position and the attributes, entities, or properties. in other words, spatial data (where is it ?) and attribute data (what is it ?) are distinguished. in the example of figure 1.12, you can see that we have a (very simplified) map on one side and a table on the other.