From a technical perspective

The technical perspective of location data indicates that it entails both opportunities as well as challenges. Location data, in contrast to other data, has a topology, which holds the relationships between geometry (points, lines, and polygons) and geographic features that they represent. In the case of conventional data, we store data into tables or a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). However, spatial relations and topology require us to store the geometry of objects.

Due to the nature of location data, which is derived from Tobler's first law of geography, Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things. The essence of this law entails also the presence of strong autocorrelation and interdependency in continuous near locations, which is not necessarily present in conventional data (non-spatial attributes).