This chapter covered the critical components of GIS analysis. We examined the challenges of measuring on the curved surface of the Earth using different approaches. We looked at the basics of coordinate conversion and full reprojection using OGR, the utm module with PyShp, and Fiona, which simplifies OGR. We edited shapefiles and performed spatial and attribute selections. We created thematic maps from scratch using only Python. We also imported data from spreadsheets. Then, we parsed GPS data from NMEA streams. Finally, we used geocoding to convert street addresses into locations and back.
As a geospatial analyst, you may be familiar with both GIS and remote sensing, but most analysts specialize in one field or the other. That is why this book approaches the fields in separate chapters – so that we can focus on their differences. As we mentioned in the introduction...