Actual trees, not b-trees – or how I found PostgreSQL through PostGIS
Thursday, October 24 at 14:40–15:30
Some day, my neighbor came over and said „you work with computers, you can help me with my project…“ So my journey to PostgreSQL started. He wanted to create a web site that shows the trees he monitors including all the parameters on each tree he regularly collects and likewise, add all the trees of people like him who monitor trees all over Germany. The idea behind it is to show which types of trees can still cope with the changed climate and which ones struggle. This will allow those who need to replace dead trees a source of information to choose the right type of trees that will grow well in their area. I had not setup a database before so I informed myself on different types of databases. One main feature required was an efficient way to find objects based on their geolocation which lead me to PostGIS and therefore, I picked PostgreSQL. The next steps where to find out how to get the data into the database with several surprises (like e.g. buildings listed as trees) I got and how to show it on a map on a web site in an interactive way so that users can search for trees based on various criteria.
