See http://justobjects.nl/moving-postgis-tables-from-the-public-schema-to-a-new-schema/ Instead of the default public schema where PostGIS and its meta-tables (geometry_columns and spatial_ref_sys) are installed one can use an explicit schema. One main reason, at least for me, is that PostgreSQL Schema’s allow me to make data dumps of the Schema…

postgis_schema_move.sql

-- Function to move all tables from old to new schema
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION 
       public.postgis_schema_move(old_schema varchar(32), 
         new_schema varchar(32)) RETURNS void AS $$
DECLARE
    row record;
BEGIN
    FOR row IN SELECT tablename FROM pg_tables 
            WHERE schemaname = old_schema and tablename != 'spatial_ref_sys' 
              AND tablename != 'geometry_columns'
    LOOP
        EXECUTE 'ALTER TABLE ' || quote_ident(old_schema) || '.' 
                 || quote_ident(row.tablename) || 
                    ' SET SCHEMA ' || new_schema || ';';
        EXECUTE 'UPDATE public.geometry_columns 
                 SET f_table_schema = ' || quote_literal(new_schema) || 
                  ' WHERE f_table_schema = ' || quote_literal(old_schema) ||' 
                    AND f_table_name = ' || quote_literal(row.tablename) || ';';
    END LOOP;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

-- Function to move single table from old to new schema
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION 
       public.postgis_table_move(old_schema varchar(32), 
         new_schema varchar(32), target_table varchar(32)) RETURNS void AS $$
BEGIN
  EXECUTE 'ALTER TABLE ' || quote_ident(old_schema) || '.' 
               || quote_ident(target_table) || 
                    ' SET SCHEMA ' || new_schema || ';';
  EXECUTE 'UPDATE public.geometry_columns 
                 SET f_table_schema = ' || quote_literal(new_schema) || 
                  ' WHERE f_table_schema = ' || quote_literal(old_schema) ||' 
                    AND f_table_name = ' || quote_literal(target_table) || ';';
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

-- EXAMPLES
-- Example: Move from public to schema app
-- SELECT public.postgis_schema_move('public', 'app');

-- Example: Move single table from public to schema app
-- SELECT public.postgis_table_move('public', 'app', 'mytable');