This document provides an introduction to PostGIS, an open source spatial database extender for PostgreSQL object-relational database. It discusses PostGIS' support for spatial data types, indexing, and functions. PostGIS allows for storage and query of spatial data in PostgreSQL for use in enterprise mapping, GIS, and location-based applications and services.

1. PostGIS for Enterprise
Jody Garnet
Thanks to:
Simon Greener
Paul Ramsey
Mark Leslie
Friendly Survey - Introduction 1

2. What is a Spatial Database
Spatial Data Types
Spatial Indexing
Spatial Functions
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3. What is a Spatial Database?
Spatial Data Types
Point
a single coordinate of two to four dimensions
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4. Line String
Spatial Data Types
Linestring
a set of two or more coordinates
linear interpretation of path between coordinates
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5. Linear Ring
Spatial Data Types
Linearring
a linestring with three or more coordinates
the start and end points are the same
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6. Polygon
Spatial Data Types
Polygon
a set of one or more linearrings
one ring defines the exterior boundary
remainder defines the holes in the polygon
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7. Multi Geometries
Spatial Data Types
Multi-geometries (Multipoint, Multilinestring, Multipolygon)
a set of like geometries
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8. Spatial Indexing
Spatial Data Types
Spatial Indexing
R-tree
Quadtree
Grid-based
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9. Spatial Functions
Spatial Data Types
Spatial Indexing
Spatial Functions
Construction
Serialisation
Predicates
Analysis
Accessors
Builders
Aggregates
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10. Total Length
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11. ST_Intersection
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12. ST_Intersection
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13. ST_Buffer
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14. ST_Buffer
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15. ST_SIMPLIFY
“Denormalisation” of feature types into multiple tables based on
known or expected access patterns
Roads are visualised with different style classes and
rendered at different scales
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16. Spatial Extensions for PostgreSQL
Spatial Extensions for PostgreSQL
Provides Spatial Data Type
Provides Spatial Indexing
Provides Spatial Functions
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17. PostgreSQL for Spatial
Spatial Extensions for PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL Extensions for Spatial
ACID transaction guarantees
Enterprise reliability
Crash recovery
Hot backup
Replication
SQL support
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18. PostGIS History
• Developed in 2001 by Refractions Research
– to assist Refractions in their data processing tasks
Friendly Survey - Introduction 18

19. Growth
• Initially just an indexed load-store extension to allow
concurrent access to data
• Functions added based on Simple Features for SQL
(using GEOS which is a port of JTS)
• PostGIS 1.0 provided fast / lighter Geometry object
Friendly Survey - Introduction 19

20. PostGIS Roadmap
• Geography objects (spherical geometries)
• Raster-in-db
• curved geometry support
• News update - PostGIS is now in OSGeo
Friendly Survey - Introduction 20

21. PostGIS Clients
Year Support
2001 MapServer, OGR
2002 GeoServer, QGIS
2003 Safe FME
2004 Ionic Red Spider, OSSIM
2005 CadCorp SIS, GRASS, uDig, OpenJUMP
2006 ESRI Interoperability Extension, gvSIG
2007 ESRI ArcGIS Server, Manifold, GeoDjango
2008 FDO, MapGuide, AutoCAD MAP3D
2009 MapInfo, GeoConcept
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22. Institut Geographique National, France
National mapping agency of France
Stores high-res topographic data
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23. GlobeXplorer
• Provides web-based access to petabytes of imagery
• PostGIS is used to manage metadata and search for relevant
imagery
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24. LISAsoft
• (my employer!)
Reverse Store SnapMaps Buddy Mokbee
Geocoder Locator Finder
Data Service Mobile Applications
GeoServer PostGIS
TileCache
Publication Services
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25. Team CIMAR : DARPA Grand Challenge
Friendly Survey - Introduction 25

26. Standards
• Level playing field
– Open Geospatial Consortium
– International Standards Organization
– W3C Consortium (XML/SVG)
• Simple Features for SQL / SQL Multi-Media Extensions
Friendly Survey - Introduction 26

27. Simple Features for SQL
Friendly Survey - Introduction 27

28. Implementations
• Can DB handle 100M spatial features?
• Spatial transactions
• PostGIS? Yes
• DB2? Yes
• Oracle? Yes
• SQL Server? In progress
• MySQL? no!
Friendly Survey - Introduction 28

29. Enterprise
Friendly Survey - Introduction 29