[postgis] new Functions/ Function changes(Calculating centroids)
Dave Blasby
dblasby at refractions.net
Fri Aug 3 09:34:36 PDT 2001
> Do you consider concave polygons for calculating centroids? For some
> of them, centroids by "average location " maybe exist outside of
> polygons.
>
> For multipolygons, "average all the points on all the outer rings"
> doesn't seem to always exist within multipolygons. If not, in some
> cases, centroids will exist within smaller ones of multipolygons. I
> don't think smaller polygon's centroid is representative of
> multipolygon without any other info or knowledge, for example,
> Vancouver Island, which has Province capital, Victoria, in BC
> province .
>
> I think larger polygon should has a centroid within a multipolygon.
>
> How do you think?
Section 2.1.9.1 says "
Centroid( ):PointThe mathematical centroid for this Surface as a Point.
The result is not guaranteed to be on this Surface.
"
It also defines another function (Which I havent implemented yet),
"PointOnSurface( ):PointA point guaranteed to be on this Surface."
And for the mulipolygon (2.1.11.1) cases;
Centroid( ):PointThe mathematical centroid for this MultiSurface. The
result is not guaranteed to be on this MultiSurface.
PointOnSurface( ):PointA Point guaranteed to be on this MultiSurface.
Note that PointOnSurface(Multipolygon) can be obtained by finding the
PointOnSurface(Polygon) on the first polygon in the multipolygon.
There are a few popular ways of finding a "centroid". One is the
take-the-bounding-box-and-find-the-middle-of-it. Another is to find the
averge-point location (which is what I do). The third is to trianglate
the polygon, and take the weighted-average of the centres of all the
triangles. None of them will always produce a point on the polygon.
For example;
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