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

Installing third-party Python modules


We'll make a distinction between modules which are included as part of Python's standard library and modules which must be installed. To install libraries, you either get them from the Python Package Index (PyPI) or in the case of a lot of geospatial modules, you download a specialized installer. PyPI acts as the official software repository for libraries and offers some easy-to-use setup programs which simplify installing packages. You can use the easy_install program which is especially good on Windows or the pip program more commonly found on Linux and Unix systems. Once installed, you can install third-party packages simply by running:

easy_install <package name>

Or for pip you run:

pip install <package name>

Links will be provided to installers and instructions for packages not available on PyPI. You can manually install third-party Python modules by downloading the Python source code and putting it in your current working directory, or...