Top 5 Best PostGIS Books To Read in [2024] UPDATED

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PostGIS is one of the world’s leading spatial databases, created as a geographic extension for PostgreSQL that integrates the advanced storage and analysis of vector and raster data, and is remarkably flexible and powerful. With it, users are able to manipulate and visualize spatial data incredibly effectively and efficiently.

But learning PostGIS can be a hassle with so few free tutorials online. Thankfully books are always a safe bet, and in this post I’ll share my pick for the top 5 best PostGIS books you can get.

Best PostGIS Books You Should Read

  1. PostGIS in Action
  2. PostGIS Essentials
  3. PostGIS Cookbook
  4. Mastering PostGIS
  5. PostgreSQL: Up and Running

 

1. PostGIS in Action

best PostGIS Books to readProcessing data tied to location and topology requires specialized know-how. PostGIS is a free spatial database extender for PostgreSQL, every bit as good as proprietary software. With it, you can easily create location-aware queries in just a few lines of SQL code and build the back end for a mapping, raster analysis, or routing application with minimal effort.

Familiarity with relational database and GIS concepts is helpful but not required.

PostGIS in Action, teaches readers of all levels to write spatial queries that solve real-world geodata problems. It first gives you a background in vector, raster, and topology based GIS and then quickly moves into analyzing, viewing, and mapping data.

You’ll learn how to optimize queries for maximum speed, simplify geometries for greater efficiency, and create custom functions for your own applications. You’ll also learn how to apply your existing GIS knowledge to PostGIS and integrate with other GIS tools.

This book covers PostGIS 2.0 and 2.1 series, PostgreSQL 9.1, 9.2, and 9.3 features, and shows you how to integrate with other GIS tools.

 

2. PostGIS Essentials

best Books to learn PostGISThis book is a quick guide for anyone who wants to get started with PostGIS and develop their very own GIS projects quickly.

PostGIS Essentials introduces you to the fundamentals of PostGIS, giving you easy access to one of the most popular and powerful spatial databases available today. You will begin by learning how to install and successfully set up PostGIS before covering how to create your first spatial database.

The book will then help you to develop your skills further as you will learn how to insert GIS objects as well as how to select and filter GIS queries with clear and practical information. You will then learn how to display GIS data graphically and create effective visualizations. The book concludes with tips, tricks, and techniques to help you optimize PostGIS and improve the performance of your database.

What You Will Learn:

  • Install and configure PostGIS and other useful open source tools such as QGIS and GDAL for working with spatial data
  • Create spatial databases and tables from scratch and develop spatial queries through practical examples
  • Obtain useful spatial data from public and free sources and insert and manage this data to be useful with your data tables
  • Familiarize yourself with the fundamental concepts in PostGIS and spatial databases
  • Visualize the data stored in your tables and combine it with other data sources to create beautiful graphical solutions using QGIS
  • Use the GDAL spatial library to transform and reproject from a wide range of data formats such as vectorial and raster geospatial data formats
  • How to develop a complete GIS application from scratch by implementing the concepts learned in the book

 

3. PostGIS Cookbook

best books to learn Post GISThis book is for developers who need some quick solutions for PostGIS. Prior knowledge of PostgreSQL and spatial concepts would be an added advantage.

If you want to explore the complete range of PostGIS techniques and expose related extensions, then this book is for you.

This book is a comprehensive guide to PostGIS tools and concepts which are required to manage, manipulate, and analyze spatial data in PostGIS. It covers key spatial data manipulation tasks, explaining not only how each task is performed, but also why.

It provides practical guidance allowing you to safely take advantage of the advanced technology in PostGIS in order to simplify your spatial database administration tasks. Furthermore, you will learn to take advantage of basic and advanced vector, raster, and routing approaches along with the concepts of data maintenance, optimization, and performance, and will help you to integrate these into a large ecosystem of desktop and web tools.

By the end, you will be armed with all the tools and instructions you need to both manage the spatial database system and make better decisions as your project’s requirements evolve.

What You Will Learn:

  • Import and export geographic data from the PostGIS database using the available tools
  • Structure spatial data using the functionality provided by a combination of PostgreSQL and PostGIS
  • Work with a set of PostGIS functions to perform basic and advanced vector analyses
  • Connect PostGIS with Python
  • Learn to use programming frameworks around PostGIS
  • Maintain, optimize, and fine-tune spatial data for long-term viability
  • Explore the 3D capabilities of PostGIS, including LiDAR point clouds and point clouds derived from Structure from Motion (SfM) techniques
  • Distribute 3D models through the Web using the X3D standard
  • Use PostGIS to develop powerful GIS web applications using Open Geospatial Consortium web standards
  • Master PostGIS Raster

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4. Mastering PostGIS

PostGIS Best BooksA comprehensive guide with hands-on examples. The aim of this book is to help you master the functionalities offered by PostGIS- from data creation, analysis and output, to ETL and live edits.

The book begins with an overview of the key concepts related to spatial database systems and how it applies to Spatial RMDS. You will learn to load different formats into your Postgres instance, investigate the spatial nature of your raster data, and finally export it using built-in functionalities or 3rd party tools for backup or representational purposes.

Through the course of this book, you will be presented with many examples on how to interact with the database using JavaScript and Node.js. Sample web-based applications interacting with backend PostGIS will also be presented throughout the book, so you can get comfortable with the modern ways of consuming and modifying your spatial data.

 

5. PostgreSQL: Up and Running

Best PostGIS Books for beginnersThinking of migrating to PostgreSQL? This clear, fast-paced introduction helps you understand and use this open source database system. Not only will you learn about the enterprise class features in versions 9.5 to 10, you’ll also discover that PostgeSQL is more than a database system-it’s an impressive application platform as well.

With examples throughout, this book shows you how to achieve tasks that are difficult or impossible in other databases.

This third edition covers new features, such as ANSI-SQL constructs found only in proprietary databases until now: foreign data wrapper (FDW) enhancements; new full text functions and operator syntax introduced in version 9.6; XML constructs new in version 10; query parallelization features introduced in 9.6 and enhanced in 10; built-in logical replication introduced in Version 10.e.

If you’re a current PostgreSQL user, you’ll pick up gems you may have missed before.

  • Learn basic administration tasks such as role management, database creation, backup, and restore
  • Apply the psql command-line utility and the pgAdmin graphical administration tool
  • Explore PostgreSQL tables, constraints, and indexes
  • Learn powerful SQL constructs not generally found in other databases
  • Use several different languages to write database functions
  • Tune your queries to run as fast as your hardware will allow
  • Query external and variegated data sources with foreign data wrappers
  • Learn how to use built-in replication to replicate data