DIGITAL GEOGRAPHIC DATABASE IN BRAZIL: formats, accessibility and applications

Abstract

This study emphasizes the main digital geographic databases for Brazil (updated until 2011), describing them as formats, accessibility and applications. Through public and/or private incentives to the democratization of geographic information, combined with an unprecedented volume of data, such files are now available free on the Internet, all georeferenced. This kind of information is distributed in tabular, vector and raster formats, occasionally accompanied by metadata, software or textual material (scientific articles, dissertations, theses and reports). In the same dynamic is growing the development of operational systems and applications focused on the visualization and analysis of spatial information in the online environment (also called as cloud), which allows the creation of thematic maps, without the need for specific software installed on the personal computers. It should be noted, finally, these portals have been used as sources of research and mapping, essential to the scientific and socioeconomic development of the country, especially in public policy development at the level of municipalities, states, regions, watersheds and biomes.