Summary

In this chapter we have looked at various techniques for using OGR, GDAL, Shapely, and pyproj within Python programs to solve real-world problems. We have learned the following:

• Reading and writing to vector-format geospatial data in shapefiles

• Reading and analyzing raster-format geospatial data

• Changing the datum and projection used by a shapefile

• Using the Well-Known Text (WKT) format to represent geospatial features and spatial references in plain text

• Using WKT to transfer geospatial data from one Python library to another

• Using WKT to store geospatial data in plain text format

• Using the Shapely library to perform various geospatial calculations on geometries, including distance calculations, dilation, and intersections.

• Using the pyproj.Proj class to convert coordinates from one projection and datum to another

• Using the pyproj.Geod class to convert from geometry coordinates to distances, and vice versa

Up to now, we have written programs that work directly with shapefiles and other data...