name: Stadia Maps Vocabulary description: >- Vocabulary and taxonomy for the Stadia Maps location platform covering routing, geocoding, geospatial analysis, mapping, and developer API concepts. created: '2026-05-02' modified: '2026-05-02' terms: - term: Geocoding definition: >- The process of converting a human-readable address or place name into geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude). Stadia Maps uses the Pelias geocoding engine backed by OpenStreetMap, OpenAddresses, GeoNames, and Who's On First datasets. tags: [Geocoding, Core Concept] - term: Reverse Geocoding definition: >- The process of converting geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude) back into a human-readable address, place name, or administrative area. Used in applications that need to show an address for a GPS location. tags: [Geocoding, Core Concept] - term: Autocomplete definition: >- A search-as-you-type feature that suggests place names and addresses while the user is still typing. Stadia Maps autocomplete returns ranked GeoJSON feature results based on partial text input and optional focus point. tags: [Geocoding, Search, UX] - term: GID definition: >- Global Identifier. A unique stable string identifier for a place in the Pelias geocoding system, composed of source, layer, and source-specific ID (e.g., whosonfirst:locality:101929023). Used with the place endpoint for direct lookups. tags: [Geocoding, Identifier] - term: Layer definition: >- The type or granularity of a geocoded place result. Layers include venue, address, street, neighbourhood, locality, borough, localadmin, county, macrocounty, region, macroregion, country, and postalcode. tags: [Geocoding, Classification] - term: Routing definition: >- The calculation of a path between two or more geographic locations, including turn-by-turn instructions, distance, and estimated travel time. Stadia Maps uses the Valhalla open-source routing engine supporting multiple travel modes. tags: [Routing, Core Concept] - term: Costing Model definition: >- The travel mode and optimization parameters used for routing. Valhalla costing models include auto, truck, bicycle, pedestrian, motor_scooter, motorcycle, multimodal, and taxi. tags: [Routing, Configuration] - term: Maneuver definition: >- A single turn-by-turn navigation instruction within a route leg, including instruction text, street names, duration, distance, and shape index range identifying the geometry segment. tags: [Routing, Navigation] - term: Isochrone definition: >- A polygon representing all areas reachable from a starting point within a given travel time or distance. Used for service area analysis, delivery zone planning, and accessibility studies. Stadia Maps returns GeoJSON polygons. tags: [Geospatial Analysis, Routing] - term: Time-Distance Matrix definition: >- A data structure showing travel times and distances between every combination of a set of origin and destination locations. Used in logistics optimization, last-mile delivery planning, and fleet management. tags: [Routing, Optimization] - term: Map Matching definition: >- The process of aligning a raw GPS trace (sequence of timestamped coordinates) to the underlying road network, producing a clean routed path with turn-by-turn instructions. Useful for cleaning noisy GPS data and post-processing trips. tags: [Routing, GPS] - term: Trace Attributes definition: >- Road-level metadata extracted along a traced GPS path, including speed limits, surface type, access restrictions, bridge/tunnel flags, and intersection details. Used for navigation, research, and compliance applications. tags: [Routing, Road Data] - term: Elevation definition: >- The altitude (height above sea level) at a geographic point, measured in meters. Stadia Maps provides elevation profiles along polylines and point-based lookups using digital elevation model data. tags: [Geospatial, Elevation] - term: Encoded Polyline definition: >- A compact string encoding of a sequence of latitude/longitude coordinates using the Google Polyline encoding algorithm. Used to represent route geometry and GPS traces in API requests and responses. tags: [Encoding, Routing] - term: API Key definition: >- A secret token used to authenticate requests to the Stadia Maps API. Passed as the api_key query parameter or as a Bearer token in the Authorization header. Managed through the Stadia Maps client dashboard. tags: [Authentication, API] - term: GDPR Endpoint definition: >- An EU-region API endpoint (api-eu.stadiamaps.com) provided for GDPR compliance. Routes requests exclusively through EU infrastructure, ensuring personal data does not leave the European Economic Area. tags: [Privacy, Compliance, GDPR] - term: Valhalla definition: >- An open-source routing engine used by Stadia Maps for all routing APIs. Valhalla supports multi-modal routing, isochrones, time-distance matrices, map matching, and trace attributes. Developed by Mapbox and now community-maintained. tags: [Routing, Open Source, Engine] - term: Pelias definition: >- An open-source geocoding engine used by Stadia Maps for all geocoding, search, and autocomplete APIs. Pelias indexes multiple authoritative datasets and returns results as GeoJSON FeatureCollections. tags: [Geocoding, Open Source, Engine] - term: GeoJSON definition: >- An open standard format for encoding geographic data structures using JSON. Stadia Maps returns geocoding and isochrone results as GeoJSON FeatureCollections, compatible with MapLibre GL JS, Leaflet, and other mapping libraries. tags: [Format, Standard, Geospatial] - term: Property definition: >- In the Stadia Maps Account Management API, a Property represents an application (web app, mobile app, or server) that consumes the Stadia Maps API. Each property can have associated API keys and authorized domains. tags: [Account Management, API]