Data enrichment API: spatial join enrichment with demographic, POI, and boundary datasets

[mikemcdougall]

Context

CARTO's Data Observatory charges heavily for "enrich your data with third-party datasets." The pattern is simple: input features + enrichment dataset → output enriched features. Examples:

• "Add census demographics (income, population, education) to my store locations"
• "Count POIs within 500m of each parcel"
• "Assign administrative boundary names to GPS tracks"

This is also a revenue opportunity — partner with data providers or bundle open data.

Scope

Core Operation

• Enrich endpoint: POST /api/enrich
  • Input: source features (layer reference or inline GeoJSON)
  • Enrichment dataset: target layer or catalog dataset
  • Method: point-in-polygon, nearest neighbor, within distance, intersects
  • Output fields: selected attributes from enrichment dataset
  • Aggregation: count, sum, avg, min, max within spatial join

Data Catalog

• Bundled open datasets (Community):
  • Administrative boundaries (country, state/province, county — Natural Earth)
  • Timezone boundaries
  • Coordinate reference grids
• Premium data catalog (Pro/Enterprise):
  • Census demographics (ACS, Census boundaries)
  • Points of interest (OpenStreetMap extract)
  • Land use / land cover
  • Road network attributes
  • Custom organizational datasets registered as enrichment sources

Enrichment Methods

• Point-in-polygon: point features get attributes from containing polygon
• Nearest neighbor: features get attributes from N nearest features in target
• Buffer + aggregate: features get aggregated stats from features within radius
• Intersection: polygon features get weighted attributes from overlapping polygons

Batch + Streaming

• Synchronous enrichment for small feature sets (<1000)
• Async job for large batch enrichment
• CDC-triggered enrichment: auto-enrich new features as they're created

Edition Gating

• Community: enrichment with user's own layers (spatial join as API)
• Pro: bundled open datasets, batch enrichment, CDC-triggered enrichment
• Enterprise: premium data catalog, custom enrichment source registration

References

• CARTO Data Observatory / Enrichment API
• Spatial analytics API: server-side clustering, density, spatial joins #342 Spatial analytics API (spatial join operations)
• Epic: GeoETL — spatial extract-transform-load pipelines #361 GeoETL (enrichment as a transform step)