5. Loading spatial data

Supported by a wide variety of libraries and applications, PostGIS provides many options for loading data. This section will focus on the basics – loading shapefiles using the PostGIS shapefile loading tool.

1. First, return to the Dashboard, and click on the Import shapefiles link in the PostGIS section. The GUI shapefile importer pgShapeLoader will launch.

   

2. Fill in the connection details for the PostGIS Connection section and click on the OK button. The loader will test the connection and report back in the log window.

   Username	postgres
   Password	postgres
   Server Host	localhost 5432
   Database	nyc

   

3. Next, open the Add File browser and navigate to the data directory, file:\postgis-workshop\data. Select the nyc_census_blocks.shp file.

4. Change the SRID value for the file to 26918. Note that the schema, table and column name are already filled in using the shapefile, but you can optionally change them (Don’t! There are steps later in the workshop that expect the default names.) Click out of the fields after you are done editing, to ensure that the changes were entered.

   

5. Fill in the details for the Configuration section.

   Destination Schema	public
   SRID	26918
   Destination Table	nyc_census_blocks
   Geometry Column	geom

6. Click the Options button to review the loading options. The loader will use the fast “COPY” mode and create a spatial index by default after loading the data.

   

7. Finally, click the Import button and watch the import process. It may take a few minutes to load, but this is the largest file in our test set.

8. Repeat the import process for the remaining shapefiles in the data directory. You can load multiple files in one import by adding multiple files before pressing the Import button:

   • nyc_streets.shp

   • nyc_neighborhoods.shp

   • nyc_subway_stations.shp

   • nyc_homicides.shp

9. When all the files are loaded, click the “Refresh” button in pgAdmin to update the tree view. You should see your four tables show up in the Databases > nyc > Schemas > public > Tables section of the tree.

   

5.1. Shapefiles? What’s that?

You may be asking yourself – “What’s this shapefile thing?” A “shapefile” commonly refers to a collection of files with .shp, .shx, .dbf, and other extensions on a common prefix name (e.g., nyc_census_blocks). The actual shapefile relates specifically to files with the .shp extension. However, the .shp file alone is incomplete for distribution without the required supporting files.

Mandatory files:

• .shp—shape format; the feature geometry itself

• .shx—shape index format; a positional index of the feature geometry

• .dbf—attribute format; columnar attributes for each shape, in dBase III

Optional files include:

• .prj—projection format; the coordinate system and projection information, a plain text file describing the projection using well-known text format

The pgShapeLoader makes shape data usable in PostGIS by converting it from binary data into a series of SQL commands that are then run in the database to load the data.

5.2. SRID 26918? What’s with that?

Most of the import process is self-explanatory, but even experienced GIS professionals can trip over an SRID.

An “SRID” stands for “Spatial Reference IDentifier.” It defines all the parameters of our data’s geographic coordinate system and projection. An SRID is convenient because it packs all the information about a map projection (which can be quite complex) into a single number.

You can see the definition of our workshop map projection by looking it up either in an online database,

• http://spatialreference.org/ref/epsg/26918/

or directly inside PostGIS with a query to the spatial_ref_sys table.

SELECT srtext FROM spatial_ref_sys WHERE srid = 26918;

Note

The PostGIS spatial_ref_sys table is an OGC-standard table that defines all the spatial reference systems known to the database. The data shipped with PostGIS, lists over 3000 known spatial reference systems and details needed to transform/re-project between them.

In both cases, you see a textual representation of the 26918 spatial reference system (pretty-printed here for clarity):

PROJCS["NAD83 / UTM zone 18N",
  GEOGCS["NAD83",
    DATUM["North_American_Datum_1983",
      SPHEROID["GRS 1980",6378137,298.257222101,AUTHORITY["EPSG","7019"]],
      AUTHORITY["EPSG","6269"]],
    PRIMEM["Greenwich",0,AUTHORITY["EPSG","8901"]],
    UNIT["degree",0.01745329251994328,AUTHORITY["EPSG","9122"]],
    AUTHORITY["EPSG","4269"]],
  UNIT["metre",1,AUTHORITY["EPSG","9001"]],
  PROJECTION["Transverse_Mercator"],
  PARAMETER["latitude_of_origin",0],
  PARAMETER["central_meridian",-75],
  PARAMETER["scale_factor",0.9996],
  PARAMETER["false_easting",500000],
  PARAMETER["false_northing",0],
  AUTHORITY["EPSG","26918"],
  AXIS["Easting",EAST],
  AXIS["Northing",NORTH]]

If you open up the nyc_neighborhoods.prj file from the data directory, you’ll see the same projection definition.

A common problem for people getting started with PostGIS is figuring out what SRID number to use for their data. All they have is a .prj file. But how do humans translate a .prj file into the correct SRID number?

The easy answer is to use a computer. Plug the contents of the .prj file into http://prj2epsg.org. This will give you the number (or a list of numbers) that most closely match your projection definition. There aren’t numbers for every map projection in the world, but most common ones are contained within the prj2epsg database of standard numbers.

Data you receive from local agencies—such as New York City—will usually be in a local projection noted by “state plane” or “UTM”. Our projection is “Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Zone 18 North” or EPSG:26918.

5.3. Things to Try: View data using QGIS

QGIS, is a desktop GIS viewer/editor for quickly looking at data. You can view a number of data formats including flat shapefiles and a PostGIS database. Its graphical interface allows for easy exploration of your data, as well as simple testing and fast styling.

Try using this software to connect your PostGIS database. The application can be downloaded from http://qgis.org

Footnotes

1

“Chapter 2.5. Installation” PostGIS Documentation <http://postgis.net/docs/postgis_installation.html#PGInstall>