GeoJSON

GeoJSON is a JSON-based format for encoding geographic data structures, widely used in web mapping applications.

Driver Metadata

Property	Value
Short Name	GeoJSON
Long Name	GeoJSON (RFC 7946)
Supported Since	v0.1.0
Status	✅ Stable
File Extension	.geojson, .json

Driver Capabilities

• ✅ Read Support: Full
• ✅ Write Support: Full
• ✅ Info Support: Yes
• ✅ Geometry Types: Point, LineString, Polygon, MultiPoint, MultiLineString, MultiPolygon, GeometryCollection
• ✅ Coordinate Systems: WGS84 (EPSG:4326) by default

Format Description

GeoJSON is a JSON-based format for encoding geographic data structures defined by RFC 7946.

Reading Data

Get Information

geoetl-cli info cities.geojson --driver GeoJSON

Output:

Dataset: cities.geojson
Driver: GeoJSON

=== Geometry Columns ===
+----------+-------------------+-----+
| Column   | Extension         | CRS |
+----------+-------------------+-----+
| geometry | geoarrow.geometry | N/A |
+----------+-------------------+-----+

=== Fields ===
+------------+--------+----------+
| Field      | Type   | Nullable |
+------------+--------+----------+
| name       | String | Yes      |
| population | Int64  | Yes      |
| state      | String | Yes      |
+------------+--------+----------+

Convert from GeoJSON

geoetl-cli convert \
  --input data.geojson \
  --output data.csv \
  --input-driver GeoJSON \
  --output-driver CSV

Writing Data

Convert to GeoJSON

geoetl-cli convert \
  --input data.csv \
  --output data.geojson \
  --input-driver CSV \
  --output-driver GeoJSON \
  --geometry-column geometry

Supported Write Options

Currently, GeoETL writes standard GeoJSON without additional options. Future versions may support:

• Coordinate precision
• Pretty printing
• Bbox inclusion
• CRS specification (RFC 7946 recommends WGS84 only)

Examples

Example 1: Convert GeoJSON to CSV

geoetl-cli convert \
  -i cities.geojson \
  -o cities.csv \
  --input-driver GeoJSON \
  --output-driver CSV

Example 2: Convert GeoJSON to GeoParquet

geoetl-cli convert \
  -i data.geojson \
  -o data.parquet \
  --input-driver GeoJSON \
  --output-driver GeoParquet

Troubleshooting

Invalid JSON Syntax

Error: Parse error in GeoJSON at line 15

Cause: Malformed JSON (missing comma, bracket, quote)

Solution:

# Validate JSON syntax
cat data.geojson | jq . > /dev/null

# Or use Python
python3 -m json.tool data.geojson > /dev/null

Wrong Coordinate Order

Problem: Points appear in wrong location

Cause: Coordinates in [latitude, longitude] instead of [longitude, latitude]

Solution: Verify coordinate order in source file. GeoJSON specification requires [longitude, latitude] order.

Format Specification

• RFC 7946: GeoJSON Specification
• Website: https://geojson.org/

See Also

Tutorials:

• Working with GeoJSON - Complete tutorial
• Your First Conversion - Quick start

Other Drivers:

• CSV Driver - CSV with WKT geometries
• GeoParquet Driver - High-performance columnar format

Reference:

• Supported Drivers - All drivers comparison
• Driver Matrix - Capability comparison

References

• GeoJSON Specification (RFC 7946)
• geojson.io - Online editor and validator
• More than you ever wanted to know about GeoJSON