Extent has several different usages with regard to geographic information and analysis and is variously used synonymously with terms such as coverage, scope, area, and other related concepts. The extent of a study in time, the extent of an area represented on a paper map or digital display, and the extent of a study area (analysis extent) have critical implications for the information they contain and portray. An additional use of the term extent relates to the horizontal and vertical dimensions of a geographic feature or collection of features.

Temporal extent of a geographic data set expresses the time period for the data and includes the frequency of the observations used to create the data set. In the Federal Geospatial Data Committee (FGDC) and International Organization ...