[Geotools-gt2-users] grid facade over various data sources and types

[Michael B. <mic...@gm...>]

Hi folks,

This is potentially a developer list question but I'm posting it to
the user list to cast a wide net...

I'm working on an application which will work with a number of
different types and sources of data including raster layers (as
geotiff files), vector features (mostly as shapefiles), and layers
where the value at a point is calculated on demand (aka 'analytical
coverages' I think).

I want the application to be able to treat all of these data sources
as if they were rasters having the same cell dimensions and bounds.
However, I want to avoid having to create new raster versions of the
the non-raster data. This latter requirement is to do with runtime
performance - the app is a simulation where the locations which need
to be sampled in each layer, or even whether a given layer needs to be
sampled at all, are unknown before-hand and the layers are potentially
big.

I'm thinking of this as a gridded facade or view of the data, similar
in spirit to the JAITools VectorBinarize operation which takes a
Geometry object and presents it to clients as if it were a binary
raster. Essentially what I need (I think) is a continuously valued
version of that.

Before I go off and write such a thing I wonder if anyone can point me
to an existing solution, not necessarily using GeoTools, which either
does the above or is similar enough to act as a starting point. I'd
rather it didn't involve database applications, although if there is a
particularly easy approach that does I'd be keen to hear it.

Michael