Foreword

It has been my pleasure to witness the development of both this book, Mastering QGIS, and the QGIS software in the past 12 months. Who could have predicted the rapid development and adoption of QGIS in such a short time? QGIS is now on a par, in terms of its functionality and features, with the best of commercial GIS application software. With an aggressive code development schedule of quarterly updates, the QGIS project is adding new features faster than most GIS professionals can keep pace. To help with the dire need for professional training, this book has been created to provide you with the concise technical expertise that will serve you well, both now and in future versions of this powerful GIS software. I have enjoyed the privilege of working closely with the contributing authors of this book for the past 2 years. We have been engaged in an intense curriculum development process to create the first-ever national GIS curriculum that is based around a national standard—the U.S. Department of Labor's Geospatial Technology Competency Model (GTCM). This effort has resulted in a series of GIS courses, all based around QGIS, that provide a solid foundation upon which this book can be used to enhance your technical skills. Each of the contributing authors is a very experienced GIS professional and many of them serve as instructors for highly respected academic GIS programs. Dr. Richard (Rick) Smith, a certified GIS Professional (GISP), serves as an assistant professor for the Geographic Information Science program at Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi, Texas, USA. Rick has been onboard the curriculum effort since day one, where his expertise in GIS and cartography is highlighted. Kurt Menke is a certified GIS Professional (GISP) and operates his own GIS consulting business (Bird's Eye View GIS) in New Mexico, USA, where he teaches open source GIS software at the local college and universities. Kurt is well respected in both conservation and healthcare GIS and has completed numerous GIS projects in these disciplines. Dr. John Van Hoesen (GISP) serves as an associate professor of geology and is the Environmental Studies Community Mapping Lab Director at Green Mountain College in Vermont, USA. His passions include open source software, environmental science, and the great outdoors, where he leads students in the discovery of our natural world. Luigi Pirelli, from Spain, is a core contributor to QGIS and a contributing author of this book.

He provided us with the chapters on programming for QGIS. A huge thanks to our most capable editor, Samantha Gonsalves, for her management during the creation of this book. A former systems engineer at Infosys in Mumbai, India, and now an editor for Packt Publishing, her leadership kept the team on a tight deadline to complete Mastering QGIS while maintaining the highest editorial standards. For all of us, it has been a fascinating and rewarding experience and now you hold the results of our effort in your hands. Best wishes for success on Mastering QGIS, now and in the future!

Phillip Davis

Director, National Information Security & Geospatial Technology Consortium,

Del Mar College,

Texas, USA