Geographic information system

As explained in Just Use Postgres!

A geographic information system is software for working with, analyzing, and visualizing geographically referenced data.

A geographic information system (GIS) loads, analyzes, edits, and visualizes geographically referenced data. It commonly combines datasets as layers, placing roads, buildings, boundaries, businesses, demographics, and environmental conditions on a shared map. section 10.1

Choosing a grocery-store location

Whole Foods can combine Miami boundaries, roads, buildings, existing stores, competitors, sociodemographic data, traffic, flooding, and surf history. Overlaying these layers helps identify promising areas, estimate customer and delivery access, and plan for environmental risks. section 10.1

A GIS supports practical geospatial workflows such as:

• Loading geographic datasets into a shared map. section 10.1
• Analyzing relationships among physical, commercial, demographic, and environmental layers. section 10.1
• Editing and visualizing database-backed geometries through QGIS. section 10.4

Figure 10.1 Configuring a PostGIS connection in QGIS

Use the connection configuration as a practical starting point for linking QGIS to a PostGIS database. section 10.4

How Just Use Postgres! covers it

How deep it goes

Explains layered analysis and demonstrates QGIS connections and rendering, without detailing GIS algorithms or administration.

Examples

Uses Whole Foods site selection in Miami and QGIS maps of Florida polygon and point tables.

What you can do after

Apply it via QGIS to connect to PostGIS and visualize database-backed geographic layers.

How it connects

Connects GIS with geodata, map layers, PostGIS, PostgreSQL, QGIS, and geospatial database tables.

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Related concepts

• geospatialuses · Geospatial refers to data or computation representing geographic locations, geometries, attributes, or spatial relationships on or near Earth’s surface.
• spatial informationuses · Spatial information is information about positions, geometries, or spatial relationships among entities in physical or abstract space.
• mapuses · A map is a visual representation of geographic features or other spatially located entities and their locations, relationships, or attributes.
• PostGISused by · PostGIS is a PostgreSQL extension that provides geospatial data types, functions, indexing, and query capabilities.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Just Use Postgres!. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.