In this chapter, we will focus on the data used for geospatial analysis. You will learn more about the nature of geospatial data, and discover some of the major websites you can use to obtain geospatial datasets for free. We will then look at the ways in which you can read and write geospatial data using Python.
In particular, this chapter will cover the following topics:
Why having high quality geospatial data is important
The various types of geospatial data you are likely to encounter
Major sources of freely-available geospatial datasets
How to read and write geospatial data using the GDAL/OGR library
How to work with Spatial Reference Systems
Geospatial data errors and how to fix them
Let's start by looking at why having high-quality geospatial data is important.