[OSGeo-Discuss] Detect and define the coordinate system of gis data with no projection information automatically

Fri Sep 2 13:24:43 PDT 2016

Thank you Even,

It's true I was just about to contribute to http://proj4.org/projections/
index.html !

"Is it about having a catalog of spatial reference systems (and all related
information: projections, projection parameters, ellipsoids, datums, prime
meridians, area of use, transformations, etc...) "

Yes. And it's true that many other projects made a catalog on their own.
But all of them need a human being to get hacked.

We will get back on metacrs or spatialreference mailing list.
But it was needed to act the project need to be, on a wider part of the
community.

Regards,
Julien.

<http://proj4.org/projections/index.html>

2016-09-02 9:50 GMT+02:00 Even Rouault <even.rouault at spatialys.com>:

> Foks,
>
> I read through the emails of this thread and I'm still not sure to
> understand
> what the exact focus would be. It seems it might go beyond the title of
> this
> email thread.
>
> Is it about documentation about projections ? If so, I guess improving
> proj.4
> documentation could be appreciated. There has been a new commit just last
> night ( http://lists.maptools.org/pipermail/proj/2016-September/
> 007480.html )
> to add the chart of each projection :
> http://proj4.org/projections/index.html . There are only images extracted
> from
> ftp://ftp.remotesensing.org/proj/OF90-284.pdf for now but that would be
> great
> to extend them with formulas, etc...
>
> Is it about having a catalog of spatial reference systems (and all related
> information: projections, projection parameters, ellipsoids, datums, prime
> meridians, area of use, transformations, etc...) ? Then there are different
> projects already tackling that. For example GDAL starts with the EPSG
> catalog
> + some algorithms to detect one of the many datum shifts to WGS84 (this
> part
> is controversial and could/should be improved), and that is the source from
> which the proj.4 'espg' catalog (the whole process is documented at
> https://svn.osgeo.org/metacrs/geotiff/trunk/libgeotiff/csv/README). This
> process
> is a bit cumbersome and we had some discussions last year about perhaps
> adopting a SQLite3 database instead (see thread starting at
> https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/metacrs/2015-August/000846.html) : this
> hasn't made progress yet.
> GDAL has also a few extra catalogs from (somewhat old) ESRI definitions,
> and
> other vendors. There are also catalogs for SRS of other planets :
> https://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/ticket/6623 (interestingly Peter Baumann
> mentionned that the EPSG service might host this catalog in the future)
> A tricky part about all this catalogs is the intellectual property behind
> as
> there are often not completely "free" in the meaning we generally give to
> that
> term for software (redistribution is OK, but most often modifying
> definitions
> is not allowed). But beyond that, as raised by Carl Reed, adding new
> spatial
> reference system definitions, or editing existing ones, is something that
> needs
> some form of validation at some point (unless you decide that anyone can
> modify anything, but that opens the door to voluntary or unvoluntary
> mess). It
> is similar to when someone submits a patch/pull request for code: someone
> needs to make a decision if it is appropriate or not.
>
> You've also identified spatialreference.org (now somewhat abandonned due
> to
> lack of volunteer) or epsg.io as online catalogs. I see also
> https://github.com/ebrelsford/projestions#api that has been mentionned.
> Perhaps one or several of them of those could be used as the base to build
> something new above ?
>
> Probably that the MetaCRS list could be a more appropriate and focused
> place
> to hold such further discussions ?
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/metacrs
>
> Unrelated: I read a few confusions in this thread with "OSGeo members" vs
> "OSGeo charter members". Quickly summarizing http://www.osgeo.org/
> membership:
> anyone can declare himself as a OSGeo member by registering himself on
> https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Special:RequestAccount . OSGeo charter
> members are
> members who are elected, for the only additional purpose of electing the
> OSGeo
> boards. There are also OSGeo participants who are anyone that takes part to
> OSGeo related activities. Projects are generally open to contributions from
> anyone, with some kernel/PSC (not necessarily made of charter members)
> taking
> the main decisions.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Even
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > At FOSS4G 2016 in Bonn i talked with Venkatesh Raghavan about my poster
> > presentation "SHAPEFILE PROJECTIONFINDER". URL to poster:
> > http://www.egger-gis.at/app/download/13175253496/POSTER_
> EGGER_FOSS4G.pdf?t
> > =1469787116
> >
> > He recommended to start a discussion in this mailing list about the topic
> > mentioned in the mail subject.
> >
> > I also talked in Bonn with Petr Pridal about http://epsg.io. Some days
> > before Bonn i wrote emails to Aaaron Racicot and the mailing list of
> > http://spatialrefrence.org.
> >
> > Please read first carefully on my website, what i plan to do:
> >
> > http://www.egger-gis.at/shapefile-projectionfinder/
> >
> > There are two problems to solve before tools like SHAPEFILE
> > PROJECTIONFINDER can be developed as a sustainable solution:
> >
> > 1. Until today there is no stable free service running like
> > www.projfinder.com by Aaron Racicot, which can be used by all
> developers.
> >
> > 2. Until today there is no open source database which includes all
> > coordinate system with epsg-code and additionally user and esri definded
> > grids.
> >
> > There are open source solutions like:
> >
> > - spatialrefrence.org
> > - epsg.io
> >
> > But in the detail both solutions have problems to update their database
> > with low costs.
> >
> > Maybe OSGeo can promote a stable service with load balancing on the base
> of
> > an existing solution like epsg.io including Aarons idea?
> >
> > Maybe organisation like UN, a university or EU (INTERREG) are possible
> > project partners/sponsors for such a solution?
> >
> > The goal is: Tools like SHAPEFILE PROJECTIONFINDER, a Q-GIS-Plugin or a
> > mobile application can use a stable free gis-service updated daily and
> > help gis users to solve projection troubles faster. I think gis users
> > working not everyday with gis will be happy about this solutions?
> >
> > What do you think about my idea?
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Manfred Egger
> >
> > Alois-Schrott-Str. 34
> > 6020 Innsbruck
> > Austria
> >
> > Web: http://egger-gis.at
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Discuss mailing list
> > Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
> > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
> --
> Spatialys - Geospatial professional services
> http://www.spatialys.com
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