SQL Server 2008 - Demos on Spatial Data

In preparing for the recent MSDN Techtalk on the support of spatial queries in SQL Server 2003, I created a simple demo ASP.Net application, powered by SQL Server 2008, and Virtual Earth.

In this demo, I downloaded earthquake data (latitude, longitude, depth, magnitude, location)

from http://earthquake.usgs.gov/, and loaded them into SQL Server. In SQL Server 2008, two new data types were introduced to store spatial data. I defined a column based on the geography data type, and then loaded the latitude and logitude of the epicenters of each earthquake into the column.

When a user decides that he/she wishes to visit a country for a holiday, the user can then make use of the application to check the earthquakes that have happened in the region. In order to do that, the user selects a location. This location translate to a given point (latitude/longitude). By using a spatial query which retrieves all data that are of a given distance to the holiday point. The data that are retrieved are then plotted out using the Microsoft Virtual Earth.

You can try it out at this site...

http://labs.innovativesingapore.com/

Click the link