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PostGIS Vector Tile Utils

A set of PostgreSQL functions that are useful when creating vector tile sources, either at the query stage in Mapbox Studio or in the earlier data preparation stages.

Installation

Everything you need is in postgis-vt-util.sql. This project is also available as an NPM module if that's useful to your workflow.

Load the file into your database with psql or whatever your usual method is. Eg:

psql -U <username> -d <dbname> -f postgis-vt-util.sql

Function Reference

Bounds

Returns an array of the bounding coordinates of the input geometry - {xmin, ymin, xmax, ymax}. Useful for interfacing with software outside of PostGIS, among other things.

If an SRID is specified the output will be the bounds of the reprojected geometry, not a reprojected bounding box.

Parameters:

• geometry g - Any geometry
• integer srid (optional) - The desired output SRID of the bounds, if different from the input.

Returns: float[] - an array of 4 floats, {xmin, ymin, xmax, ymax}

CleanInt

Returns the input text as an integer if possible, otherwise null.

Parameters:

• text i - Text that you would like as an integer.

Returns: integer

CleanNumeric

Returns the input text as an numeric if possible, otherwise null.

Parameters:

• text i - Text that you would like as an numeric.

Returns: numeric

LabelGrid

Returns a "hash" of a geometry's position on a specified grid to use in a GROUP BY clause. Useful for limiting the density of points or calculating a localized importance ranking.

This function is most useful on point geometries intended for label placement (eg points of interest) but will accept any geometry type. It is usually used as part of either a DISTINCT ON expression or a rank() window function.

Parameters:

• geometry g - A geometry.
• numeric grid_size - The cell size of the desired grouping grid.

Returns: text - A text representation of the labelgrid cell

Example Mapbox Studio query:

(   SELECT * FROM (
        SELECT DISTINCT ON (LabelGrid(geom, 64*!pixel_width!)) * FROM (
            SELECT id, name, class, population, geom FROM city_points
            WHERE geom && !bbox!
        ) AS raw
        ORDER BY LabelGrid(geom, 64*!pixel_width!), population DESC, id
    ) AS filtered
    ORDER BY population DESC, id
) AS final

LargestPart

Returns the largest single part of a multigeometry.

• Given a multipolygon or a geometrycollection containing at least one polygon, this function will return the single polygon with the largest area.
• Given a multilinestring or a geometrycollection containing at least one linestring and no polygons, this function will return the single linestring with the longest length.
• Given a single point, line, or polygon, the original geometry will be returned.
• Given any other geometry type the result of ST_GeometryN(<geom>, 1) will be returned. (See the documentation for that function.)

Parameters:

• geometry g - A geometry.

Returns: geometry - The largest single part of the input geometry.

LineLabel

This function tries to estimate whether a line geometry would be long enough to have the given text placed along it at the specified scale.

It is useful in vector tile queries to filter short lines from zoom levels where they would be unlikely to have text places on them anyway.

Parameters:

• numeric zoom - The Web Mercator zoom level you are considering.
• text label - The label text that you will be placing along the line.
• geometry(linestring) g - A line geometry.

Returns: boolean

MakeArc

Creates a CircularString arc based on 3 input points.

Parameters:

• geometry(point) p0 - The starting point of the arc.
• geometry(point) p1 - A point along the path of the arc.
• geometry(point) p2 - The end point of the arc.
• integer srid (optional) - Sets the SRID of the output geometry. Useful when input points have no SRID. If not specified the SRID of the first input geometry will be assigned to the output.

Returns: geometry(linestring)

Examples:

SELECT MakeArc(
    ST_MakePoint(-100, 0),
    ST_MakePoint(0, 100),
    ST_MakePoint(100, 0),
    3857
);

MercBuffer

Wraps ST_Buffer to adjust the buffer distance by latitude in order to approximate real-world measurements. Assumes input geometries are Web Mercator and input distances are real-world meters. Accuracy decreases for larger buffer distances and at extreme latitudes.

Parameters:

• geometry g - A geometry to buffer.
• numeric distance - The distance you would like to buffer, in real-world meters.

Returns: geometry

MercDWithin

Wrapper for ST_DWithin that adjusts distance by latitude to approximate real- world measurements. Assumes input geometries are Web Mercator and input distances are real-world meters. Accuracy decreases for larger distances and at extreme latitudes.

Parameters:

• geometry g1 - The first geometry.
• geometry g2 - The second geometry.
• numeric distance - The maximum distance to check against

Returns: boolean

MercLength

Wrapper for ST_Length that adjusts distance by latitude to approximate real- world measurements. Assumes input geometries are Web Mercator. Accuracy decreases for larger y-axis ranges of the input.

Parameters:

• geometry g - A (multi)linestring geometry.

Returns: numeric

OrientedEnvelope

Returns an oriented minimum-bounding rectangle for a geometry.

Parameters:

• geometry g - A geometry.

Returns: geometry(polygon)

Sieve

Filters small rings (both inner and outer) from a multipolygon based on area.

Parameters:

• geometry g - A multipolygon
• float area_threshold - the minimum ring area to keep.

Returns: geometry - a polygon or multipolygon

SmartShrink

Buffers a polygon progressively (on an exponential scale) until the area of the result hits a certain threshold ratio to the original area. The result is also simplified with a tolerance matching the inset distance.

Parameters:

• geometry g - A (multi)polygon.
• float ratio - The threshold for how much smaller (by area) you want the shrunk polygon to be compared to the original. Eg a value of 0.6 would result in a polygon that is at least 60% as large as the input.
• boolean simplify - Defaults to false. Whether or not you would like the shrunk geometry simplified.

Returns: geometry

TileBBox

Given a Web Mercator tile ID as (z, x, y), returns a bounding-box geometry of the area covered by that tile.

Parameters:

• integer z - A tile zoom level.
• integer x - A tile x-position.
• integer y - A tile y-position.
• integer srid - SRID of the desired target projection of the bounding box. Defaults to 3857 (Web Mercator).

Returns: geometry(polygon)

ToPoint

Helper to wrap ST_PointOnSurface, ST_MakeValid. This is needed because of a ST_PointOnSurface bug in geos < 3.3.8 where POLYGON EMPTY can pass through as a polygon geometry. If the input geometry is a polygon with less than 5 points the ST_Centroid of the polygon will be used instead of ST_PointOnSurface to speed up calculation.

Parameters:

• geometry g - A geometry.

Returns: geometry(point)

Example:

-- Create an additional point geometry colums for labeling
ALTER TABLE city_park ADD COLUMN geom_label geometry(point);
UPDATE city_park SET geom_label = ToPoint(geom);

ZRES

Takes a web mercator zoom level and returns the pixel resolution for that scale, assuming 256x256 pixel tiles. Non-integer zoom levels are accepted.

Parameters:

• integer or float z - A Web Mercator zoom level.

Returns: float

Examples:

-- Delete all polygons smaller than 1px square at zoom level 10
DELETE FROM water_polygons WHERE sqrt(ST_Area(geom)) < ZRes(10);

-- Simplify geometries to a resolution appropriate for zoom level 10
UPDATE water_polygons SET geom = ST_Simplify(geom, ZRes(10));

Z

Returns a Web Mercator integer zoom level given a scale denominator.

Useful with Mapnik's !scale_denominator! token in vector tile source queries.

Parameters:

• numeric scale_denominator - The denominator of the scale, eg 250000 for a 1:250,000 scale.

Returns: integer

Example Mapbox Studio query:

( SELECT * FROM roads
  WHERE Z(!scale_denominator!) >= 12
) AS data