Script for converting FAA Digital Obstacle File from .Dat to .csv

FAA_DOF.py

##################################################################################################################
#
# Author: Roy Hewitt, US Fish & Wildlife Service
# Location: Southeast Regional Office
# Address: 1875 Century Blvd, Suite 200, Atlanta, GA 30345
# Phone: 404-679-7306
# Email: roy_hewitt@fws.gov
#
# Purpose: To process the FAA Digital Obstacle Files for use with GIS.  Converts Degree Minutes Seconds to
#          Decimal Degrees; outputs .csv file.
#
##################################################################################################################
import csv, os

# The folder containing all of the .Dat FAA Obstacle files from: https://nfdc.faa.gov/tod/public/TOD_DOF.html
root = r'C:\Users\rhewitt\Desktop\DOF'
counter = 0

# Convert every .Dat file to a .csv; Convert DMS to Decimal Degrees for mapping
for eachFile in os.listdir( root ):
    if eachFile.endswith(".Dat"):
        dat = open(os.path.join(root, eachFile), 'r')
        csvOut = os.path.join(root, dat.name[:-4] + ".csv")
        f = open(csvOut, 'wb')
        wr = csv.writer(f, quoting=csv.QUOTE_ALL)

        # Create a header row in the CSV file containing all field names
        header = ["ObstacleNo", "ver_status", "Country", "State", "City", "latdeg", "latmin", "latsec", "N_S", "latitude", "londeg", "lonmin", "lonsec", "E_W", "longitude", "Type", "QTY", "AGL_HT", "AMSL_HT", "Lighting", "horz_acc", "vert_acc", "marking", "FAA_no", "Action", "Julian_dt"]
        wr.writerow(header)
        
        print dat.name[:-4]
        i=-1
        for line in dat:
            i+=1
            # Skip the first 4 rows (they include poorly formatted header information)
            if i < 5:
                continue
            # .Dat files have fixed-width columns; the data is always in the same position within a row
            else:
                counter += 1
                ORS     = line[:9] # The first 9 characters of the row represent the Obstacle number
                v       = line[9:11]
                country = line[11:14]
                state   = line[14:17]
                city    = line[17:35]
                latDeg  = line[35:37]
                latMin  = line[37:40]
                latSec  = line[40:46]
                latHem  = line[46:47]
                lonDeg  = line[47:51]
                lonMin  = line[51:54]
                lonSec  = line[54:60]
                lonHem  = line[60:61]
                obType  = line[61:75]
                uknown  = line[75:76]
                agl     = line[76:82]
                amsl    = line[82:88]
                lt      = line[88:90]
                ah      = line[90:92]
                ccv     = line[92:94]
                MIN     = line[94:96]
                study   = line[96:111]
                action  = line[111:113]
                jDate   = line[113:]

                # Convert DMS to Decimal Degrees (N vs. S determines if the value is positive or negative)
                if latHem == "N":
                    latitude = (float(latDeg)+(float(latMin)/60)+(float(latSec)/3600))
                else:
                    latitude = -1*(float(latDeg)+(float(latMin)/60)+(float(latSec)/3600))

                # Convert DMS to Decimal Degrees (E vs. W determines if the value is positive or negative)
                if lonHem == "E":
                    longitude = (float(lonDeg)+(float(lonMin)/60)+(float(lonSec)/3600))
                else:
                    longitude = -1*(float(lonDeg)+(float(lonMin)/60)+(float(lonSec)/3600))
                csvLine = [ORS, v, country, state, city, latDeg, latMin, latSec, latHem, latitude, lonDeg, lonMin, lonSec, lonHem, longitude, obType, uknown, agl, amsl, lt, ah, ccv, MIN, study, action, jDate.rstrip("\n")]
                wr.writerow(csvLine)

        f.close()
        dat.close()
print "Finished! Converted " + str(counter) + " rows!"

To Do:

• Create a VRT file for each .dat file for easy shapefile creation
• Add Python bindings for ogr2ogr
• Create a shapefile for each .csv using ogr2ogr

VRT format:

<OGRVRTDataSource>
    <OGRVRTLayer name="01-AL">
        <SrcDataSource>01-AL.csv</SrcDataSource>
        <GeometryType>wkbPoint</GeometryType>
        <LayerSRS>WGS84</LayerSRS>
        <GeometryField encoding="PointFromColumns" x="longitude" y="latitude"/>
    </OGRVRTLayer>
</OGRVRTDataSource>