Separate a polygon in different polygons depending of the distance to another polygon

Question

I have a reference polygon "R", and others polygons (in grey).

I want to separate each grey polygon in multiple polygons, depending on the distance to R with different Buffers :

• The red line is R with a 5 meters buffer
• The green line is R with a 20 meters buffer
• The purple line is R with a 50 meters buffer

I don't know how to achieve this simply, because in this case, the smaller grey polygon should be split into 3 polygons, and I'm able to split it in only 2 in one query.

If I have 3 buffer, should I do 3 different queries to fill my table, or is there a way to do it in one time ?

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The criteria for the splitting is the distance to R.

The small grey polygon can be split in 3 polygons, determined by : - The area before the red line - The area between red and green line - The area after the green line

My full query is : -- 5m zone

create table splited_polygons as
select p.id, p.nom, 5 as distance, ST_Intersection(ST_MakeValid(ST_Buffer(h.geom::geography, 5)::geometry), ST_MakeValid(p.geom)) as geom
from polygons p, hydro h;

-- 5m-20m zone

insert into splited_polygons (id, nom, distance, geom)
select p.id, p.nom, 20 as distance, ST_Intersection(ST_MakeValid(p.geom), ST_Difference(ST_Buffer(h.geom::geography, 20)::geometry, ST_Buffer(h.geom::geography, 5)::geometry)) as geom
from polygons p, hydro h;

-- 20m-50m zone

insert into splited_polygons (id, nom, distance, geom)
select p.id, p.nom, 50 as distance, ST_Intersection(ST_MakeValid(p.geom), ST_Difference(ST_Buffer(h.geom::geography, 50)::geometry, ST_Buffer(h.geom::geography, 20)::geometry)) as geom
from polygons p, hydro h;

-- > 50m zone

insert into splited_polygons (id, nom, distance, geom)
select p.id, p.nom, 100 as distance, ST_Difference(ST_MakeValid(p.geom), ST_Buffer(h.geom::geography, 50)::geometry) as geom
from polygons p, hydro h;

Answer 1

This is how you can easily create rings around the polygon:

WITH start AS(
SELECT ST_MAKEPOLYGON(ST_GEOMFROMTEXT('LINESTRING(0 0, 2 0, 1 5, 0 0)')) as point)
,ranges AS(
VALUES (1),(5),(10),(25))
,buffers AS(
SELECT r.column1 as id, ST_BUFFER(s.point,r.column1) as buffer
FROM start AS s
CROSS JOIN ranges AS r),
rings AS(
SELECT DISTINCT ON (a.id) a.id,CASE WHEN b.id IS NULL THEN a.buffer ELSE ST_DIFFERENCE(a.buffer,b.buffer) END 
FROM buffers a
LEFT JOIN buffers b
    ON a.id>b.id
ORDER BY a.id,b.id DESC)
SELECT * FROM rings;

Once you have them you can use ST_DIFFRENCE to get the polygons you need. So it can be all done in one query no matter how many zones you have.

Answer 2

Probably the answer from Jakub Kania is more elegant but your approach it's correct. I really don't understand why are you using st_difference but I try to make one query from your approach (not tested).

create table splited_polygons as
SELECT 
    p.id, 
    p.nom, 
    foo.distance,
    (ST_DUMP(st_intersection(foo.geom, p.geom))).geom::geometry (Polygon, YOUR_EPSG) as geom
FROM 
    (select 
        5 as distance, 
        (ST_DUMP(ST_Buffer(h.geom, 5))).geom::geometry (Polygon, YOUR_EPSG) as geom
    from 
        hydro h
    UNION
    select 
        20 as distance, 
        (ST_DUMP(ST_Buffer(h.geom, 20))).geom::geometry (Polygon, YOUR_EPSG) as geom
    from 
        hydro h
    UNION
    select 
        50 as distance, 
        (ST_DUMP(ST_Buffer(h.geom, 50))).geom::geometry (Polygon, YOUR_EPSG) as geom
    from 
        hydro h) AS foo,
    polygons AS p

WHERE 
    st_intersects(foo.geom,p.geom);