A Discrete Global Grid System (DGGS) can be understood through several complementary lenses. These perspectives highlight its versatility in organizing, analyzing, and sharing geospatial data across disciplines and applications.
DGGS as a Data Model
At its core, DGGS is a spatial data model, comparable to raster and vector formats. It provides a method to discretize the Earth’s surface into manageable units, enabling storage, analysis, and visualization of spatial information. Each cell holds geospatial data and serves as a building block for computations or display. In this role, DGGS supports thematic analysis and digital mapping within a structured and consistent spatial framework.
DGGS as a Spatial Reference System
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) defines DGGS as a spatial reference system. Each cell in a DGGS has a deterministic location on the Earth’s surface based on a predefined grid configuration. This allows DGGS cells to serve as stable geospatial references, similar to how geographic coordinates or map projections provide spatial context in traditional GIS.
Depending on its application, a DGGS can also be described in terms of:
- Data tiles
- Graphic cells
- Spatial tags or coordinates
- Indexes for data storage and retrieval
These terms reflect the various functions a DGGS can fulfill in representing space and information.
DGGS as a Data Framework
DGGS is often used as a uniform data framework, especially when integrating heterogeneous datasets from multiple sources. Because all data points are aligned to a common spatial grid, DGGS enables seamless comparison, fusion, and aggregation of spatial data. This makes it particularly useful in environmental monitoring, national reporting, and multi-sensor data integration. Most applied research that leverages DGGS uses it in this way—to create spatial consistency across otherwise incompatible datasets.
DGGS as a Data Cube
Thanks to its regularity and multi-resolution hierarchy, DGGS can be naturally extended into a spatial data cube. Each cell can store values over time or across different variables, supporting complex spatiotemporal analyses. This is especially powerful for monitoring dynamic phenomena such as climate change, land use, or emissions over space and time.
DGGS as a Digital Earth Infrastructure
Viewed from a broader perspective, DGGS has the potential to serve as the foundation for a digital earth or global spatial data infrastructure. To fulfill this role, a DGGS system must:
- Ingest and crawl standardized geospatial datasets from various sources
- Harmonize and integrate data into a uniform grid
- Support core spatial operations and queries
- Communicate results via standard APIs and formats for interoperability
This vision positions DGGS as a central organizing layer for the geospatial web, connecting distributed systems and datasets into a cohesive, scalable spatial fabric.
DGGS is more than just a grid. It is a flexible and powerful framework that bridges the gap between theory and application, supporting spatial thinking at every scale.