10. Geometry Exercises

Here’s a reminder of all the functions we have seen so far. They should be useful for the exercises!

  • sum(expression) aggregate to return a sum for a set of records

  • count(expression) aggregate to return the size of a set of records

  • ST_GeometryType(geometry) returns the type of the geometry

  • ST_NDims(geometry) returns the number of dimensions of the geometry

  • ST_SRID(geometry) returns the spatial reference identifier number of the geometry

  • ST_X(point) returns the X ordinate

  • ST_Y(point) returns the Y ordinate

  • ST_Length(linestring) returns the length of the linestring

  • ST_StartPoint(geometry) returns the first coordinate as a point

  • ST_EndPoint(geometry) returns the last coordinate as a point

  • ST_NPoints(geometry) returns the number of coordinates in the linestring

  • ST_Area(geometry) returns the area of the polygons

  • ST_NRings(geometry) returns the number of rings (usually 1, more if there are holes)

  • ST_ExteriorRing(polygon) returns the outer ring as a linestring

  • ST_InteriorRingN(polygon, integer) returns a specified interior ring as a linestring

  • ST_Perimeter(geometry) returns the length of all the rings

  • ST_NumGeometries(multi/geomcollection) returns the number of parts in the collection

  • ST_GeometryN(geometry, integer) returns the specified part of the collection

  • ST_GeomFromText(text) returns geometry

  • ST_AsText(geometry) returns WKT text

  • ST_AsEWKT(geometry) returns EWKT text

  • ST_GeomFromWKB(bytea) returns geometry

  • ST_AsBinary(geometry) returns WKB bytea

  • ST_AsEWKB(geometry) returns EWKB bytea

  • ST_GeomFromGML(text) returns geometry

  • ST_AsGML(geometry) returns GML text

  • ST_GeomFromKML(text) returns geometry

  • ST_AsKML(geometry) returns KML text

  • ST_AsGeoJSON(geometry) returns JSON text

  • ST_AsSVG(geometry) returns SVG text

Also remember the tables we have available:

  • nyc_census_blocks

    • blkid, popn_total, boroname, geom

  • nyc_streets

    • name, type, geom

  • nyc_subway_stations

    • name, geom

  • nyc_neighborhoods

    • name, boroname, geom

10.1. Exercises

  • What is the area of the ‘West Village’ neighborhood?

    SELECT ST_Area(geom)
      FROM nyc_neighborhoods
      WHERE name = 'West Village';
    
    1044614.5296486
    

    Note

    The area is given in square meters. To get an area in hectares, divide by 10000. To get an area in acres, divide by 4047.

  • What is the geometry type of ‘Pelham St’? The length?

    SELECT
       ST_GeometryType(geom),
       ST_Length(geom)
      FROM nyc_streets
      WHERE name = 'Pelham St';
    
    ST_MultiLineString
    50.323
    
  • What is the GeoJSON representation of the ‘Broad St’ subway station?

    SELECT
     ST_AsGeoJSON(geom)
    FROM nyc_subway_stations
    WHERE name = 'Broad St';
    
    {"type":"Point",
     "crs":{"type":"name","properties":{"name":"EPSG:26918"}},
     "coordinates":[583571.905921312,4506714.341192182]}
    
  • What is the total length of streets (in kilometers) in New York City? (Hint: The units of measurement of the spatial data are meters, there are 1000 meters in a kilometer.)

    SELECT Sum(ST_Length(geom)) / 1000
      FROM nyc_streets;
    
    10418.9047172
    
  • What is the area of Manhattan in acres? (Hint: both nyc_census_blocks and nyc_neighborhoods have a boroname in them.)

    SELECT Sum(ST_Area(geom)) / 4047
      FROM nyc_neighborhoods
      WHERE boroname = 'Manhattan';
    
    13965.3201224118
    

    or…

    SELECT Sum(ST_Area(geom)) / 4047
      FROM nyc_census_blocks
      WHERE boroname = 'Manhattan';
    
    14601.3987215548
    
  • What is the most westerly subway station?

    SELECT ST_X(geom), name
      FROM nyc_subway_stations
      ORDER BY ST_X(geom)
      LIMIT 1;
    
    Tottenville
    
  • How long is ‘Columbus Cir’ (aka Columbus Circle)?

    SELECT ST_Length(geom)
      FROM nyc_streets
      WHERE name = 'Columbus Cir';
    
    308.34199
    
  • What is the length of streets in New York City, summarized by type?

    SELECT type, Sum(ST_Length(geom)) AS length
    FROM nyc_streets
    GROUP BY type
    ORDER BY length DESC;
    
                           type                       |      length
    --------------------------------------------------+------------------
     residential                                      | 8629870.33786606
     motorway                                         | 403622.478126363
     tertiary                                         | 360394.879051303
     motorway_link                                    | 294261.419479668
     secondary                                        | 276264.303897926
     unclassified                                     | 166936.371604458
     primary                                          | 135034.233017947
     footway                                          | 71798.4878378096
     service                                          |  28337.635038596
     trunk                                            | 20353.5819826076
     cycleway                                         | 8863.75144825929
     pedestrian                                       | 4867.05032825026
     construction                                     | 4803.08162103562
     residential; motorway_link                       | 3661.57506293745
     trunk_link                                       | 3202.18981240201
     primary_link                                     | 2492.57457083536
     living_street                                    | 1894.63905457332
     primary; residential; motorway_link; residential | 1367.76576941335
     undefined                                        |  380.53861910346
     steps                                            | 282.745221342127
     motorway_link; residential                       |  215.07778911517
    

    Note

    The ORDER BY length DESC clause sorts the result by length in descending order. The result is that most prevalent types are first in the list.