A rectangular geographic extent defined by minimum and maximum latitude and longitude values that encloses a dataset or geographic feature.
A bounding box is the simplest way to describe the geographic coverage of a dataset. It is defined by four values: minimum longitude (west), minimum latitude (south), maximum longitude (east), and maximum latitude (north). These four coordinates form a rectangle that contains all the features in the dataset.
Bounding boxes are used in metadata to describe where a dataset covers, in spatial queries to filter data by area, and in map APIs to set the initial view.
Example: The bounding box for the province of Ontario is approximately: west -95.2°, south 41.7°, east -74.3°, north 56.9°. A spatial query using this bounding box would return all features that fall within Ontario's geographic extent.