Part 1. Learning PostGIS

Welcome to PostGIS in Action. PostGIS is a spatial database extender for the PostgreSQL database management system. This book will teach you the fundamentals of spatial databases in general, key concepts in geographic information systems (GIS), and more specifically how to configure, load, and query a PostGIS-enabled database. You’ll learn how to perform actions with single lines of SQL code that you thought were possible only with a desktop GIS system. By using spatial SQL, much of the heavy lifting that would require many manual steps in desktop GIS tools can be scripted and automated.

The book is divided into three sections and four appendixes. Part 1 covers the fundamentals of spatial databases, GIS, and working ...

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