Create a map data API for jurisdictions similar to or even forked from the code behind boundaries.latimes.com, a Django-driven LA-specific boundary API.
This is a simple NoGIS site for performing point-in-polygon checks on individual lat/lon pairs via an API, similar to Team Las Vegas Am I In LV app. This is also a drastically slimmed-down version of MySociety’s MapIt application, with the important caveat that setup should be a single-file, push-to-Heroku affair with only basic monitoring and display beyond the REST API. This would be best delivered as a Python application with an open source GIS Heroku buildpack.
Services offered by the API:
- GeoJSON responses and simple GET requests.
- Search for areas by US Census FIPS codes, e.g.
FIPS=0653000. - Search for areas geographically by tile or bounding box, e.g.
where=tile:12/656/1582orwhere=bbox:37.7881,-122.3437,37.8575,-122.2559.
Nice to have:
- UTFGrid format responses for tile searches.
- Optional geography in responses for size.
- Paged respnses.
Michal Migurski and Sophia Parafina are 2013’s GIS experts at CfA.
Check out the open source GIS Heroku buildpack, and write a simple Hello World Flask application using it.
Andy Hull and Michal Migurski have created an initial Python implementation with sample data only in US Census Area API. Check there for progress.