PostGIS Cookbook: Store, organize, manipulate, and analyze spatial data, 2nd Edition, Edition 2

Mayra Zurbarán · Thomas Kraft · Stephen Vincent Mather · Bborie Park · Pedro Wightman

Mar 2018 · Packt Publishing Ltd

About this ebook

Create and manage spatial data with PostGISKey FeaturesImport and export geographic data from the PostGIS database using the available tools Maintain, optimize, and fine-tune spatial data for long-term viability Utilize the parallel support functionality that was introduced in PostgreSQL 9.6Book Description

PostGIS is a spatial database that integrates the advanced storage and analysis of vector and raster data, and is remarkably flexible and powerful. PostGIS provides support for geographic objects to the PostgreSQL object-relational database and is currently the most popular open source spatial databases.

If you want to explore the complete range of PostGIS techniques and expose related extensions, then this book is for you.

This book is a comprehensive guide to PostGIS tools and concepts which are required to manage, manipulate, and analyze spatial data in PostGIS. It covers key spatial data manipulation tasks, explaining not only how each task is performed, but also why. It provides practical guidance allowing you to safely take advantage of the advanced technology in PostGIS in order to simplify your spatial database administration tasks. Furthermore, you will learn to take advantage of basic and advanced vector, raster, and routing approaches along with the concepts of data maintenance, optimization, and performance, and will help you to integrate these into a large ecosystem of desktop and web tools.

By the end, you will be armed with all the tools and instructions you need to both manage the spatial database system and make better decisions as your project's requirements evolve.

What you will learnImport and export geographic data from the PostGIS database using the available toolsStructure spatial data using the functionality provided by a combination of PostgreSQL and PostGISWork with a set of PostGIS functions to perform basic and advanced vector analysesConnect PostGIS with PythonLearn to use programming frameworks around PostGISMaintain, optimize, and fine-tune spatial data for long-term viabilityExplore the 3D capabilities of PostGIS, including LiDAR point clouds and point clouds derived from Structure from Motion (SfM) techniquesDistribute 3D models through the Web using the X3D standardUse PostGIS to develop powerful GIS web applications using Open Geospatial Consortium web standardsMaster PostGIS RasterWho this book is for

This book is for developers who need some quick solutions for PostGIS. Prior knowledge of PostgreSQL and spatial concepts would be an added advantage.

About the author

Mayra Zurbaran is a Colombian geogeek currently pursuing her PhD in geoprivacy. She has a BS in computer science from Universidad del Norte and is interested in the intersection of ethical location data management, free and open source software, and GIS. She is a Pythonista with a marked preference for the PostgreSQL database. Mayra is a member of the Geomatics and Earth Observation laboratory (GEOlab) at Politecnico di Milano and is also a contributor to the FOSS community. Pedro M. Wightman is an associate professor at the Systems Engineering Department of Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia. With a PhD in computer science from the University of South Florida, he's a researcher in location-based information systems, wireless sensor networks, and virtual and augmented reality, among other fields. Father of two beautiful and smart girls, he's also a rookie writer of short stories, science fiction fan, time travel enthusiast, and is worried about how to survive apocalyptic solar flares. Paolo Corti is an environmental engineer with 20 years of experience in the GIS field, currently working as a Geospatial Engineer Fellow at the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University. He is an advocate of open source geospatial technologies and Python, an OSGeo Charter member, and a member of the pycsw and GeoNode Project Steering Committees. He is a coauthor of the first edition of this book and the reviewer for the first and second editions of the Mastering QGIS book by Packt. Stephen Vincent Mather has worked in the geospatial industry for 15 years, having always had a flair for geospatial analyses in general, especially those at the intersection of Geography and Ecology. His work in open-source geospatial databases started 5 years ago with PostGIS and he immediately began using PostGIS as an analytic tool, attempting a range of innovative and sometimes bleeding-edge techniques (although he admittedly prefers the cutting edge). Thomas J Kraft is currently a Planning Technician at Cleveland Metroparks after beginning as a GIS intern in 2011. He graduated with Honors from Cleveland State University in 2012, majoring in Environmental Science with an emphasis on GIS. When not in front of a computer, he spends his weekends landscaping and in the outdoors in general. Bborie Park has been breaking (and subsequently fixing) computers for most of his life. His primary interests involve developing end-to-end pipelines for spatial datasets. He is an active contributor to the PostGIS project and is a member of the PostGIS Steering Committee. He happily resides with his wife Nicole in the San Francisco Bay Area.