Python and Elevation Data
Elevation data is one of the most fascinating types of geospatial data. It represents many different types of data sources and formats. It can display properties of both vector and raster data, resulting in unique data products. Elevation data can be used for terrain visualization, land cover classification, hydrology modeling, transportation routing, feature extraction, and many other purposes.
You can’t perform all of these options with both raster and vector data, but since elevation data is three-dimensional, due to it containing x, y, and z coordinates, you can often get more out of this data than any other type.
We will cover the following topics in this chapter:
- Accessing ASCII Grid files
- Creating a shaded relief image
- Creating elevation contours
- Working with LiDAR data
- Working with bathymetry
By the end of this chapter, you will know how to read and write elevation data in both raster and vector formats and...