PostGIS Essentials

Learn how to build powerful spatial database solutions with PostGIS quickly and efficiently

About This Book

• Learn how to construct your own solutions using the most exciting Geographic Information System (GIS) tool on the market, PostGIS
• Use this book to develop a complete GIS application from scratch
• A practical, agile, and step-by-step guide for using PostGIS to create great GIS solutions

Who This Book Is For

This book is a quick guide for anyone who wants to get started with PostGIS and develop their very own GIS projects quickly.

What You Will Learn

• Install and configure PostGIS and other useful open source tools such as QGIS and GDAL for working with spatial data
• Create spatial databases and tables from scratch and develop spatial queries through practical examples
• Obtain useful spatial data from public and free sources and insert and manage this data to be useful with your data tables
• Familiarize yourself with the fundamental concepts in PostGIS and spatial databases
• Visualize the data stored in your tables and combine it with other data sources to create beautiful graphical solutions using QGIS
• Use the GDAL spatial library to transform and reproject from a wide range of data formats such as vectorial and raster geospatial data formats
• Develop a complete GIS application from scratch by implementing the concepts learned in the book

In Detail

PostGIS is one of the world's leading spatial databases, created as a geographic extension for PostgreSQL. With it, users are able to manipulate and visualize spatial data incredibly effectively and efficiently.

PostGIS Essentials introduces you to the fundamentals of PostGIS, giving you easy access to one of the most popular and powerful spatial databases available today. You will begin by learning how to install and successfully set up PostGIS before covering how to create your first spatial database. The book will then help you to develop your skills further as you will learn how to insert GIS objects as well as how to select and filter GIS queries with clear and practical information. You will then learn how to display GIS data graphically and create effective visualizations. The book concludes with tips, tricks, and techniques to help you optimize PostGIS and improve the performance of your database.