Book Image

Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python

By : Joel Lawhead
4 (1)
Book Image

Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python

4 (1)
By: Joel Lawhead

Overview of this book

Geospatial analysis is used in almost every field you can think of from medicine, to defense, to farming. It is an approach to use statistical analysis and other informational engineering to data which has a geographical or geospatial aspect. And this typically involves applications capable of geospatial display and processing to get a compiled and useful data. "Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python" uses the expressive and powerful Python programming language to guide you through geographic information systems, remote sensing, topography, and more. It explains how to use a framework in order to approach Geospatial analysis effectively, but on your own terms. "Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python" starts with a background of the field, a survey of the techniques and technology used, and then splits the field into its component speciality areas: GIS, remote sensing, elevation data, advanced modelling, and real-time data. This book will teach you everything there is to know, from using a particular software package or API to using generic algorithms that can be applied to Geospatial analysis. This book focuses on pure Python whenever possible to minimize compiling platform-dependent binaries, so that you don't become bogged down in just getting ready to do analysis. "Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python" will round out your technical library with handy recipes and a good understanding of a field that supplements many a modern day human endeavors.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Data access


As described in Chapter 2, Geospatial Data, geospatial data sets are typically large, complex, and varied. This challenge makes libraries, which efficiently read, and in some cases write, this data essential to geospatial analysis. These libraries are also the most important. Without access to data, geospatial analysis doesn't begin. Furthermore, accuracy and precision are key factors in geospatial analysis. An image library that resamples data without permission, or a computational geometry library that rounds a coordinate even a couple of decimal places, can adversely affect the quality of analysis. Also, these libraries must manage memory efficiently. A complex geospatial process can last for hours or even days. If a data access library has a memory fault, it can delay an entire project or even an entire workflow involving dozens of people dependent on the output of that analysis.

GDAL

The Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) does the most heavy lifting in the geospatial...