H3 Analytics Overview
Try the basics of H3 in Fused on Canvas →
New to H3 in Fused? Start with Working with H3 for the five-step workflow, then come back here for the details.
Get your data into H3
Size decides how. Small data (under about 100 MB) is converted inside a UDF every time it runs. Large data is ingested once, so later reads touch only the part you need.
| Small: convert on the fly | Large: partition, index & query | Large: raster ingestion pipeline | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How | Convert inside the UDF on every run | You control each step: partition, index, query | One managed call ingests, aggregates and builds overviews |
| Data | Points, polygons and vectors, single-band rasters | Any: points, vectors, rasters, tables, gridded and multi-dimensional | Single-band rasters |
| API | h3_latlng_to_cell() in DuckDB, common.gdf_to_hex() | partition(), index(), query() | run_ingest_raster_to_h3() |
| Guide | Convert on the fly | Ingest: partition, index & query | Raster ingestion |
For rasters where you want aggregation and overviews built in, use the raster ingestion pipeline. For everything else, use partition, index & query.
Working with a very large dataset?
If your dataset doesn't fit the patterns above (hundreds of GB, tens of thousands of files, or a custom ingestion shape), reach out to info@fused.io. We can help you scale the ingestion.
Work with H3 data
Once your data is in H3:
- Pick a resolution. The resolution controls hex size and drives everything downstream: fidelity, storage, and the granularity available for aggregation and joins. See the Resolution Guide.
- Aggregate. Roll data up to coarser (parent) resolutions to render and analyze it at different zoom levels: sum, mean, max, min or stddev for numerical data; counts or mode for categorical data. See Aggregations.
- Join. Two H3 datasets at the same resolution join on
hexwith plain SQL, with no spatial join, even across projections, sparse data, or raster and vector sources. See Joining. - Visualize. Render hexagons in the Workbench Map Viewer or combine UDFs in Canvas. See Visualization.
Example canvases
- H3 Converting Examples: points, polygons, vectors and rasters converted to hexes on the fly.
- Seismic Hazard Building Risk: a hazard raster and Overture buildings, each converted to hexes and joined on H3 (walkthrough).
- Overture, Census & Isochrone Dashboard: points of interest and household income inside a travel-time area, aggregated to hexes (walkthrough).