Python Geospatial Analysis Cookbook

Chapter 5. Vector Analysis

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Clipping LineStrings to an area of interest
• Splitting polygons with lines
• Finding the location of a point on a line using linear referencing
• Snapping a point to the nearest line
• Calculating 3D ground distance and total elevation gain

Introduction

Vector data analysis is used in many, many application areas, starting from measuring the distance from point A to point B all the way through to complex routing algorithms. The first GIS systems were built on vector data and vector analysis, and then later expanded into the raster domain. In this chapter, we will start with simple vector operations, then work our way into a more complex model, chaining the various vector methods ...