Category: Geospatial data
BBox (Bounding Box)
A bounding box is a rectangle defined by minimum and maximum coordinates, commonly used to specify an AOI.
Also known as: bounding box, extent
Expanded definition
A bounding box is the simplest way to define an area: min longitude, min latitude, max longitude, max latitude (or equivalent ordering depending on conventions).
Bounding boxes are widely supported and easy to validate, which makes them useful for APIs and quick exploration. The downside is that they often include extra area outside the true boundary.
Because coordinate order varies by API, always confirm whether an interface expects lon/lat or lat/lon, and whether it expects degrees (EPSG:4326) or projected meters.