id summary reporter owner description type status component version severity resolution keywords cc stage has_patch needs_docs needs_tests needs_better_patch easy ui_ux 6715 Use `ST_distance_sphere` as default instead of `ST_distance_spheroid` for geodetic distance calculations. jbronn jbronn "As brought up by kmishler in this [http://groups.google.com/group/django-users/browse_thread/thread/b1e2d68034400987/8fb4beeb99b2505f#8fb4beeb99b2505f django-users thread about GeoDjango geodetic distances], `ST_distance_sphere` performs faster than `ST_distance_spheroid`. My informal tests suggest that using `ST_distance_sphere` yields results ~30-40% faster that are a maximum of 0.25% less accurate. The attached patch changes the default to `ST_distance_sphere` -- spheroid calculations may be enabled by setting the `distance_spheroid` keyword to `True` in the geographic model definition (e.g., `point = models.PointField(distance_spheroid=True)`). I haven't committed this yet because I wanted to solicit comments on whether there's a better way to do this." closed GIS gis fixed gis distance geodetic geographic sphere spheroid Design decision needed 1 0 1 0 0 0