geonames_postgis_import.md

GeoNames import to Postgres

This is a guide to getting the raw text formatted GeoNames data dumps structured and imported into a PostGIS database. It imports all related GeoNames data into tables, creates the proper geometry and indexes, as well as foreign key mappings between the tables.

The feature codes list is useful for determining what fcode features you want to extract from the geoname table for use in maps or derivative datasets.

Download source data

wget http://download.geonames.org/export/dump/allCountries.zip
wget http://download.geonames.org/export/dump/alternateNames.zip
wget http://download.geonames.org/export/dump/countryInfo.txt
wget http://download.geonames.org/export/dump/iso-languagecodes.txt

unzip allCountries.zip
unzip alternateNames.zip

Create the database

createdb --username=postgres geonames
createlang --username=postgres plpgsql geonames
psql --username=postgres -d geonames -f /usr/share/postgresql/9.1/contrib/postgis-1.5/postgis.sql
psql --username=postgres -d geonames -f /usr/share/postgresql/9.1/contrib/postgis-1.5/spatial_ref_sys.sql
psql --username=postgres -d geonames -f /usr/share/postgresql/9.1/contrib/postgis_comments.sql

Create tables

Note: the attribute lengths are subject to change depending on the vintage of the GeoNames dataset. The columns need to be sized appropriately to accommodate what's currently in the dataset, which changes - particularly the alternatenames column.

create table geoname (
	geonameid	int,
	name varchar(200),
	asciiname varchar(200),
	alternatenames text,
	latitude float,
	longitude float,
	fclass char(1),
	fcode varchar(10),
	country varchar(2),
	cc2 varchar(60),
	admin1 varchar(20),
	admin2 varchar(80),
	admin3 varchar(20),
	admin4 varchar(20),
	population bigint,
	elevation int,
	gtopo30 int,
	timezone varchar(40),
	moddate date
 );

create table alternatename (
	alternatenameId int,
	geonameid int,
	isoLanguage varchar(7),
	alternateName varchar(200),
	isPreferredName boolean,
	isShortName boolean,
	isColloquial boolean,
	isHistoric boolean
 );

create table "countryinfo" (
	iso_alpha2 char(2),
	iso_alpha3 char(3),
	iso_numeric integer,
	fips_code varchar(3),
	name varchar(200),
	capital varchar(200),
	areainsqkm double precision,
	population integer,
	continent varchar(2),
	tld varchar(10),
	currencycode varchar(3),
	currencyname varchar(20),
	phone varchar(20),
	postalcode varchar(100),
	postalcoderegex varchar(200),
  languages varchar(200),
  geonameId int,
	neighbors varchar(50),
	equivfipscode varchar(3)
);

Insert the data

Run these from the SQL prompt as a permitted user.

copy geoname (geonameid,name,asciiname,alternatenames,latitude,longitude,fclass,fcode,country,cc2,admin1,admin2,admin3,admin4,population,elevation,gtopo30,timezone,moddate) from 'allCountries.txt' null as '';

copy alternatename  (alternatenameid,geonameid,isolanguage,alternatename,ispreferredname,isshortname,iscolloquial,ishistoric) from 'alternateNames.txt' null as '';

copy countryinfo (iso_alpha2,iso_alpha3,iso_numeric,fips_code,name,capital,areainsqkm,population,continent,tld,currencycode,currencyname,phone,postalcode,postalcoderegex,languages,geonameid,neighbors,equivfipscode) from 'countryInfo.txt' null as '';

Add primary key & foreign key constraints

ALTER TABLE ONLY alternatename
      ADD CONSTRAINT pk_alternatenameid PRIMARY KEY (alternatenameid);
ALTER TABLE ONLY geoname
      ADD CONSTRAINT pk_geonameid PRIMARY KEY (geonameid);
ALTER TABLE ONLY countryinfo
      ADD CONSTRAINT pk_iso_alpha2 PRIMARY KEY (iso_alpha2);

ALTER TABLE ONLY countryinfo
      ADD CONSTRAINT fk_geonameid FOREIGN KEY (geonameid) REFERENCES geoname(geonameid);
ALTER TABLE ONLY alternatename
      ADD CONSTRAINT fk_geonameid FOREIGN KEY (geonameid) REFERENCES geoname(geonameid);

Create PostGIS geometry column, insert geometry, and create indexes

SELECT AddGeometryColumn ('public','geoname','the_geom',4326,'POINT',2);

UPDATE geoname SET the_geom = ST_PointFromText('POINT(' || longitude || ' ' || latitude || ')', 4326);

CREATE INDEX idx_geoname_the_geom ON public.geoname USING gist(the_geom);