Book Image

Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python

By : Joel Lawhead
Book Image

Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python

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. This book will guide you gently into this exciting and complex field. It walks you through the building blocks of geospatial analysis and how to apply them to influence decision making using the latest Python software. Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python, 2nd Edition uses the expressive and powerful Python 3 programming language to guide you through geographic information systems, remote sensing, topography, and more, while providing a framework for you to approach geospatial analysis effectively, but on your own terms. We start by giving you a little background on the field, and a survey of the techniques and technology used. We then split the field into its component specialty areas: GIS, remote sensing, elevation data, advanced modeling, and real-time data. This book will teach you everything you need to know about, Geospatial Analysis from using a particular software package or API to using generic algorithms that can be applied. 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. This book will round out your technical library through handy recipes that will give you a good understanding of a field that supplements many a modern day human endeavors.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python Second Edition
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Working with LIDAR


LIDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging. It is similar to radar-based images but uses finite laser beams, which hit the ground hundreds of thousands of times per second to collect a huge amount of very fine (x,y,z) locations as well as time and intensity. The intensity value is what really separates LIDAR from other data types. For example, the asphalt rooftop of a building may be of the same elevation as the top of a nearby tree, but the intensities will be different. Just like the remote sensing radiance values in a multispectral satellite image allow us to build classification libraries, the intensity values of LIDAR data allow us to classify and colorize LIDAR data.

The high volume and precision of LIDAR actually makes it difficult to use. A LIDAR dataset is referred to as a point cloud because the shape of the dataset is usually irregular as the data is three-dimensional with outlying points. There are not many software packages that effectively visualize point...