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Geo Indexing — Simple#

flowchart LR
  P[Point or polygon]
  QT[Quadtree]
  GH[Geohash]
  S2[S2 cells]
  H3[H3 hexes]
  RT[R-tree]
  Q[Spatial query]
  P --> QT --> Q
  P --> GH --> Q
  P --> S2 --> Q
  P --> H3 --> Q
  P --> RT --> Q

    classDef client fill:#dbeafe,stroke:#1e40af,stroke-width:1px,color:#0f172a;
    classDef edge fill:#cffafe,stroke:#0e7490,stroke-width:1px,color:#0f172a;
    classDef service fill:#fef3c7,stroke:#92400e,stroke-width:1px,color:#0f172a;
    classDef datastore fill:#fee2e2,stroke:#991b1b,stroke-width:1px,color:#0f172a;
    classDef cache fill:#fed7aa,stroke:#9a3412,stroke-width:1px,color:#0f172a;
    classDef queue fill:#ede9fe,stroke:#5b21b6,stroke-width:1px,color:#0f172a;
    classDef compute fill:#d1fae5,stroke:#065f46,stroke-width:1px,color:#0f172a;
    classDef storage fill:#e5e7eb,stroke:#374151,stroke-width:1px,color:#0f172a;
    classDef external fill:#fce7f3,stroke:#9d174d,stroke-width:1px,color:#0f172a;
    classDef obs fill:#f3e8ff,stroke:#6b21a8,stroke-width:1px,color:#0f172a;
    class P,QT,GH,S2,H3,RT,Q service;

Five spatial-index choices for "nearby" / "within radius" / "in this polygon" queries: Quadtree, Geohash, S2, H3, R-tree. Pick by data shape, query shape, and how sharded the world needs to be.