Open Source GIS (Geographic Information Systems) is a growing area with the explosion of Google Maps-based websites and spatially-aware devices and applications. The GIS market is growing rapidly, and as a Python developer you can't afford to be left behind. In today's location-aware world, all commercial Python developers can benefit from an understanding of GIS concepts and development techniques.

Working with geo-spatial data can get complicated because you are dealing with mathematical models of the Earth's surface. Since Python is a powerful programming language with high-level toolkits, it is well-suited to GIS development. This book will familiarize you with the Python tools required for geo-spatial development. It introduces GIS at the basic level with a clear, detailed walkthrough of the key GIS concepts such as location, distance, units, projections, datums, and GIS data formats. We then examine a number of Python libraries and combine these with geo-spatial data to accomplish a variety of tasks. The book provides an in-depth look at the concept of storing spatial data in a database and how you can use spatial databases as tools to solve a variety of geo-spatial problems.

It goes into the details of generating maps using the Mapnik map-rendering toolkit, and helps you to build a sophisticated web-based geo-spatial map editing application using GeoDjango, Mapnik, and PostGIS. By the end of the book, you will be able to integrate spatial features into your applications and build a complete mapping application from scratch.

This book is a hands-on tutorial, teaching you how to access, manipulate, and display geo-spatial data efficiently using a range of Python tools for GIS development.