Open source vector tile creation for spatial data infrastructure applications

Abstract. Accessing geospatial data via the internet is a common way for data integration. This web mapping approach often relies on web services like the web map tile service (WMTS) for accessing maps or the web feature service (WFS) for accessing vector data. An alternative way, which combines aspects like the higher performance through tiling and the usage of vector data is the usage of tiled vector data. This short paper describes an approach for the creation of tiled vector data using standard PostgreSQL, with spatial extension PostGIS, functionality. For that, custom PostGIS functions are implemented to select relevant vector data out of the PostgreSQL database, dynamically generalize/simplify geometries and transform the data to Mapbox mvt format. This approach of creating tiled vector data shall be used for further implementations of web maps for building more efficient spatial data infrastructures.