Using GDAL and OGR to convert your Data for use in GeoNode

GeoNode supports uploading data in shapefiles, GeoTiff, csv and kml formats (for the last two formats only if you are using the geonode.importer backend in the UPLOAD variable in settings.py). If your data is in other formats, you will need to convert it into one of these formats for use in GeoNode. This section will walk you through the steps necessary to convert your data into formats suitable for uploading into GeoNode.

You will need to make sure that you have the gdal library installed on your system. On Ubuntu you can install this package with the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install gdal-bin

OGR (Vector Data)

OGR is used to manipulate vector data. In this example, we will use MapInfo .tab files and convert them to shapefiles with the ogr2ogr command. We will use sample MapInfo files from the website linked below.

http://services.land.vic.gov.au/landchannel/content/help?name=sampledata

You can download the Admin;(Postcode) layer by issuing the following command:

$ wget http://services.land.vic.gov.au/sampledata/mif/admin_postcode_vm.zip

You will need to unzip this dataset by issuing the following command:

$ unzip admin_postcode_vm.zip

This will leave you with the following files in the directory where you executed the above commands:

|-- ANZVI0803003025.htm
|-- DSE_Data_Access_Licence.pdf
|-- VMADMIN.POSTCODE_POLYGON.xml
|-- admin_postcode_vm.zip
--- vicgrid94
    --- mif
        --- lga_polygon
            --- macedon\ ranges
                |-- EXTRACT_POLYGON.mid
                |-- EXTRACT_POLYGON.mif
                --- VMADMIN
                    |-- POSTCODE_POLYGON.mid
                    --- POSTCODE_POLYGON.mif

First, lets inspect this file set using the following command:

$ ogrinfo -so vicgrid94/mif/lga_polygon/macedon\ ranges/VMADMIN/POSTCODE_POLYGON.mid POSTCODE_POLYGON

The output will look like the following:

Had to open data source read-only.
INFO: Open of `vicgrid94/mif/lga_polygon/macedon ranges/VMADMIN/POSTCODE_POLYGON.mid'
    using driver `MapInfo File' successful.

Layer name: POSTCODE_POLYGON
Geometry: 3D Unknown (any)
Feature Count: 26
Extent: (2413931.249367, 2400162.366186) - (2508952.174431, 2512183.046927)
Layer SRS WKT:
PROJCS["unnamed",
    GEOGCS["unnamed",
        DATUM["GDA94",
            SPHEROID["GRS 80",6378137,298.257222101],
            TOWGS84[0,0,0,-0,-0,-0,0]],
        PRIMEM["Greenwich",0],
        UNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433]],
    PROJECTION["Lambert_Conformal_Conic_2SP"],
    PARAMETER["standard_parallel_1",-36],
    PARAMETER["standard_parallel_2",-38],
    PARAMETER["latitude_of_origin",-37],
    PARAMETER["central_meridian",145],
    PARAMETER["false_easting",2500000],
    PARAMETER["false_northing",2500000],
    UNIT["Meter",1]]
PFI: String (10.0)
POSTCODE: String (4.0)
FEATURE_TYPE: String (6.0)
FEATURE_QUALITY_ID: String (20.0)
PFI_CREATED: Date (10.0)
UFI: Real (12.0)
UFI_CREATED: Date (10.0)
UFI_OLD: Real (12.0)

This gives you information about the number of features, the extent, the projection and the attributes of this layer.

Next, lets go ahead and convert this layer into a shapefile by issuing the following command:

$ ogr2ogr -t_srs EPSG:4326 postcode_polygon.shp vicgrid94/mif/lga_polygon/macedon\ ranges/VMADMIN/POSTCODE_POLYGON.mid POSTCODE_POLYGON

Note that we have also reprojected the layer to the WGS84 spatial reference system with the -t_srs ogr2ogr option.

The output of this command will look like the following:

Warning 6: Normalized/laundered field name: 'FEATURE_TYPE' to 'FEATURE_TY'
Warning 6: Normalized/laundered field name: 'FEATURE_QUALITY_ID' to 'FEATURE_QU'
Warning 6: Normalized/laundered field name: 'PFI_CREATED' to 'PFI_CREATE'
Warning 6: Normalized/laundered field name: 'UFI_CREATED' to 'UFI_CREATE'

This output indicates that some of the field names were truncated to fit into the constraint that attributes in shapefiles are only 10 characters long.

You will now have a set of files that make up the postcode_polygon.shp shapefile set. We can inspect them by issuing the following command:

$ ogrinfo -so postcode_polygon.shp postcode_polygon

The output will look similar to the output we saw above when we inspected the MapInfo file we converted from:

INFO: Open of `postcode_polygon.shp'
      using driver `ESRI Shapefile' successful.

Layer name: postcode_polygon
Geometry: Polygon
Feature Count: 26
Extent: (144.030296, -37.898156) - (145.101137, -36.888878)
Layer SRS WKT:
GEOGCS["GCS_WGS_1984",
    DATUM["WGS_1984",
        SPHEROID["WGS_84",6378137,298.257223563]],
    PRIMEM["Greenwich",0],
    UNIT["Degree",0.017453292519943295]]
PFI: String (10.0)
POSTCODE: String (4.0)
FEATURE_TY: String (6.0)
FEATURE_QU: String (20.0)
PFI_CREATE: Date (10.0)
UFI: Real (12.0)
UFI_CREATE: Date (10.0)
UFI_OLD: Real (12.0)

These files can now be loaded into your GeoNode instance via the normal uploader.

Visit the upload page in your GeoNode, drag and drop the files that composes the shapefile that you have generated using the GDAL ogr2ogr command (postcode_polygon.dbf, postcode_polygon.prj, postcode_polygon.shp, postcode_polygon.shx). Give the permissions as needed and then click the “Upload files” button.

../../_images/upload_shapefile.png

As soon as the import process completes, you will have the possibility to go straight to the layer info page (“Layer Info” button), or to edit the metadata for that layer (“Edit Metadata” button), or to manage the styles for that layer (“Manage Styles”).

../../_images/layer_info_vector.png

GDAL (Raster Data)

Now that we have seen how to convert vector layers into shapefiles using ogr2ogr, we will walk through the steps necessary to perform the same operation with Raster layers. For this example, we will work with Arc/Info Binary and ASCII Grid data and convert it into GeoTiff format for use in GeoNode.

First, you need to download the sample data to work with it. You can do this by executing the following command:

$ wget http://84.33.2.26/geonode/sample_asc.tar

You will need to uncompress this file by executing this command:

$ tar -xvf sample_asc.tar

You will be left with the following files on your filesystem:

|-- batemans_ele
|   |-- dblbnd.adf
|   |-- hdr.adf
|   |-- metadata.xml
|   |-- prj.adf
|   |-- sta.adf
|   |-- w001001.adf
|   |-- w001001x.adf
|-- batemans_elevation.asc

The file batemans_elevation.asc is an Arc/Info ASCII Grid file and the files in the batemans_ele directory are an Arc/Info Binary Grid file.

You can use the gdalinfo command to inspect both of these files by executing the following command:

$ gdalinfo batemans_elevation.asc

The output should look like the following:

Driver: AAIGrid/Arc/Info ASCII Grid
Files: batemans_elevation.asc
Size is 155, 142
Coordinate System is `'
Origin = (239681.000000000000000,6050551.000000000000000)
Pixel Size = (100.000000000000000,-100.000000000000000)
Corner Coordinates:
Upper Left  (  239681.000, 6050551.000)
Lower Left  (  239681.000, 6036351.000)
Upper Right (  255181.000, 6050551.000)
Lower Right (  255181.000, 6036351.000)
Center      (  247431.000, 6043451.000)
Band 1 Block=155x1 Type=Float32, ColorInterp=Undefined
    NoData Value=-9999

You can then inspect the batemans_ele files by executing the following command:

$ gdalinfo batemans_ele

And this should be the corresponding output:

Driver: AIG/Arc/Info Binary Grid
Files: batemans_ele
    batemans_ele/dblbnd.adf
    batemans_ele/hdr.adf
    batemans_ele/metadata.xml
    batemans_ele/prj.adf
    batemans_ele/sta.adf
    batemans_ele/w001001.adf
    batemans_ele/w001001x.adf
Size is 155, 142
Coordinate System is:
PROJCS["unnamed",
    GEOGCS["GDA94",
        DATUM["Geocentric_Datum_of_Australia_1994",
            SPHEROID["GRS 1980",6378137,298.257222101,
                AUTHORITY["EPSG","7019"]],
            TOWGS84[0,0,0,0,0,0,0],
            AUTHORITY["EPSG","6283"]],
        PRIMEM["Greenwich",0,
            AUTHORITY["EPSG","8901"]],
        UNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433,
            AUTHORITY["EPSG","9122"]],
        AUTHORITY["EPSG","4283"]],
    PROJECTION["Transverse_Mercator"],
    PARAMETER["latitude_of_origin",0],
    PARAMETER["central_meridian",153],
    PARAMETER["scale_factor",0.9996],
    PARAMETER["false_easting",500000],
    PARAMETER["false_northing",10000000],
    UNIT["METERS",1]]
Origin = (239681.000000000000000,6050551.000000000000000)
Pixel Size = (100.000000000000000,-100.000000000000000)
Corner Coordinates:
Upper Left  (  239681.000, 6050551.000) (150d 7'28.35"E, 35d39'16.56"S)
Lower Left  (  239681.000, 6036351.000) (150d 7'11.78"E, 35d46'56.89"S)
Upper Right (  255181.000, 6050551.000) (150d17'44.07"E, 35d39'30.83"S)
Lower Right (  255181.000, 6036351.000) (150d17'28.49"E, 35d47'11.23"S)
Center      (  247431.000, 6043451.000) (150d12'28.17"E, 35d43'13.99"S)
Band 1 Block=256x4 Type=Float32, ColorInterp=Undefined
    Min=-62.102 Max=142.917
NoData Value=-3.4028234663852886e+38

You will notice that the batemans_elevation.asc file does not contain projection information while the batemans_ele file does. Because of this, lets use the batemans_ele files for this exercise and convert them to a GeoTiff for use in GeoNode. We will also reproject this file into WGS84 in the process. This can be accomplished with the following command.

$ gdalwarp -t_srs EPSG:4326 batemans_ele batemans_ele.tif

The output will show you the progress of the conversion and when it is complete, you will be left with a batemans_ele.tif file that you can upload to your GeoNode.

You can inspect this file with the gdalinfo command:

$ gdalinfo batemans_ele.tif

Which will produce the following output:

Driver: GTiff/GeoTIFF
Files: batemans_ele.tif
Size is 174, 130
Coordinate System is:
GEOGCS["WGS 84",
    DATUM["WGS_1984",
        SPHEROID["WGS 84",6378137,298.257223563,
            AUTHORITY["EPSG","7030"]],
        AUTHORITY["EPSG","6326"]],
    PRIMEM["Greenwich",0],
    UNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433],
    AUTHORITY["EPSG","4326"]]
Origin = (150.119938943722502,-35.654598806259330)
Pixel Size = (0.001011114155919,-0.001011114155919)
Metadata:
    AREA_OR_POINT=Area
Image Structure Metadata:
    INTERLEAVE=BAND
Corner Coordinates:
Upper Left  ( 150.1199389, -35.6545988) (150d 7'11.78"E, 35d39'16.56"S)
Lower Left  ( 150.1199389, -35.7860436) (150d 7'11.78"E, 35d47' 9.76"S)
Upper Right ( 150.2958728, -35.6545988) (150d17'45.14"E, 35d39'16.56"S)
Lower Right ( 150.2958728, -35.7860436) (150d17'45.14"E, 35d47' 9.76"S)
Center      ( 150.2079059, -35.7203212) (150d12'28.46"E, 35d43'13.16"S)
Band 1 Block=174x11 Type=Float32, ColorInterp=Gray

You can then follow the same steps we used above to upload the GeoTiff file we created into the GeoNode, and you will see your layer displayed in the Layer Info page.

../../_images/batemans_tif.png

Now that you have seen how to convert layers with both OGR and GDAL, you can use these techniques to work with your own data and get it prepared for inclusion in your own GeoNode.