How to use ST_DelaunayTriangles to construct a Voronoi diagram?

Question

(edit 2019) ST_VoronoiPolygons available since PostGIS v2.3!

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With PostGIS 2.1+ we can use ST_DelaunayTriangles() to generate a Delaunay triangulation, that is a dual graph of its Voronoi diagram, and, in theory, they have an exact and reversible conversion.

Does any safe SQL-standard script with an optimized algorithm exist for this PostGIS2 Delaunay-to-Voronoi conversion?

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Other refs: 1, 2

Answer 1

The following query appears to do a reasonable set of voronoi polygons starting from the Delaunay Triangles.

I'm not a big Postgres user, so it can probably be improved quite a bit.

WITH 
    -- Sample set of points to work with
    Sample AS (SELECT ST_GeomFromText('MULTIPOINT (12 5, 5 7, 2 5, 19 6, 19 13, 15 18, 10 20, 4 18, 0 13, 0 6, 4 1, 10 0, 15 1, 19 6)') geom),
    -- Build edges and circumscribe points to generate a centroid
    Edges AS (
    SELECT id,
        UNNEST(ARRAY['e1','e2','e3']) EdgeName,
        UNNEST(ARRAY[
            ST_MakeLine(p1,p2) ,
            ST_MakeLine(p2,p3) ,
            ST_MakeLine(p3,p1)]) Edge,
        ST_Centroid(ST_ConvexHull(ST_Union(-- Done this way due to issues I had with LineToCurve
            ST_CurveToLine(REPLACE(ST_AsText(ST_LineMerge(ST_Union(ST_MakeLine(p1,p2),ST_MakeLine(p2,p3)))),'LINE','CIRCULAR'),15),
            ST_CurveToLine(REPLACE(ST_AsText(ST_LineMerge(ST_Union(ST_MakeLine(p2,p3),ST_MakeLine(p3,p1)))),'LINE','CIRCULAR'),15)
        ))) ct      
    FROM    (
        -- Decompose to points
        SELECT id,
            ST_PointN(g,1) p1,
            ST_PointN(g,2) p2,
            ST_PointN(g,3) p3
        FROM    (
            SELECT (gd).Path id, ST_ExteriorRing((gd).Geom) g -- ID andmake triangle a linestring
            FROM (SELECT (ST_Dump(ST_DelaunayTriangles(geom))) gd FROM Sample) a -- Get Delaunay Triangles
            )b
        ) c
    )
SELECT ST_Polygonize(ST_Node(ST_LineMerge(ST_Union(v, ST_ExteriorRing(ST_ConvexHull(v))))))
FROM (
    SELECT  -- Create voronoi edges and reduce to a multilinestring
        ST_LineMerge(ST_Union(ST_MakeLine(
        x.ct,
        CASE 
        WHEN y.id IS NULL THEN
            CASE WHEN ST_Within(
                x.ct,
                (SELECT ST_ConvexHull(geom) FROM sample)) THEN -- Don't draw lines back towards the original set
                -- Project line out twice the distance from convex hull
                ST_MakePoint(ST_X(x.ct) + ((ST_X(ST_Centroid(x.edge)) - ST_X(x.ct)) * 2),ST_Y(x.ct) + ((ST_Y(ST_Centroid(x.edge)) - ST_Y(x.ct)) * 2))
            END
        ELSE 
            y.ct
        END
        ))) v
    FROM    Edges x 
        LEFT OUTER JOIN -- Self Join based on edges
        Edges y ON x.id <> y.id AND ST_Equals(x.edge,y.edge)
    ) z;

This produces the following set of polygons for the sample points included in the query

Query Explanation

Step 1

Create the Delaunay Triangles from the input geometries

SELECT (gd).Path id, ST_ExteriorRing((gd).Geom) g -- ID and make triangle a linestring
FROM (SELECT (ST_Dump(ST_DelaunayTriangles(geom))) gd FROM Sample) a -- Get Delaunay Triangles

Step 2

Decompose the triangle nodes and make edges can be made. I think there should be a better way to get the edges, but I didn't find one.

SELECT ...
        ST_MakeLine(p1,p2) ,
        ST_MakeLine(p2,p3) ,
        ST_MakeLine(p3,p1)
        ...
FROM    (
    -- Decompose to points
    SELECT id,
        ST_PointN(g,1) p1,
        ST_PointN(g,2) p2,
        ST_PointN(g,3) p3
    FROM    (
        ... Step 1...
        )b
    ) c

Step 3

Build the circumscribed circles for each triangle and find the centroid

SELECT ... Step 2 ...
    ST_Centroid(ST_ConvexHull(ST_Union(-- Done this way due to issues I had with LineToCurve
        ST_CurveToLine(REPLACE(ST_AsText(ST_LineMerge(ST_Union(ST_MakeLine(p1,p2),ST_MakeLine(p2,p3)))),'LINE','CIRCULAR'),15),
        ST_CurveToLine(REPLACE(ST_AsText(ST_LineMerge(ST_Union(ST_MakeLine(p2,p3),ST_MakeLine(p3,p1)))),'LINE','CIRCULAR'),15)
    ))) ct      
FROM    (
    -- Decompose to points
    SELECT id,
        ST_PointN(g,1) p1,
        ST_PointN(g,2) p2,
        ST_PointN(g,3) p3
    FROM    (
        ... Step 1...
        )b
    ) c

The Edges CTE outputs each edge and the id(path) of the triangle it belongs to.

Step 4

'Outer Join' the 'Edges' table to itself where there are equal edges for different triangles (interior edges).

SELECT  
    ...
    ST_MakeLine(
    x.ct, -- Circumscribed Circle centroid
    CASE 
    WHEN y.id IS NULL THEN
        CASE WHEN ST_Within( -- Don't draw lines back towards the original set
            x.ct,
            (SELECT ST_ConvexHull(geom) FROM sample)) THEN
            -- Project line out twice the distance from convex hull
            ST_MakePoint(
                ST_X(x.ct) + ((ST_X(ST_Centroid(x.edge)) - ST_X(x.ct)) * 2),
                T_Y(x.ct) + ((ST_Y(ST_Centroid(x.edge)) - ST_Y(x.ct)) * 2)
            )
        END
    ELSE 
        y.ct -- Centroid of triangle with common edge
    END
    ))) v
FROM    Edges x 
    LEFT OUTER JOIN -- Self Join based on edges
    Edges y ON x.id <> y.id AND ST_Equals(x.edge,y.edge)

Where there is a common edge draw a line between the respective centroids

Where the edge is not joined (exterior) draw a line from the centroid through the centre of the edge. Only do this if the centroid of the circle is inside the set of triangles.

Step 5

Get the convex hull for the drawn lines as a line. Union up and merge all the lines. Node the line set so that we have a topological set that can be polygonized.

SELECT ST_Polygonize(ST_Node(ST_LineMerge(ST_Union(v, ST_ExteriorRing(ST_ConvexHull(v))))))