[Aust-NZ] Live CDs for the FOSS4G conference and DebianGIS

[Jeremy Palmer]

Hi Hamish,

> How "proprietary" are we talking here? Is the specification known?
> ie is it unknown or just unusual? Is that "can't just be loaded" from
a
> technical (wrong layout) or fundamental (square peg into round hole)
> meaning?  ASCII is good.
 
Yes the files are ASCII and UNIX compressed. However they are not
straight unloads from the tables, there is a LINZ custom (i.e unusual)
header first before the database dump. However if the file header is
removed, the format can be directly loaded by the PostgreSQL COPY
command. An explanation of the files is here:
 
http://www.linz.govt.nz/docs/surveysystem/landonline-bulkdata/bulk-data-extract-data_dictionary-v15-0.pdf

> It is good news that we don't have to start from shapefiles, they may
be
> universal but parts of the format (DBF) are lossy and unnice.

Yes definitely

> What format are the DB dump tables? Something from Oracle?
 
See above, the dumps come from INFORMIX

> It seems to be PostgreSQL/PostGIS would be the strongest candidate
for a
> target. (I'd guess Brent could answer that much better than me
though...)

Yes we here at LINZ have an PostgreSQL/PostGIS instance which include
all of the BDE data which is updated regularly. The only small issue I
can see is that all geometry data has been shifted (so transformations
can be applied in our GIS) over the 180 degree longitude line. This can
easily be reversed during processing. See section 3.3 of
http://www.linz.govt.nz/docs/surveysystem/landonline-bulkdata/introduction-to-bulk-data-v16-0.pdf

> Personally, I like to deal with intact raw data and scripts which
can
> reprocess that data whenever there is an upstream update or an
> improvement to the conversion algorithm is developed.

Sounds like a good idea.

Cheers
 
Jeremy Palmer
Geospatial Analyst
LINZ - Geodetic Team
PO Box 5501
Wellington 6145
 
DDI:  +64 4 498 3537
Fax:  +64 4 460 0112
 
http://www.linz.govt.nz
www.newzealand.govt.nz


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