[postgis-users] area queries on lat/long data

[Nelson Guda]

One more question.  I finally found a workaround for the area query  
that I needed to do on the nad27 database.  I've noticed that this is  
a problem that has come up often - people would like to get area data  
from data that is in a lat/long projection.  One thing that ESRI  
seems to have done well is to make the projection issue relatively  
painless.

Would it be possible to create a lookup table of UTM grids and a  
function that would look at the spatial extent of area that you would  
like to query, find the appropriate UTM srid, do the transformation  
and then return the results?  Even a function that was able to look  
up the appropriate UTM srid would be enormously helpful.

Are these things that could be added to postgis?  It seems as though  
they would certainly be helpful for many people.

best,
nelson