Preface
In the past, professional spatial analysis in the business sector was equivalent to buying an
ArcGIS license, storing the data in some kind of Esri database, and publishing results with
the ArcGIS Server. These trends seem to be changing in the favor of open source software.
As FOSS (free and open source software) products are gaining more and more power due to the hard work of the enthusiastic open source GIS community, they pique the curiosity of the business sector at a growing rate. With the increasing number of FOSS GIS experts and consulting companies, both training and documentation--the two determining factors that open source GIS products traditionally lacked--are becoming more available.
As FOSS (free and open source software) products are gaining more and more power due to the hard work of the enthusiastic open source GIS community, they pique the curiosity of the business sector at a growing rate. With the increasing number of FOSS GIS experts and consulting companies, both training and documentation--the two determining factors that open source GIS products traditionally lacked--are becoming more available.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Setting Up Your Environment, guides you through the basic steps of creating an
open source software infrastructure you can carry out your analyses with. It also introduces
you to popular open data sources you can freely use in your workflow.
Chapter 2, Accessing GIS Data with QGIS, teaches you about the basic data models used in
GIS. It discusses the peculiarities of these data models in detail, and also makes you familiar
with the GUI of QGIS by browsing through some data.
Chapter 3, Using Vector Data Effectively, shows you how you can interact with vector data in
the GIS software. It discusses GUI-based queries, SQL-based queries, and basic attribute
data management. You will get accommodated to the vector data model and can use the
attributes associated to the vector features in various ways.
Chapter 4, Creating Digital Maps, discusses the basics of digital map making by going
through an exhaustive yet simple example in QGIS. It introduces you to the concept of
projections and spatial reference systems, and the various steps of creating a digital map.
Chapter 5, Exporting Your Data, guides you through the most widely used vector and raster
data formats in GIS. It discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the various formats, and
also gives you some insight on under what circumstances you should choose a particular
spatial data format.
Chapter 6, Feeding a PostGIS Database, guides you through the process of making a spatial
database with PostGIS. It discusses how to create a new database, and how to fill it with
various kinds of spatial data using QGIS. You will also learn how to manage existing
PostGIS tables from QGIS.
Chapter 7, A PostGIS Overview, shows what other options you have with your PostGIS
database. It leaves QGIS and talks about important PostgreSQL and PostGIS concepts by
managing the database created in the previous chapter through PostgreSQL's
administration software, pgAdmin.
Chapter 8, Spatial Analysis in QGIS, goes back to QGIS in order to discuss vector data
analysis and spatial modeling. It shows you how different geometry types can be used to
get some meaningful results based on the features' spatial relationship. It goes through the
practical textbook example of delimiting houses based on some customer preferences.
Chapter 9, Spatial Analysis on Steroids - Using PostGIS, reiterates the example of the previous
chapter, but entirely in PostGIS. It shows how a good software choice for the given task can
enhance productivity by minimizing manual labor and automating the entire workflow. It
also introduces you to the world of PostGIS spatial functions by going through the analysis
again.
Chapter 10, A Typical GIS Problem, shows raster analysis, where spatial databases do not
excel. It discusses typical raster operations by going through a decision making process. It
sheds light on typical considerations related to the raster data model during an analysis,
while also introducing some powerful tools and valuable methodology required to make a
good decision based on spatial factors and constraints.
Chapter 11, Showcasing Your Data, goes on to the Web stack, and discusses the basics of the
Web, the client-server architecture, and spatial servers. It goes into details on how to use the
QGIS Server to create quick visualizations, and how to use GeoServer to build a powerful
spatial server with great capabilities.
Chapter 12, Styling Your Data in GeoServer, discusses the basic vector and raster symbology
usable in GeoServer. It goes through the styling process by using traditional SLD
documents. When the concepts are clear, it introduces the powerful and convenient
GeoServer CSS, which is also based on SLD.
Chapter 13, Creating a Web Map, jumps to the client side of the Web and shows you how to
create simple web maps using the server architecture created before, and the lightweight
web mapping library--Leaflet. It guides you through the process of creating a basic web
map, ranging from creating an HTML document to scripting it with JavaScript.
"Appendix shows additional information and interesting use cases of the learned material
through images and short descriptions.
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