[postgis-users] Sample usages of analytic functions

[Stephen Woodbridge]

On 2/11/2013 1:17 PM, Alvin Cheung wrote:
> Hello,
>
> The PostGIS reference manual lists a lot of powerful built-in functions
> for processing and analyzing spatial data. However, I haven't been able
> to find many open-source applications that make use of such analytic
> capabilities beyond those that use relatively simple functionalities
> such as ST_X / ST_Centroid / ST_Area.  I am wondering if anyone has
> suggestions for applications that exploit PostGIS built-in functions to
> larger extents?

I can highly recommend the book "PostGIS in Action" I has lots of 
examples of how to use the commands in real world like situations.

http://www.postgis.us/

I like to think of PostGIS as a tool box for problem solving. Without a 
specific problem to solve it is hard in the abstract to see how these 
commands might be useful.

The Tiger Geocoder addon to PostGIS uses postGIS commands to linearly 
interpolate along a road segment to find the location of a house.

I have done analysis where I had intersect a layer of parcel polygons 
against a layer of soil types and then compute area of each soil types 
contribution to the parcel and apply a tax rate for the soil to compute 
the taxes on the parcel.

Hope this helps,
   -Steve