Which analysis workflow step is specific to performing GIS tasks?

The step of exploration is specific to performing GIS tasks as it involves analyzing and understanding spatial data through visualization and interpretation. During the exploration phase, GIS practitioners delve into the data to uncover patterns, relationships, and insights that are crucial for decision-making and further analysis. This often includes creating maps, charts, and other visual representations that facilitate understanding of the geographic context.

In GIS, exploration plays a critical role in initial data analysis, helping users to identify variables of interest, understand data distributions, and formulate hypotheses that may lead to further, more focused analysis. It allows users to interactively assess the geographic data, which is essential to effective spatial analysis.

Other workflow steps such as cleaning, engineering, and data wrangling, while important in the broader context of data management and analysis, do not have the same level of specificity to GIS tasks as exploration does. Cleaning focuses on removing inaccuracies and inconsistencies in data, engineering involves designing and optimizing systems or processes, and data wrangling refers to preparing and transforming data for analysis. While these steps are integral to the overall data analysis workflow, they are not uniquely tied to the geographical aspect that defines GIS work.