The foundational activity of organizing and structuring data within a database, ensuring efficient management, storage, and analysis. It involves creating semantic, conceptual, logical, and physical data models that serve as blueprints for structuring data entities, attributes, and their interconnections. This process ensures data interoperability, database performance, accuracy, consistency, and scalability through techniques such as normalization and entity-relationship diagrams. It is iterative and involves continuous refinement and validation of data models.