Getting random coordinates based on country

Question

Are there any webserveices/APIs that can take a country name and return a random coordinates (not including the sea/ocean sections) inside that country?

Answer 1

It is not a web service or an API, however, it can be used to solve the issue.

Using the following Python scripts it is possible to take a country name and return a random point with its coordinates (not including the sea/ocean sections) inside that country.

Solution 1 : with a URL

It is primarily based on the data in GeoJSON format provided under the preferred URL, I have chosen this one: https://github.com/johan/world.geo.json.

"""
Getting a random point inside a country based on its name.
In this solution, the URL with countries as a GeoJSON was used.
"""

# imports
import json, random, requests
from shapely.geometry import shape, Point

def random_point_in_country(country_name: str) -> tuple:
    """
    Getting coordinates of a random point inside a country chosen by its name
    Parameters:
    ==========
    :param country_name: a country name
    Returns:
    ==========
    :return: a tuple with coordinates y and x
    """

    url: str = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/johan/world.geo.json/master/countries.geo.json"
    try:
        response = requests.get(url)
        if response.status_code == 200:

            data = json.loads(response.text)
            country = [country for country in data["features"] if country["properties"]["name"] in country_name][0]

            feature = shape(country["geometry"])
            minx, miny, maxx, maxy = feature.bounds

            while True:
                pnt = Point(random.uniform(minx, maxx), random.uniform(miny, maxy))
                if feature.contains(pnt):
                    return float(pnt.y), float(pnt.x)

    except Exception as e:
        return 0, 0

print(random_point_in_country("Ukraine"))

The output will look like:

(48.17489680780856, 30.76394835467746)

Solution 2 : with a data file

It uses a geospatial file stored on the machine.

Before running the code keep in mind the attributes of that particular shapefile, thus the country name that you put into the function should match its corresponding feature's attribute in the shapefile. ⚠️ However, keep in mind this online thread: http://switchfromshapefile.org/

"""
Getting a random point inside a country based on its name.
In this solution, the shapefile with countries was used.
"""

# imports
import re, random, shapefile
from os.path import normpath
from shapely.geometry import shape, Point


def random_point_in_country(shp_location: str, country_name: str) -> tuple:
    """
    Getting coordinates of a random point inside a country chosen by its name
    Parameters:
    ==========
    :param shp_location: a path to the shapefile
    :param country_namea country name
    Returns:
    ==========
    :return: a tuple with coordinates x and y
    """

    try:
        shapes = shapefile.Reader(normpath(shp_location)) # reading shapefile with pyshp library
        country = [s for s in shapes.records() if country_name in s][0] # getting feature(s) that match the country name
        country_id = int(re.findall(r'\d+', str(country))[0]) # getting feature(s)'s id of that match

        shapeRecs = shapes.shapeRecords()
        feature = shapeRecs[country_id].shape.__geo_interface__

        shp_geom = shape(feature)

        minx, miny, maxx, maxy = shp_geom.bounds
        while True:
            pnt = Point(random.uniform(minx, maxx), random.uniform(miny, maxy))
            if feature.contains(pnt):
                return float(pnt.x), float(pnt.y)

    except Exception as e:
        return 0, 0

print(random_point_in_country("D:/World_Countries/World_Countries.shp", "Ukraine"))

The output will look like

(47.545113016917696, 33.4408633374681)

---

References:

• How to read a shapefile in Python?
• Generate points that lie inside polygon
• GeospatialPython | pyshp