Company
Date Published
Author
Miguel Álvarez
Word count
1203
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

The Google BigQuery platform has recently launched its raster data module, which allows users to analyze and combine raster and vector data types. This enables more comprehensive and powerful solutions for geospatial analyses in fields such as urban planning, natural resource management, real estate, and insurance. The raster module provides functions to operate with raster data natively in BigQuery, while the Raster Loader is a publicly available Python library that loads and optimizes GIS raster data into cloud-based data warehouses. By combining raster and vector data, users can gain insights into potential impacts of natural hazards, demographics, topography, and other factors. The module's capabilities are demonstrated with an example analysis of flood risk in buildings across the cities of Cardiff and Swansea, which provides valuable information for urban planning and risk exposure management.