A Spatial Reference System Identifier (SRID) is a unique value used to unambiguously identify projected, unprojected, and local spatial coordinate system definitions. These coordinate systems form the heart of all GIS
Geographic Information System
A geographic information system, geographical information science, or geospatial information studies is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographically referenced data...
applications.
Virtually all major spatial vendors have created their own SRID implementation or refer to those of an authority, such as the European Petroleum Survey Group (EPSG). (NOTE: As of 2005 the EPSG SRID values are now maintained by the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (OGP) Surveying & Positioning Committee).
The Open Geospatial Consortium , an international voluntary consensus standards organization, originated in 1994. In the OGC, more than 400 commercial, governmental, nonprofit and research organizations worldwide collaborate in a consensus process encouraging development and implementation of open...
Simple feature access , is both an OpenGIS and ISO Standard that specifies a common storage model of geographical data using well-known text . The geometries are also associated with spatial reference systems...
, which is defined as follows:
CREATE TABLE SPATIAL_REF_SYS
(
SRID INTEGER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
AUTH_NAME CHARACTER VARYING(256),
AUTH_SRID INTEGER,
SRTEXT CHARACTER VARYING(2048)
)
In spatially-enabled databases (such as IBM DB2, IBM Informix, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, Teradata, PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL, often simply Postgres, is an object-relational database management system available for many platforms including Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, MS Windows and Mac OS X. It is released under the PostgreSQL License, which is an MIT-style license, and is thus free and open source software...
SQL Anywhere is a relational database management system product from the company Sybase iAnywhere, a subsidiary of Sybase.- Features :...
), SRIDs are used to uniquely identify the coordinate systems used to define columns of spatial data or individual spatial objects in a spatial column (depending on the spatial implementation). SRIDs are typically associated with a well known text (WKT) string definition of the coordinate system (SRTEXT, above). From the Well Known Text Wikipedia page, “A WKT string for a spatial reference system describes the datum, geoid
Geoid
The geoid is that equipotential surface which would coincide exactly with the mean ocean surface of the Earth, if the oceans were in equilibrium, at rest , and extended through the continents . According to C.F...
In geometry, a coordinate system is a system which uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of a point or other geometric element. The order of the coordinates is significant and they are sometimes identified by their position in an ordered tuple and sometimes by...
A map projection is any method of representing the surface of a sphere or other three-dimensional body on a plane. Map projections are necessary for creating maps. All map projections distort the surface in some fashion...
of the spatial objects”.
Here are two common coordinate systems with their EPSG SRID value followed by their well known text:
SRID values associated with spatial data can be used to constrain spatial operations — for instance, spatial operations cannot be performed between spatial objects with differing SRIDs in some systems, or trigger coordinate system transformations between spatial objects in others.
