[Geocoding] Polygon data in the Nominatim database

[Sarah Hoffmann]

On Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 08:05:51PM +0200, David Künzel wrote:
> Hi Sarah, 
> 
> I recognized the geometry column in the placex table but that column isn't of the type multipolygon,  so I don't looked at it more in detail before. On a closer look it seems to contain  mixed geometry types. In qgis it is recognized as point geometry.
> 
> Do I have to convert the geometries or column type in some way to be able to use the polygons?

Yes, the column contains mixed types because it contains all objects
that are indexed by Nominatim. That may be points (e.g. post boxes),
ways (e.g. streets) and polygons (everything from building to countries).
Just filter by geometry type if you are interested in polygons only.

If you are just looking at displaying administrative boundaries in
qgis, then Nominatim might be overkill anyways. You can just import
the OSM data with osm2pgsql and use the polygons from the
planet_osm_polygon table. Or maybe https://osm.wno-edv-service.de/boundaries/
might be of interst for you.

Sarah