SharpSpatial

SharpSpatial is a lightweight geospatial library for .NET, built as a modern alternative to SqlGeography and SqlGeometry, with full support for .NET Core and custom geodesic calculations written entirely in C#.

It combines the power of NetTopologySuite, GeoAPI, and ProjNET4GeoAPI for planar operations, while offering accurate geodesic calculations (Haversine and Vincenty) and basic projection capabilities (Spherical Mercator).

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✨ Why use SharpSpatial?

• ✅ Pure .NET Core – no dependency on SQL Server or legacy types.
• ✅ Custom geodesic engine – Vincenty & Haversine distance, buffering, and more.
• ✅ Planar geometry support – thanks to NetTopologySuite.
• ✅ Mercator projection – convert from/to spherical Mercator (EPSG:3857).
• ✅ Developer-friendly – clean API, easy integration.

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⚠️ Limitations

While useful in many real-world applications, SharpSpatial is not a full GIS engine.
Here’s what it doesn’t do (yet):

• ❌ No support for arbitrary coordinate reference systems (CRS)
• ❌ Limited projections (only WGS84 and Mercator)
• ❌ Simplified geometry model (common types only)

Still, for many server-side or data-processing tasks, it offers exactly what’s needed — with minimal overhead.

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📦 Installation

Via NuGet:

dotnet add package SharpSpatial

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🚀 Quick Start

using SharpSpatial; // Prepare some WKT to parse string squareWKT = "POLYGON((5 65, 25 65, 25 85, 5 85, 5 65))"; string pointH_WKT = "POINT(0 75)"; string pointV_WKT = "POINT(15 88)"; // Create a square and two points SharpGeography square = new(squareWKT, 4326, false); SharpGeography pointH = new(pointH_WKT, 4326, false); SharpGeography pointV = new(pointV_WKT, 4326, false); // Get the shortest line from the left point to the square (the point will fall in the middle of the vertical side of the square) SharpGeography? shortestLineH = pointH.GetShortestLineTo(square); string? shortestLineH_WKT = shortestLineH?.ToWKT(); /// Get the shortest line from the top point to the square (this time, the horizontal side of the square is not a straight line) SharpGeography? shortestLineV = pointV.GetShortestLineTo(square); string? shortestLineV_WKT = shortestLineV?.ToWKT(); // Create a geodesic buffer string testWKT = "POLYGON((0 0, 10 0, 10 10, 0 10, 0 0))"; SharpGeography test = new(testWKT, 4326, false); var buffer = test.Buffer(500000).ToWKT(8);

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🧭 Use Cases

• Accurate distance and area calculations over the ellipsoid
• Buffering and manipulating spatial shapes
• Migrating from SqlGeography in .NET Core apps
• Lightweight geospatial features for APIs and services

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❤️ Support SharpSpatial

I develop and maintain SharpSpatial in my free time, focusing on practical tools I use myself in the real world.

If you find this project useful, please consider sponsoring me on GitHub.
Even a small donation helps me keep the library maintained, improved, and open for everyone.

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🛣 Roadmap

• GeoJSON input/output utilities
• Unit testing improvements

Have an idea or feedback? Open an issue or start a discussion.

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📄 License

Licensed under the MIT License – free to use, modify, and distribute.

Third-party licenses

SharpSpatial uses the following third-party libraries:

• NetTopologySuite, licensed under the BSD-2-Clause license.
• ProjNET4GeoAPI, licensed under the BSD-2-Clause license.

These libraries retain their respective licenses.

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Accurate geospatial logic for .NET, without the overhead.