data-services/geocoder/admin0

Admin0 Geocoder

Function

Accepts a list of terms. Terms are searched against the name_ column in admin0_synonyms. The name_ column is an automatically cleaned and populated column based on the raw values in name_ . The synonym table returns the proper ISO code (based on rank values in table below). The iso code is then matched against the single row in ne_admin0_v3 to return the polygon.

Creation steps

1. Upload fresh NaturalEarth data to ne_admin0_v3.
2. Delete all rows in the admin0_synonyms table.
3. If fresh, add all sql/indexes.sql and sql/triggers.sql
4. Upload the data/wikipedia_countries_native_names.csv table if it doesn't already exist
5. Run the sql/subdivide_polygons.sql
6. Run the sql/build_synonym_table.sql
7. If needed, load or replace the function with sql/geocoder.sql

Data Sources

(see the wiki page: Geocoder Data Sources #admin0-countries)

• natural earth data: ne_10m_admin_0_countries (version 3.0) which is currently stored in Geocoding.CartoDB as ne_admin0_v3

• native language spellings were gathered from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_and_their_capitals_in_native_languages and stored in data/wikipedia_countries_native_names.csv

Preparation details

Users dislike the NaturalEarth aggregation of French regions into the mainland France polygon. We have done a minimal amount of subdivision. This can be done by executing sql/subdivide_polygons.sql.

Admin0_synonyms

In order to add new entries manually for admin0, table admin0_synonym_additions has been created.

The table contains the following columns to be populated:

1. adm0_a3 : ISO code for the region. Used to get the unique geometry for the region in terms of the synonym.

2. name: Actually, the synonym you want to include for a specific region (identified ad adm0_a3).

3. notes: Extra information as the source of the data. Use: 'data source: X'.

4. rank: Use '10' for manually curated additions.

The following query can be used:

INSERT INTO admin0_synonym_additions (adm0_a3, name, notes, rank) VALUES ($iso3_code, $synonym, $notes, 10)

Note: If you have a complete dataset of synonyms to be included, you will need to add it as part of the build script. If you need to add single entries for synonyms, they can be included in the admin0_synonym_additions table manually (or using the previously defined SQL query).

Ranks

rank number	origin data	origin column	description
0	natural earth 10m countries	name	literal name
1	natural earth 10m countries	name_alt	alternate name
2	wiki country navive names	country_endonym	local variation
3	natural earth 10m countries	adm0_a3	3 digit country code
4	natural earth 10m countries	abbrev	abbreviation
5	natural earth 10m countries	formal_en	formal english
6	natural earth 10m countries	brk_name	?
7	natural earth 10m countries	formal_fr	formal french
8	natural earth 10m countries	iso_a2	2 digit country code
9	natural earth 10m countries	subunit	complete literal name
10	admin0_synonym_additions	n/a	manually curated additions

notes:

• The column adm0_a3 will be used as a unique identifier.
• The ranks are somewhat arbitrarily organized and should be modified later based on our users use of the geocoder (will users more commonly geocode an adm0_a3 or abbreviation?)
• I also forgot to assign a rank of 2 to a synonym.

Admin0 Synonym Service

If you need to look up the iso code for any list of countries without returning any geometries, you can use the endpoint defined in sql/synonym_service.sql. An example works like this,

SELECT (admin0_synonym_lookup(Array['United States', 'ESP'])).*