Bounding Box

Overview A bounding box (bbox) is the smallest axis-aligned rectangle that contains a geographic feature, set of features, or entire dataset. Defined by four coordinate values representing the minimum x (west), minimum y (south), maximum x (east), and maximum y (north) boundaries, bounding boxes provide a simple and computationally efficient way to describe the spatial extent of geographic objects.

Bounding boxes are ubiquitous in geospatial standards and protocols. The GeoJSONGeoJSONGeoJSON is an open standard format for encoding geographic data structures using JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). I... specification includes an optional bbox member for features and feature collections. OGC web services (WMS, WFS, WCS) use bounding box parameters to define the geographic area of interest in service requests. Spatial databasesSpatial DatabasesSpatial databases are specialized systems designed to store, query, and manage data related to objects in geographic ... use bounding boxes as the first stage of spatial querySpatial QueryA spatial query retrieves features from a geospatial database based on their geographic relationships, such as inters... filtering, quickly eliminating features whose bounding boxes do not overlap the query area before performing detailed geometric tests. Metadata standards require bounding box information to describe the spatial coverage of datasets.

Bounding boxes serve multiple purposes in GISGISGeographic Information Systems (GIS) enable users to analyze and visualize spatial data to uncover patterns, relation... workflows. Spatial indexingSpatial IndexingSpatial indexing organizes geospatial data into efficient data structures that dramatically accelerate location-based... structures like R-trees organize features by their bounding boxes to accelerate spatial queries. Tile map services use bounding boxes to determine which tiles intersect the current viewport. Data download services allow users to specify a bounding box to extract a geographic subset of a larger dataset. API endpoints for geocodingGeocodingGeocoding is the process of converting addresses or place names into geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude)...., routing, and search services accept bounding boxes to constrain results to a region of interest.

Axis-aligned bounding boxes are imprecise approximations of actual feature geometry, particularly for elongated or irregularly shaped features oriented diagonally. Features near the antimeridian (180° longitude) or spanning the poles require special handling. For higher precision, oriented bounding boxes (minimum bounding rectangles rotated to fit the feature) or convex hulls may be more appropriate, though at greater computational cost.