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I've investigated the issue of coordinate order in GML and each time I think I've got it but I find my self confused once again.

I think some of my confusion may be to do with PostGIS. Doing a simple query on my database I can see the coordinates are stored correctly. The st_asgml function is outputting these coordinates in long,lat order which I think is correct for this srsName:

select title, ST_AsGML(3, locationgeometry, 15, 1), xmin(locationgeometry), ymin(locationgeometry) from tblobject where title='Chuska East Ridge'; -[ RECORD 1 ]------------------------------------------------------------------------------- title | Chuska East Ridge st_asgml | <gml:Point srsName="urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326"><gml:pos srsDimension="2">-108.848780000000005 36.078707000000001</gml:pos></gml:Point> xmin | -108.84878 ymin | 36.078707

However, if I take the same GML output above and run it through st_geomfromgml, the coordinates appear to have been reversed:

select xmin(st_geomfromgml('<gml:Point srsName="urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326"><gml:pos srsDimension="2">-108.848780000000005 36.078707000000001</gml:pos></gml:Point>')); -[ RECORD 1 ]--- xmin | 36.078707

Am I missing something, or is this a bug in PostGIS? Can someone please confirm for me once and for all whether I should have lat,lon or lon,lat in GML when using the srsName urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326?

  • PostgreSQL version: 9.1.14
  • PostGIS version : POSTGIS="1.5.3" GEOS="3.2.2-CAPI-1.6.2" PROJ="Rel. 4.7.1, 23 September 2009" LIBXML="2.7.8" USE_STATS
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  • 'xmin' and 'ymin' don't look like a postgis functions. Could you please explain what are they? Why don't you use 'ST_X' and 'ST_Y' instead? Commented Dec 5, 2014 at 22:23
  • Yeah sorry - some lazy typing here. You can substitute st_xmin and st_ymin or st_x and st_y but my point is the same. Commented Dec 12, 2014 at 19:28

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PostGIS typically expects coordinates in longitude-latitude or E-N order.

Looking at the second example from postgis.net/docs/ST_AsGML.html, it seems there is some flipping of coordinates:

-- Flip coordinates and output extended EPSG (16 | 1)-- SELECT ST_AsGML(3, ST_GeomFromText('POINT(5.23423 6.34535)',4326), 5, 17); st_asgml -------- <gml:Point srsName="urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326"><gml:pos>6.34535 5.23423</gml:pos></gml:Point>

And looking at an example in wiki/Geography_Markup_Language#Point_Profile, it seems GML does expect latitude-longitude or N-E ordering:

 <name>Lynn Valley</name> <description>A shot of the falls from the suspension bridge</description> <where>North Vancouver</where> <position> <gml:Point srsDimension="2" srsName="http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4326"> <gml:pos>49.40 -123.26</gml:pos> </gml:Point> </position>

So, expect some flipping coordinate confusion between GML and PostGIS.

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