Neo4j Spatial Analysis (online: Zoom) with Craig Taverner

In this presentation, I will briefly describe the state of spatial analysis on the Neo4j graph database, both built-in support as well as external libraries, before diving into a particular set of use cases based on the very accessible OpenStreetMap geographic data source. Neo4j itself only supports point data and queries using the distance function. I will show how it is possible to perform more complex spatial analysis on more complex geometries, using appropriate data modeling and external libraries for facilitating geographic data import, data model restructuring and spatial analysis.

While basic knowledge of graphs and GIS (spatial data) is useful, it is not required to enjoy this quite visual presentation that will feature some online maps.

Bio: Craig has been a senior developer in Neo4j for 7 years, primarily as team lead for Neo4j Cypher, and more recently working on the Aura cloud platform. However, he started using Neo4j as far back as 2009, as a customer building mobile telecommunications analysis tools, and as a community member creating the 'Neo4j Spatial' GIS modeling library. More recently, he led the team that built the point-based spatial type, index and Cypher planner released in Neo4j 3.4, and contributed two more spatial libraries to the community, one for OpenStreetMap data support and one for spatial algorithms. Before Neo4j, Craig worked primarily in mobile telecoms analysis and optimization software, after his original training in Physics and Physical Chemistry.