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

Creating a flood inundation model


In the next example, we'll enter the world of hydrology. Flooding is one of the most common and devastating natural disasters, which affects nearly every population on the globe. Geospatial models are a powerful tool in estimating the impact of a flood and mitigating that impact before it happens. We often hear in the news that a river is reaching flood stage. But that information is meaningless if we can't understand the actual impact. Hydrological flood models are expensive to develop and can be very complex. These models are essential for engineers building flood control systems. However, first responders and potential flood victims are only interested to know about the impact of an impending flood.

We can understand the flooding impact in an area using a very simple and easy-to-comprehend tool called a flood inundation model. This model starts with a single point and floods an area with the maximum volume of water that a flood basin can hold at a particular...