> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://mariadb.com/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/reference/sql-structure/geometry/gis-resources.md).

# GIS Resources

GIS stands for [Geographic Information System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_system).

Further reading:

* [OGC Simple Feature Access](https://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/sfs) - the Open Geospatial Consortium's OpenGIS Simple Features Specifications For SQL.
* [Geo/Spatial Search with MySQL](https://www.scribd.com/doc/2569355/Geo-Distance-Search-with-MySQL) - a presentation by Alexander Rubin, from the MySQL Conference in 2006.

There are no differences between GIS in stable versions of MariaDB and GIS in MySQL. There are, however, some extensions and enhancements being worked on.

<sub>*This page is licensed: CC BY-SA / Gnu FDL*</sub>

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