Spatial ETL

From Fmepedia

Spatial ETL (or SETL) is much the same concept as ETL except that it relates to Spatial or Geographic Information. Where ETL is a natural tool for working with MIS data, SETL is more aligned to GIS.

The key feature of (S)ETL is that data can be processed during translation, ensuring that the output can be greater than the sum of the inputs. Without this ability the tools would be merely "crude translators".

See this white paper (http://www.safe.com/solutions/whitepapers/gis_and_spatial_etl.htm) for further information on the relationship between SETL and GIS.