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Reading and processing geographical raster data in Stata

Author

Listed:
  • Kerui Du

    (Xiamen University)

  • Chunxia Chen

    (Xiamen University)

  • Yang Song

    (Hefei University of Technology)

  • Shuo Hu

    (Southwestern University of Finance and Economics)

  • Ruipeng Tan

    (Hefei University of Technology)

Abstract

We integrate the Java GeoTools and NetCDF libraries into Stata and introduce a new suite of commands for reading and processing geospatial raster data entirely within Stata. These commands enable Stata users to seamlessly extract data from GeoTIFF and NetCDF files, reproject geographic coordi- nates, match raster data with geographical locations, and compute zonal statistics. By eliminating round trips to external GIS or scripting environments, the commands streamline workflows and improve reproducibility of spatial analyses conducted in Stata. We document the command syntax and provide worked examples that illustrate typical use cases—metadata inspection, subsetting, coordinate reference systems harmonization, polygon-based aggregation, and point-based exposure estimation—demonstrating how the package supports end-to-end spatial data preparation and analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Kerui Du & Chunxia Chen & Yang Song & Shuo Hu & Ruipeng Tan, 2026. "Reading and processing geographical raster data in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 26(2), pages 213-243, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:tsj:stataj:v:26:y:2026:i:2:p:213-243
    DOI: 10.1177/1536867X261449934
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