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Open source GIS: a GRASS GIS approach

Book · November 2008

DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-68574-8

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Markus Neteler Helena Mitasova

mundialis GmbH & Co. KG North Carolina State University
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OPEN SOURCE GIS
A GRASS GIS Approach

by

Markus Neteler
Istituto Trentino di Cultura (ITC-irst)
Italy

Helena Mitasova
North Carolina State University
U.S.A.

KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS

Boston / Dordrecht / London
Contents

List of Figures xiii

List of Tables xix
Foreword xxi
Preface xxv
Acknowledgments xxvii
1. OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE AND GIS 1
1.1 Open Source concept 1
1.2 GRASS as an Open Source GIS 3
1.3 How to read this book - 4
2. PREREQUISITES TO USE GRASS 7
2.1 Hardware and software requirements 7
2.2 UNIX basics 8
2.2.1 What is UNIX? 8
2.2.2 Login and X Window 9
2.2.3 Managing files 11
2.2.4 Running applications 15
2.3 Downloading and installing GRASS 19
3. GIS CONCEPTS AND GRASS 21
3.1 General GIS principles 21
3.1.1 Geospatial data models 21
3.1.2 Organization of GIS data 25
3.1.3 GIS functionality 26
3.2 Introduction to GRASS 27
3.2.1 Organization of the GRASS database 27
3.2.2 • Command structure " 29
3.2.3 A short GRASS sample session 31
3.2.4 GRASS file management 34
viii OPEN SOURCE GIS

4. PLANNING A GRASS DATABASE

4.1 Map projections and coordinate systems
4.1.1 Map proj ection principles
4.1.2 Geographic coordinate system: latitude-longitude
4.1.3 Universal Transverse Mercator Grid System
4.1.4 Lambert Conformal Conic Projection based systems
4.1.5 Gauss-Kruger Grid System
4.1.6 North American and European Datums
4.2 Working with different projections in GRASS
4.2.1 Creating a new LOCATION
4.2.2 Coordinate system transformations
5. WORKING WITH RASTER DATA 59
5.1 GRASS raster data model 59
5.2 Import and export of raster data 63
5.2.1 Importing raster data 63
5.2.2 Importing and geocoding of scanned maps 67
5.2.3 Exporting raster data 73
5.3 Viewing and managing raster map layers 73
5.3.1 Displaying raster data and assigning a color table 74
5.3.2 Raster map queries and profiles 75
5.3.3 Zooming and generating subsets from raster maps 76
5.3.4 Managing metadata of raster maps " 78
5.3.5 Reclassification of raster maps 79
5.3.6 Assigning category labels 82
5.3.7 Masking and handling of no-data values 85
5.4 Raster map algebra 87
5.5 Raster data transformation and interpolation 94
5.5.1 Automated vectorization of discrete raster data 94
5.5.2 Generating isolines representing continuous fields 95
5.5.3 Raster data transformation to sites model 96
5.5.4 Interpolation of raster data and resampling 97
5.5.5 Recoding of raster map types and value replacements 99
5.6 Spatial analysis with raster data 100
5.6.1 Map statistics and neighborhood analysis 100
5.6.2 Overlaying and merging raster maps 104
5.6.3 Buffering of raster features 107
5.6.4 Cost surfaces 108
5.6.5 DEM and watershed analysis - 112
5.6.6 Landscape structure analysis and modeling 118
Contents ix

6. WORKING WITH VECTOR DATA •• 121

6.1 GRASS vector data model, 121
6.2 Importing and exporting vector data 123
6.2.1 Importing vector data 123
6.2.2 Exporting vector data 131
6.3 Digitizing vector data 133
6.3.1 General principles for digitizing topological data 134
6.3.2 Digitizing in GRASS 135
6.4 Metadata and attributes management 141
6.4.1 Managing metadata of vector maps 142
6.4.2 Map attributes modifications 142
6.5 Viewing and analysis 143
6.5.1 Displaying vector map layers 143
6.5.2 Intersecting and clipping vector maps 144
6.5.3 Map reclassification 146
6.5.4 Feature extraction from vector data 147
6.6 Vector data transformation to/from raster and sites 148
6.6.1 Automatic vectorization of raster data 148
6.6.2 Discrete transformation of vector data to raster or sites 150
6.6.3 Interpolating raster surfaces from contour lines 151
7. WORKING WITH SITE DATA 155
7.1 GRASS site data model ' 155
7.2 Importing, creating and exporting sites 156
7.2.1 Importing site data 156
7.2.2 Digitizing site data 158
7.2.3 Generating site data within GRASS 159
7.2.4 Exporting site data 160
7.3 Viewing and managing site data 160
7.3.1 Displaying site data and creating subsets 161
7.3.2 Computing basic statistics . 161
7.4 Transformation from sites to rasters and spatial interpolation 163
7.4.1 Selecting an interpolation method 163
7.4.2 Interpolating with RST: tuning the parameters 167
7.4.3 Estimating accuracy 171
7.4.4 Interpolating large data sets (ft) 172
7.4.51 Surfaces with faults (ft) 175
7.4.6 Adding third variable: precipitation with elevation (ft) 178
7.4.7 Volume and volume-temporal interpolation (ft) 178
7.4.8 Geostatistics and splines 180
x OPEN SOURCE GIS

8. GRAPHICAL OUTPUT AND VISUALIZATION 183

8.1 Two-dimensional display and animation 183
8.1.1 Displaying map layers using the GRASS monitor 183
8.1.2 Creating a 2D shaded elevation map 186
8.1.3 Monitor output to PNG and HTML files (ft) 187
8.1.4 Animations in 2D space 189
8.2 Visualization in 3D space with NVIZ 190
8.2.1 Viewing multiple map layers 190
8.2.2 Querying and analyzing data in nviz 195
8.2.3 Creating animations in 3D space (ft) 196
8.2.4 Visualizing volumes (ft) 201
8.3 Creating hardcopy maps 203
8.3.1 Map generation with p s . map 203
8.3.2 Map design with Xfig and Sketch 204
9. SATELLITE IMAGE PROCESSING 207
9.1 Remote sensing basics 207
9.1.1 Spectrum and remote sensing 207
9.1.2 Satellite sensors 209
9.2 Satellite data import and export 212
9.2.1 Import of raw and geocoded satellite data 212
9.2.2 Export of multi-channel data sets 215
9.3 Understanding a satellite data set 215
9.3.1 Managing channels and colors 215
9.3.2 The feature space and image groups ., 219
9.4 Geometric and radiometric preprocessing 221
9.4.1 Geometric preprocessing 221
9.4.2 Radiometric preprocessing 228
9.4.3 Application: Deriving a surface temperature map from
thermal channel 234
9.5 Radiometric transformations and image enhancements 236
9.5.1 /Image ratios 236
9.5.2 ' Principal Component Transformation (ft) 237
9.5.3 Fourier Transformation (ft) 239
9.6 Geometric feature analysis 243
9.6.1 Matrix filter: Spatial convolution filtering 243
9.6.2 Edge detection 245
9.7 Image fusion - 246
9.7.1 Introduction to RGB and IHS color model 247
9.7.2 RGB color composites 248
Contents xi

9.7.3 Image fusion with IHS transformation 249

9.7.4 Image fusion with Brovey transformation 251
9.8 Thematic reclassification of satellite data 252
9.8.1 Unsupervised radiometric reclassification 254
9.8.2 Supervised radiometric reclassification 258
9.8.3 Supervised SMAP reclassification 261
10. PROCESSING OF AERIAL PHOTOS 263
10.1 Introduction to aerial photogrammetry 263
10.2 Orthophoto generation 266
10.2.1 From aerial photo to orthophoto 266
10.2.2 Aerial photo and LOCATIONS preparation 268
10.2.3 Orthophoto generation 270
10.3 Segmentation and pattern recognition for aerial images 278
11. NOTES ON GRASS PROGRAMMING 281
11.1 GRASS programming environment 281
11.1.1 Methods of GRASS programming 282
11.1.2 Level of integration 283
11.2 Script programming 283
11.3 Automated usage of GRASS 290
11.4 Notes on programming GRASS modules in C 292
12. USING GRASS: APPLICATION EXAMPLES 299
12.1 Erosion risk in Spearfish area 299
12.1.1 Computation of the LS factor 300
12.1.2 Estimating R, K, and C factors 305
12.1.3 Computing and analyzing erosion risk 306
12.2 GIS modeling for land management (ft) 309
12.2.1 Building the GIS database 310
12.2.2 Deriving new map layers 316
12.2.3 Land use analysis, problems and solutions 324
13. USING GRASS WITH OTHER OPEN SOURCE TOOLS (ft) 335
13.1 Geostatistics with GRASS and gstat 336
13.2 Spatial data analysis with GRASS and R 341
13.2.1 Spearfish data set analysis 343
13.2.2 Maas river bank soils data analysis 351
13.2.3 Using R in batch mode 361
13.3 GPS data handling ' 363
13.4 Maps in WWW: MapServer 364
References 369
xii OPEN SOURCE GIS

Appendices 377
A Summary of important GRASS commands 377
A. 1 Display commands 377
A.2 General commands 379
A.3 Image processing commands 380
A.4 Miscellaneous and map projection commands 381
A. 5 Postscript and PPM driver commands 382
A.6 Raster data commands 383
A.7 Site data commands 387
A.8 Vector data commands 388
B Supported GIS formats and projections 391
B. 1 Supported GIS data formats in GRASS 391
B.2 List of supported ellipsoids, datums and projections 392
C Customizing GRASS by environment variables 395
D Usage UNIX text tools for GIS data preparation 399
E Selected equations used in GRASS modules 403
E.I Basic Statistics 403
E.2 Interpolation 404
E.3 Topographic analysis 405
E.4 Insolation 410
F MapServer sample configuration 415
F.I MapServer definition file 415
F.2 MapServer HTML template 418

Index
421

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