Book Image

Mastering PostGIS

By : Dominik Mikiewicz, Michal Mackiewicz , Tomasz Nycz
Book Image

Mastering PostGIS

By: Dominik Mikiewicz, Michal Mackiewicz , Tomasz Nycz

Overview of this book

PostGIS is open source extension onf PostgreSQL object-relational database system that allows GIS objects to be stored and allows querying for information and location services. The aim of this book is to help you master the functionalities offered by PostGIS- from data creation, analysis and output, to ETL and live edits. The book begins with an overview of the key concepts related to spatial database systems and how it applies to Spatial RMDS. You will learn to load different formats into your Postgres instance, investigate the spatial nature of your raster data, and finally export it using built-in functionalities or 3th party tools for backup or representational purposes. Through the course of this book, you will be presented with many examples on how to interact with the database using JavaScript and Node.js. Sample web-based applications interacting with backend PostGIS will also be presented throughout the book, so you can get comfortable with the modern ways of consuming and modifying your spatial data.
Table of Contents (9 chapters)

Spatial relationship


The most common need for extraction of some raster data from larger dataset is to reduce computing time. Let's look into spatial relationship and extraction functions in PostGIS. For getting results in raster space, we should use ST_Clip() and ST_Intesection() for vector space results.

In the previous example, we extracted one raster cell value for vector point. Now, we need to query for multiple point values. There we should use the ST_Intersection() function. As a standard, this function returns geoval type in vector space, that we need to join with our vector points. Let's look at an example:

SELECT  foo.name, 
  (foo.geomval).val AS height 
FROM ( 
  SELECT 
    ST_Intersection(A.rast, g.geom) As geomval, 
    g.name 
  FROM eudem.clip AS A 
  CROSS JOIN ( 
    SELECT geom, name FROM raster_ops.places WHERE type='village' 
  ) As g(geom, name) 
  WHERE A.rid = 4 
) As foo; 
    name    |      height       
------------+------------------ 
 Koniaków   |           742...