[EPIC] WGS <-> UTM Projection Support

[jarmak-nv]

Overview and Description

It's nearly impossible to talk about geospatial operations without mentioning projections. cuSpatial seeks to enables users to seamlessly work with spatial data in various coordinate systems, ensuring compatibility and interoperability among diverse datasets, beginning with the common WGS <-> UTM coordinate systems.

Accurate projections are essential for precise spatial analysis and visualization, as they minimize spatial distortions and preserve the spatial relationships between features. By incorporating projection support, cuSpatial will enhance its utility and broaden its appeal.

This epic covers multiple areas of the library, and is scoped to only include UTM <-> WGS conversion to ensure timely delivery.

Target start: During the 23.06 development cycle
Target release: Release 23.08

Requirements

For successful completion, this epic needs:

Tasks

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1. Research approach for performing projections #1100
   2 - In Progress Python feature request libcuspatial +4
   
2. CMake Infrastructure for new projections library #1127
   cmake feature request +2
   
3. header-only C++ implementation of UTM <-> WGS transformation #1139
   feature request +1
   
4. A consensus on how to handle projections at the user level
5. Python bindings for cuProj transformation (e.g. UTM <-> WGS) #1213
   +0
   
6. Python notebook demonstrating UTM <-> WGS transformation
7. Benchmark for header-only C++ WGS<->UTM #1215
   feature request libcuproj +2
   
8. cuProj Documentation #1239
   doc +1
   

Considerations

Handling projectsions at the user level can be done many ways. It could mean a mirroring geopandas crs handling. It also might be an external function, requiring users to track CRS on their own - or somewhere in between.

Related Issues

This epic will close:

• [FEA] Any plans for a coordinate transformation/projection function? #572
• CRS management efforts #453

This epic makes progress on:

• [FEA] High-accuracy re-projection #55
• [FEA] NTv2 transformation support #54