CHALLENGE

There are some common, repetitive spatial queries and analyses that can be time-consuming to recreate for when only minor changes are needed.  Converting the coordinate systems of various feature geometries for ad hoc requests is not terribly difficult, however other types of common spatial queries are not so trivial. For example, retrieving the coordinates of a specific point on a linear feature composed of straight-line and arc segments at a specified distance from an end point is often needed for business operations but can be extremely difficult to calculate. This example takes mathematical calculations and is not easily applicable to a simple SQL query. One utility needed a library of easy-to-use spatial functions that could intake the parameters of specific requests and output the results directly into an SQL query.

SOLUTION

A general-purpose spatial package was created for the organization. What started as common spatial functions quickly grew to include a wide collection of useful spatial subprograms.  It includes functions for geometric conversions, locating coordinates along or within feature geometries, getting information about the spatial relationships between two or more features, and others.

RESULT

The spatial package that was developed is regularly used for ad hoc spatial analysis to solve a wide array of business problems involving geospatial data. Some of the functions of this package have also been incorporated into various application interfaces to automatically perform spatial analyses for other applications. For example, the organization leveraged this solution to automatically collect estimated coordinates for underground cable failures into another database without having to open the GIS application.