Book Image

Python Geospatial Development - Second Edition - Second Edition

By : Erik Westra
Book Image

Python Geospatial Development - Second Edition - Second Edition

By: Erik Westra

Overview of this book

Geospatial development links your data to places on the Earth's surface. Writing geospatial programs involves tasks such as grouping data by location, storing and analyzing large amounts of spatial information, performing complex geospatial calculations, and drawing colorful interactive maps. In order to do this well, you'll need appropriate tools and techniques, as well as a thorough understanding of geospatial concepts such as map projections, datums and coordinate systems. Python Geospatial Development - Second Edition teaches you everything you need to know about writing geospatial applications using Python. No prior knowledge of geospatial concepts, tools or techniques is required. The book guides you through the process of installing and using various toolkits, obtaining geospatial data for use in your programs, and building complete and sophisticated geospatial applications in Python. Python Geospatial Development teaches you everything you need to know about writing geospatial applications using Python. No prior knowledge of geospatial concepts, tools or techniques is required. The book guides you through the process of installing and using various toolkits, obtaining geospatial data for use in your programs, and building complete and sophisticated geospatial applications in Python. This book provides an overview of the major geospatial concepts, data sources and toolkits. It teaches you how to store and access spatial data using Python, how to perform a range of spatial calculations, and how to store spatial data in a database. Because maps are such an important aspect of geospatial programming, the book teaches you how to build your own “slippy map” interface within a web application, and finishes with the detailed construction of a geospatial data editor using Geodjango. Whether you want to write quick utilities to solve spatial problems, or develop sophisticated web applications based around maps and geospatial data, this book includes everything you need to know.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Python Geospatial Development
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Summary


In this chapter, we discussed many of the core concepts that underlie GIS development, looked briefly at the history of GIS, examined some of the more common GIS data formats, and got our hands dirty exploring US state maps downloaded from the US Census Bureau website. We have learned the following:

  • Locations are often, but not always, represented using coordinates

  • Calculating the distance between two points requires you to take into account the curvature of the earth's surface

  • You must be aware of the units used in geospatial data

  • Map projections represent the three-dimensional shape of the earth's surface as a two-dimensional map

  • There are three main classes of map projections: cylindrical, conic and azimuthal

  • Datums are mathematical models of the earth's shape

  • The three most common datums in use are called NAD 27, NAD 83, and WGS 84

  • Coordinate systems describe how coordinates relate to a given point on the earth's surface

  • Unprojected coordinate systems directly represent points on the...