(Data West Research Agency definition: see GIS glossary.) An entity or geographic feature that occupies a position in space about which data describing the attributes of the entity and its geographic location are recorded. It is a discrete generic class with basic connectedness and interdependence as a single data set, i.e., land use as a class has separate entities of residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, etc. The class is a set of geographic entities derived from a common set of criteria, thus sharing spatial character and structure, e.g., ownership parcels, intersections, street segments, etc.