8. Resources

A curated collection of resources, tutorials, and references for geospatial data visualization using free and open source tools.

Educational Resources & Blogs¶

1. Spatial Thoughts Excellent tutorials and courses on geospatial analysis, QGIS, and Python. High-quality content for both beginners and advanced users.

2. John Nelson - Mapping & Visualization While primarily focused on ArcGIS Pro, John Nelson’s mapping tutorials contain valuable principles and techniques applicable to QGIS and other FOSS tools. Note: Some specific tools are ArcGIS Pro-specific, but conceptual knowledge transfers well.

3. FOS Geospatial Tools Focused resources on geospatial concepts and practical applications for data visualization.

Python & Developer Resources¶

1. Qiusheng Wu’s GitHub (giswqs) Extensive collection of geospatial Python packages and tools, including:

   • leafmap - Interactive mapping library

   • typescript package

2. Official Documentation

   • GeoPandas Documentation - Working with geospatial data in Python

   • Rasterio Documentation - Raster data access and processing

   • GDAL/OGR Documentation - Geospatial data translation and processing

   • Folium Documentation - Interactive maps with Python

   • Leafmap Documentation - Geospatial analysis and interactive mapping

FOSS GIS Software¶

1. QGIS

   • Official Site: https://www.qgis.org/

   • QGIS User Guide

   • QGIS Python API (PyQGIS)

2. GDAL

   • Official Site: https://gdal.org/

   • Command-line tools for raster and vector data processing

   • Powerful for batch processing and automation

3. PostGIS

   • Spatial extension for PostgreSQL

   • Excellent for large-scale geospatial analysis

   • https://postgis.net/

4. GRASS GIS

   • Powerful raster and vector processing

   • https://grass.osgeo.org/

Data Visualization Libraries¶

1. Interactive Maps

   • Leafmap - Jupyter integration for interactive maps

   • Folium - Leaflet.js wrapper for Python

   • Plotly - Interactive charts and maps

   • Geopandas - Direct mapping integration

2. Static Visualization

   • Matplotlib - Foundational plotting library

   • Cartopy - Cartographic projections and mapping

   • Contextily - Background map tiles for matplotlib

3. Advanced Visualization

   • Seaborn - Statistical data visualization

   • Holoviews - Complex multidimensional data

   • Datashader - Large dataset visualization

Data Sources¶

1. Global Datasets

   • USGS Earth Explorer - Landsat, Sentinel imagery (https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/)

   • Google Earth Engine - Petabytes of geospatial data (https://earthengine.google.com/)

   • OpenStreetMap - Free geographic data (https://www.openstreetmap.org/)

   • Natural Earth Data - Natural and cultural datasets (https://www.naturalearthdata.com/)

   • Copernicus Climate Data - EU climate and environmental data (https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/)

2. Administrative Boundaries

   • Natural Earth Admin Boundaries - Countries and subdivisions

   • GADM - Global administrative divisions (https://gadm.org/)

   • UN World Boundaries - Official UN boundary data

3. Elevation & Terrain

   • SRTM - Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data

   • GEBCO - General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (https://www.gebco.net/)

   • OpenTopography - High-resolution topography data (https://www.opentopodata.org/)

Communities & Forums¶

• Stack Overflow - Tag: gis, python-gis, qgis

• GIS Stack Exchange - https://gis.stackexchange.com/

• QGIS Community - https://www.qgis.org/en/site/forusers/support.html

• Reddit: r/gis - Active GIS community, and r/geography** - Broader geographic discussions

• OSGeo Community - Open Source Geospatial Foundation (https://www.osgeo.org/)

Books & Publications¶

• Geospatial Analysis - 6th Edition by de Smith, Goodchild, and Longley

• Geographic Data Science with Python - by Sergio Rey, Dani Arribas-Bel, and Luc Anselin

• Raster and Vector Processing with GDAL - Various OSGEO tutorials

• The Art of Maps - Understanding cartography and visual communication

• Cartography and Geovisualization - Academic foundations

Useful Tools & Utilities¶

• GDAL Command Line Tools - gdalinfo, gdaltranslate, ogr2ogr

• shp2pgsql - Load shapefiles into PostGIS

• tippecanoe - Build vector tilesets from newline-delimited GeoJSON

• mapshaper - Simplify GeoJSON, shapefile, and CSV data (https://mapshaper.org/)

• geojson.io - Web-based GeoJSON editor (https://geojson.io/)

• QGIS Processing Toolbox - Integrated analysis workflows