geospatial-data-loading

name	geospatial-data-loading
description	Techniques for loading and initial processing of GeoJSON and coordinate-based datasets using GeoPandas.

Geospatial Data Loading

Overview

GeoPandas is the primary library for loading geographic data in Python. It extends pandas to allow spatial operations on geometric types.

Loading GeoJSON

GeoJSON is a standard format for geographic data.

import geopandas as gpd

# Load directly from file
gdf = gpd.read_file("data.json")

# Inspect CRS (Coordinate Reference System)
print(gdf.crs) # Usually EPSG:4326 for GeoJSON

Creating GDF from Dictionary/List

If you have raw JSON or a list of dictionaries with coordinates:

from shapely.geometry import Point
import geopandas as gpd

data = [
    {"id": "eq1", "lat": 10.5, "lon": 120.3},
    {"id": "eq2", "lat": -5.2, "lon": -150.8}
]

geometry = [Point(d["lon"], d["lat"]) for d in data]
gdf = gpd.GeoDataFrame(data, geometry=geometry, crs="EPSG:4326")

Handling Multi-Geometries

Some datasets might contain MultiPolygon or MultiLineString. GeoPandas handles these automatically, but you might want to "explode" them into individual parts:

gdf_exploded = gdf.explode(index_parts=False)