QGIS is a desktop geographic information system that facilitates data viewing, editing, and analysis. QGIS, paired with the most efficient scripting language, Python, enables us to write effective scripts that extend the core functionality of QGIS. Based on version QGIS 2.18, this book will teach you how to write Python code that works with spatial data to automate geo-processing tasks in QGIS. It covers topics such as querying and editing vector data and using raster data. You will also learn to create, edit, and optimize a vector layer for faster queries, re-project a vector layer, reduce the number of vertices in a vector layer without losing critical data, and convert a raster to a vector. Following this, you will work through recipes that will help you compose static maps, create heavily customized maps, and add specialized labels and annotations. As well as this, we’ll also share a few tips and tricks based on different aspects of QGIS.
About the Author
Joel Lawhead is a PMI-certified Project
Management Professional (PMP), a certified Geographic Information
Systems Professional, and the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for
http://www.nvisionsolutions.com/,
an award-winning firm specializing in geospatial technology integration
and harsh-environment engineering. Joel builds geospatial systems for
US government agencies, including NASA, NOAA, the US Department of
Homeland Security, and the military. He also works with private
organizations, including the National Oceans and Applications Research
Center (NOARC) and The Ocean Cleanup. He has authored other books with
Packt Publishing, including Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python,
QGIS Python Programming Cookbook, and Learning Geospatial Analysis with
Python, Second Edition. His cookbook recipes have been featured in two
editions of the O'Reilly Python Cookbook. Joel began using Python in
1997 and combined it with geospatial software development in 2000. He is
also the developer of the widely used open source Python Shapefile
Library (PyShp) and maintains the geospatial technical blog,
http://geospatialpython.com/ and Twitter feed, @SpatialPython,
discussing the use of Python within the geospatial industry. In 2011,
Joel reverse-engineered and published the undocumented shapefile spatial
indexing format and assisted fellow geospatial Python developer, Marc
Pfister, in reversing the compression algorithm, allowing developers
around the world to create better integrated and more robust geospatial
applications involving shapefiles. In 2002, Joel received the
international Esri Special Achievement in GIS award for his work on the
Real-Time Emergency Action Coordination Tool (REACT) for emergency
management using geospatial analysis
