[GIS] Adding GeoPandas Dataframe to PostGIS table

Question

I have a simple GeoPandas Dataframe:

I would like to upload this GeoDataframe to a PostGIS table. I have a Database setup with the PostGIS extension already but can't seem to add this Dataframe as a table.

I have tried the following:

engine = <>
meta = MetaData(engine)
eld_test = Table('eld_test', meta, Column('id', Integer, primary_key=True), Column('key_comb_drvr', Text), 
                 Column('geometry', Geometry('Point', srid=4326))) 
eld_test.create(engine) 
conn = engine.connect() 
conn.execute(eld_test.insert(), df.to_dict('records'))

Answer 1

Using Panda's to_sql method and SQLAlchemy you can store a dataframe in Postgres. And since you're storing a Geodataframe, GeoAlchemy will handle the geom column for you. Here's a code sample:

# Imports
from geoalchemy2 import Geometry, WKTElement
from sqlalchemy import *
import pandas as pd
import geopandas as gpd

# Creating SQLAlchemy's engine to use
engine = create_engine('postgresql://username:password@host:socket/database')


geodataframe = gpd.GeoDataFrame(pd.DataFrame.from_csv('<your dataframe source>'))
#... [do something with the geodataframe]

geodataframe['geom'] = geodataframe['geometry'].apply(lambda x: WKTElement(x.wkt, srid=<your_SRID>)

#drop the geometry column as it is now duplicative
geodataframe.drop('geometry', 1, inplace=True)

# Use 'dtype' to specify column's type
# For the geom column, we will use GeoAlchemy's type 'Geometry'
geodataframe.to_sql(table_name, engine, if_exists='append', index=False, 
                         dtype={'geom': Geometry('POINT', srid= <your_srid>)})

Worth noting that 'if_exists' parameter allows you to handle the way the dataframe will be added to your postgres table:

    if_exists = replace: If table exists, drop it, recreate it, and insert data.
    if_exists = fail: If table exists, do nothing.
    if_exists = append: If table exists, insert data. Create if does not exist.