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<chapter xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:id="postgis_introduction">
  <title>Introduction</title>

  <para>PostGIS is a spatial extension for the PostgreSQL relational database
	that was created by Refractions Research Inc, as a spatial
  database technology research project. Refractions is a GIS and database
  consulting company in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, specializing in
  data integration and custom software development.</para>

	<para>PostGIS is now a project of the OSGeo Foundation and is developed and funded by many FOSS4G developers and
     organizations all over the world that gain great benefit from its functionality and versatility.</para>
	<para>The PostGIS project development group plans on supporting and
  enhancing PostGIS to better support a range of important GIS functionality
	in the areas of OGC and SQL/MM spatial standards, advanced topological constructs (coverages,
  surfaces, networks), data source for desktop user interface tools for viewing and editing
  GIS data, and web-based access tools.</para>


  <section xml:id="psc">
	<title>Project Steering Committee</title>
	<para>
		The PostGIS Project Steering Committee (PSC) coordinates the general direction,
			release cycles, documentation, and outreach efforts for the PostGIS project.  In addition
			the PSC provides general user support, accepts and approves patches from the general PostGIS community
			and votes on miscellaneous issues involving PostGIS such as developer commit access, new PSC members
			or significant API changes.
	</para>
	<variablelist>
		<varlistentry>
			<term>Raúl Marín Rodríguez</term>
			<listitem>
				<para>MVT support, Bug fixing, Performance and stability improvements, GitHub curation,  alignment of
			PostGIS with PostgreSQL releases</para>
			</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

		<varlistentry>
		<term>Regina Obe</term>
		<listitem>
			<para>CI and website maintenance, Windows production and experimental builds, documentation, alignment of
			PostGIS with PostgreSQL releases, X3D support, TIGER geocoder support, management functions.</para>
		</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

		<varlistentry>
			<term>Darafei Praliaskouski</term>
			<listitem>
				<para>Index improvements, bug fixing and geometry/geography function improvements, SFCGAL, raster, GitHub curation, and ci maintenance.</para>
			</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

		<varlistentry>
		<term>Paul Ramsey (Chair)</term>
		<listitem>
			<para>Co-founder of PostGIS project.  General bug fixing, geography support,  geography and geometry index support (2D, 3D, nD index and anything spatial index), underlying geometry internal structures, GEOS functionality integration and alignment with
			GEOS releases, alignment of
			PostGIS with PostgreSQL releases, loader/dumper, and Shapefile GUI loader.</para>
		</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

		<varlistentry>
		<term>Sandro Santilli</term>
		<listitem>
			<para>Bug fixes and maintenance, ci maintenance, git mirror management, management functions, integration of new GEOS functionality and alignment with GEOS releases, topology support, and raster framework and low level API functions.</para>
		</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

	</variablelist>
  </section>
  <section xml:id="credits_core_present">
	<title>Core Contributors Present</title>
	<variablelist>
		<varlistentry>
			<term>Nicklas Avén</term>
			<listitem>
			  <para>Distance function enhancements (including 3D distance and relationship functions) and additions, Tiny WKB (TWKB) output format and general user support</para>
			</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

		<varlistentry>
			<term>Loïc Bartoletti</term>
			<listitem>
			  <para>SFCGAL enhancements and maintenance and ci support</para>
			</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

		<varlistentry>
			<term>Dan Baston</term>

			<listitem>
			  <para>Geometry clustering function additions, other geometry algorithm enhancements, GEOS enhancements and general user support</para>
			</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

		<varlistentry>
			<term>Martin Davis</term>
			<listitem>
			  <para>GEOS enhancements and documentation</para>
			</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

    	<varlistentry>
			<term>Björn Harrtell</term>

			<listitem>
			  <para>MapBox Vector Tile, GeoBuf, and Flatgeobuf functions. Gitea testing and GitLab experimentation.</para>
			</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

    	<varlistentry>
			<term>Aliaksandr Kalenik</term>

			<listitem>
			  <para>Geometry Processing, PostgreSQL gist, general bug fixing</para>
			</listitem>
		</varlistentry>
	</variablelist>
  </section>

  <section xml:id="credits_core_past">
	<title>Core Contributors Past</title>
	<variablelist>
		<varlistentry>
            <term>Bborie Park</term>
            <listitem>
                <para>Prior PSC Member. Raster development, integration with GDAL, raster loader, user support, general bug fixing, testing on various OS (Slackware, Mac, Windows, and more)</para>
            </listitem>
		</varlistentry>

		<varlistentry>
			<term>Mark Cave-Ayland</term>
			<listitem>
				<para>Prior PSC Member. Coordinated bug fixing and maintenance effort, spatial index selectivity and binding, loader/dumper, and Shapefile GUI Loader, integration of new
					and new function enhancements.</para>
			</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

		<varlistentry>
			<term>Jorge Arévalo</term>
			<listitem>
			  <para>Raster development, GDAL driver support, loader</para>
			</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

		<varlistentry>
			<term>Olivier Courtin</term>
			<listitem>
			  <para>(Emeritus) Input/output XML (KML,GML)/GeoJSON functions, 3D support and bug fixes.</para>
			</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

		<varlistentry>
		<term>Chris Hodgson</term>
		<listitem>
		  <para>Prior PSC Member. General development, site and buildbot maintenance, OSGeo incubation management</para>
		</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

		<varlistentry>
			<term>Mateusz Loskot</term>
			<listitem>
			  <para>CMake support for PostGIS, built original raster loader in python and low level raster API functions</para>
			</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

		<varlistentry>
		<term>Kevin Neufeld</term>
		<listitem>
		  <para>Prior PSC Member. Documentation and documentation support tools, buildbot maintenance, advanced user support
		  on PostGIS newsgroup, and PostGIS maintenance function enhancements.</para>
		</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

		<varlistentry>
		<term>Dave Blasby</term>

		<listitem>
		  <para>The original developer/Co-founder of PostGIS. Dave wrote the server side
		  objects, index bindings, and many of the server side analytical
		  functions.</para>
		</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

		<varlistentry>
		<term>Jeff Lounsbury</term>
		<listitem>
		  <para>Original development of the Shapefile loader/dumper.</para>
		</listitem>
		</varlistentry>


		<varlistentry>
		<term>Mark Leslie</term>
		<listitem>
		  <para>Ongoing maintenance and development of core functions.  Enhanced curve support. Shapefile GUI loader.</para>
		</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
			<term>Pierre Racine</term>
			<listitem>
			  <para>Architect of PostGIS raster implementation. Raster overall architecture, prototyping, programming support</para>
			</listitem>
		</varlistentry>

        <varlistentry>
			<term>David Zwarg</term>
			<listitem>
			  <para>Raster development (mostly map algebra analytic functions)</para>
			</listitem>
		</varlistentry>
	</variablelist>
</section>

<section xml:id="credits_other_contributors"><title>Other Contributors</title>
	<variablelist>
	  <varlistentry>
		<term>Individual Contributors</term>

		<listitem>
			<para>
				<simplelist type="vert" columns="3">
					<member>Alex Bodnaru</member>
					<member>Alex Mayrhofer</member>
					<member>Andrea Peri</member>
					<member>Andreas Forø Tollefsen</member>
					<member>Andreas Neumann</member>
					<member>Andrew Gierth</member>
					<member>Anne Ghisla</member>
					<member>Antoine Bajolet</member>
					<member>Arthur Lesuisse</member>
					<member>Artur Zakirov</member>
					<member>Barbara Phillipot</member>
					<member>Ben Jubb</member>
					<member>Bernhard Reiter</member>
					<member>Björn Esser</member>
					<member>Brian Hamlin</member>
					<member>Bruce Rindahl</member>
					<member>Bruno Wolff III</member>
					<member>Bryce L. Nordgren</member>
					<member>Carl Anderson</member>
					<member>Charlie Savage</member>
					<member>Chris Mayo</member>
					<member>Christian Schroeder</member>
					<member>Christoph Berg</member>
					<member>Christoph Moench-Tegeder</member>
					<member>Dane Springmeyer</member>
					<member>Dapeng Wang</member>
					<member>Daryl Herzmann</member>
					<member>Dave Fuhry</member>
					<member>David Garnier</member>
					<member>David Skea</member>
					<member>David Techer</member>
					<member>Dian M Fay</member>
					<member>Dmitry Vasilyev</member>
					<member>Eduin Carrillo</member>
					<member>Esteban Zimanyi</member>
					<member>Eugene Antimirov</member>
					<member>Even Rouault</member>
					<member>Florian Weimer</member>
					<member>Frank Warmerdam</member>
					<member>George Silva</member>
					<member>Gerald Fenoy</member>
					<member>Gino Lucrezi</member>
					<member>Greg Troxel</member>
					<member>Guillaume Lelarge</member>
					<member>Giuseppe Broccolo</member>
					<member>Han Wang</member>
					<member>Hans Lemuet</member>
					<member>Haribabu Kommi</member>
					<member>Havard Tveite</member>
					<member>IIDA Tetsushi</member>
					<member>Ingvild Nystuen</member>
					<member>Jackie Leng</member>
					<member>James Addison</member>
					<member>James Marca</member>
					<member>Jan Katins</member>
					<member>Jan Tojnar</member>
					<member>Jason Smith</member>
					<member>Jeff Adams</member>
					<member>Jelte Fennema</member>
					<member>Jim Jones</member>
					<member>Joe Conway</member>
					<member>Jonne Savolainen</member>
					<member>Jose Carlos Martinez Llari</member>
					<member>Jörg Habenicht</member>
					<member>Julien Rouhaud</member>
					<member>Kashif Rasul</member>
					<member>Klaus Foerster</member>
					<member>Kris Jurka</member>
					<member>Laurențiu Nicola</member>
					<member>Laurenz Albe</member>
					<member>Lars Roessiger</member>
					<member>Leo Hsu</member>
					<member>Loic Dachary</member>
					<member>Luca S. Percich</member>
					<member>Lucas C. Villa Real</member>
					<member>Maria Arias de Reyna</member>
					<member>Marc Ducobu</member>
					<member>Mark Sondheim</member>
					<member>Markus Schaber</member>
					<member>Markus Wanner</member>
					<member>Matt Amos</member>
					<member>Matt Bretl</member>
					<member>Matthias Bay</member>
					<member>Maxime Guillaud</member>
					<member>Maxime van Noppen</member>
					<member>Maxime Schoemans</member>
					<member>Megan Ma</member>
					<member>Michael Fuhr</member>
					<member>Mike Toews</member>
					<member>Nathan Wagner</member>
					<member>Nathaniel Clay</member>
					<member>Nikita Shulga</member>
					<member>Norman Vine</member>
					<member>Patricia Tozer</member>
					<member>Rafal Magda</member>
					<member>Ralph Mason</member>
					<member>Rémi Cura</member>
					<member>Richard Greenwood</member>
					<member>Robert Coup</member>
					<member>Roger Crew</member>
					<member>Ron Mayer</member>
					<member>Sam Peters</member>
					<member>Sebastiaan Couwenberg</member>
					<member>Sergei Shoulbakov</member>
					<member>Sergey Fedoseev</member>
					<member>Shinichi Sugiyama</member>
					<member>Shoaib Burq</member>
					<member>Silvio Grosso</member>
					<member>Stefan Corneliu Petrea</member>
					<member>Steffen Macke</member>
					<member>Stepan Kuzmin</member>
					<member>Stephen Frost</member>
					<member>Steven Ottens</member>
					<member>Talha Rizwan</member>
					<member>Teramoto Ikuhiro</member>
					<member>Tom Glancy</member>
					<member>Tom van Tilburg</member>
					<member>Victor Collod</member>
					<member>Vincent Bre</member>
					<member>Vincent Mora</member>
					<member>Vincent Picavet</member>
					<member>Volf Tomáš</member>
					<member>Zuo Chenwei</member>
				</simplelist>
			</para>
		</listitem>
	</varlistentry>

	  <varlistentry>
		<term>Corporate Sponsors</term>

		<listitem>
			<para>These are corporate entities that have contributed developer time, hosting, or direct monetary funding to the PostGIS project.
			      In alphabetical order:
			<itemizedlist>
                <listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://aiven.io">Aiven</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://arrival3d.com">Arrival 3D</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="http://gfoss.it">Associazione Italiana per l'Informazione Geografica Libera (GFOSS.it)</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.ausvet.com.au">AusVet</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Avencia</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.azavea.com">Azavea</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.boundlessgeo.com">Boundless</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.cadcorp.com">Cadcorp</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.camptocamp.com">Camptocamp</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://carto.com">Carto</link></simpara></listitem>
                <listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.crunchydata.com">Crunchy Data</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.boston.gov">City of Boston (DND)</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.hel.fi">City of Helsinki</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://blog.cleverelephant.ca">Clever Elephant Solutions</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.alveo.coop">Cooperativa Alveo</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="http://www.elecnor-deimos.com">Deimos Space</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.faunalia.eu">Faunalia</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://gov.bc.ca">Geographic Data BC</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.highgo.com">HighGo</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Hunter Systems Group</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://pti-agriambio.csic.es">>The National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA-CSIC)</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.isciences.com">ISciences, LLC</link></simpara></listitem>
                <listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.kontur.io">Kontur</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.lidwala.com">Lidwala Consulting Engineers</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.jirotech.com">LISAsoft</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Logical Tracking &amp; Tracing International AG</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Maponics</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="http://www.mtri.org">Michigan Tech Research Institute</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.nrcan.gc.ca">Natural Resources Canada</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.nibio.no/">Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO)</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.osgeo.org">OSGeo</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://oslandia.com">Oslandia</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.palantir.com">Palantir Technologies</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.paragoncorporation.com">Paragon Corporation</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.r3-gis.com">R3 GIS</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="http://www.refractions.net">Refractions Research</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.regione.toscana.it">Regione Toscana - SITA</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.safe.com">Safe Software</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Sirius Corporation plc</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="http://www.uster.ch">Stadt Uster</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.ucdavis.edu">UC Davis Center for Vectorborne Diseases</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.ulaval.ca">Université Laval</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://hiu.state.gov">U.S. Department of State (HIU)</link></simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara><link xlink:href="https://www.zonarsystems.com">Zonar Systems</link></simpara></listitem>
			</itemizedlist>
		</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>

	   <varlistentry>
		<term>Crowd Funding Campaigns</term>

		<listitem>
            <para>Crowd funding campaigns are campaigns we run to get badly wanted features funded that can service a large number of people.  Each campaign is specifically focused on a particular feature or set of features.  Each sponsor chips in a small fraction of the needed funding and with enough people/organizations contributing, we have the funds to pay for the work that will help many.  If you have an idea for a feature you think many others would be willing to co-fund, please post to the <link xlink:href="https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/postgis-users">PostGIS newsgroup</link> your thoughts and together we can make it happen. </para>
		  <para>PostGIS 2.0.0 was the first release we tried this strategy. We used <link xlink:href="http://www.pledgebank.com">PledgeBank</link> and we got two successful campaigns out of it.</para>
		  <para><link xlink:href="http://www.pledgebank.com/postgistopology"><emphasis role="bold">postgistopology</emphasis></link> - 10 plus sponsors each contributed $250 USD to build toTopoGeometry function and beef up topology support in 2.0.0. It happened.</para>
		 <para><link xlink:href="http://www.pledgebank.com/postgis64windows"><emphasis role="bold">postgis64windows</emphasis></link> - 20 someodd sponsors each contributed $100 USD to pay for the work needed to work out PostGIS 64-bit issues on windows. It happened.</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>

	  <varlistentry>
		<term>Important Support Libraries</term>

		<listitem>
		  <para>The <link xlink:href="https://libgeos.org">GEOS</link>
		  geometry operations library</para>

		  <para>The <link xlink:href="https://gdal.org">GDAL</link>
		  Geospatial Data Abstraction Library used to
		  power much of the raster functionality introduced in PostGIS 2. In kind, improvements needed in GDAL
		  to support PostGIS are contributed back to the GDAL project.</para>

		  <para>The <link xlink:href="https://www.proj4.org">PROJ</link>
		  cartographic projection library</para>

		  <para>Last but not least, <link xlink:href="http://www.postgresql.org">PostgreSQL</link>,
		  the giant that PostGIS stands on.  Much of the speed and flexibility of PostGIS would not be possible without
		  the extensibility, great query planner, GIST index, and plethora of SQL features provided by PostgreSQL.</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>
	</variablelist>
  </section>

</chapter>
