Installing and Using PostGIS
This mini-tutorial is aimed at PostgreSQL users who want to learn more about PostGIS.
You should be familiar with SQL and the concepts around a relational database. No previous experience with GIS is required.
Some topics we'll cover:
- Installation (compiling, installing, and creating a postgis aware database template)
- Education about postigs/gis topics including:
- Geometry types
- Units of measurements
- Database design with postgis data types (ie, using the point type instead of storing lat/long in two separate columns)
- How to import large amounts of gis data (using the WKT, and EWKT formats for geographic objects)
- Table/Database Index optimization with GIS datatypes
- Common queries, such as:
- How far away is...
- Which points of interests are within N kms...
- What is the closest point of interest from another...
- Give me the length of...
- What is the area covered by...
- Does point A and point B intersect...
- Tools to visualize and QA your data
- Exporting your data from the database in other formats (GML, KML, etc..)
- Community resources
Users are welcome to follow along with their own instance of postgres during the tutorial.