GRASS Short Course

The participants will learn how to use GRASS 5.7, how to define own locations for various projections, analyse and correct external spatial data (GeoTIFF, SHAPE etc), how to do image geocoding and classification, how to derive parameters from elevation models and do statistical analysis in R with data directly read from GRASS and PostgreSQL. The slides will be made available printed.

Short Course Outline

1. Introduction to GRASS, Sample session (29 Sept 2003, 9:30-12)
2. Projections and coordinate systems, Location definition (30 Sept 2003, 15:15-18)
3. GDAL, OGR and Import into GRASS (13 Oct 2003, 14:30-17)
4. Image processing (21 Oct 2003, 14:30-17)
5. DEM processing (27 Oct 2003, 9:30-12 )
6. GRASS, R-stats and PostgreSQL (3 Nov 2003, 9:30-12 )

Material/Requirements

Session	Topics	Required Software	Required Datasets	Recommended Reading	Session Notes
Session 1: Intro	Intro Free Software, GRASS web site: where to download, docs, mailing lists etc, Intro KDE, shell commands, download "spearfish" + install, Using GRASS 5.7 with Spearfish location, 'd.m' (display manager) with raster + vector maps, NVIZ	Have GRASS 5.7 installed download for Mac OSX (new 10/10/2003) download for Linux (new 10/10/2003)	Install sample data set SPEARFISH data set (9.7MB size, UTM projection, Clarke66 ellipsoid, NAD27 conus)	Have an idea about GIS; read this GRASS General Info page	Notes 1
Session 2: Proj. + GRASS Locations	Introduction to Projections and coordinate systems, general intro cylindrical, conic, azimuthal projections, what's Lat/Long, what's UTM, what's Gauss-Boaga, Geodetic Datum definition, use of 'cs2cs' (for points) + EPGS table, defining GRASS location (all 3 LL, UTM, GB), verification with 'g.region -l', import of vector map into Lat/Long, reprojection to UTM and GB	Have PROJ4 installed with 'cs2cs' program (as it is already a requirement for installing GRASS 5.7, so it should be already done).	Please also copy: sample vector map in SHAPE format	Take a look at the PROJ web sites (see at page bottom)	Notes 2
Session 3: GDAL/OGR/Import	Raster management tools: gdalinfo + gdal_translate, Vector management tools: ogrinfo + ogr2ogr, Raster reprojection: gdalwarp, Vector reprojection: ogr2ogr, GRASS/Raster import: r.in.gdal, GRASS/vector import: v.in.ogr, import of own data into GRASS (supervised), Intro GRASS 5.7 vector data and DBMS	Have GDAL/OGR installed which provides 'gdalinfo', 'gdal_translate', 'gdalwarp[test]', 'ogrinfo', 'ogr2ogr' and more (as it is already a requirement for installing GRASS 5.7, it should be present in the system).	Please also copy: this image map and extra maps and aerial images for the Spearfish area.	Remember the differences between the various GIS formats Read Chapter 3 of the GRASS 5.0 online tutorial	Notes 3
Session 4: Image Proc.	Spearfish location, Import LANDSAT (from GLCF Maryland), Import aerial DOQ (already downloaded) - reprojection/rectification; - vector digitizing; - classification with i.smap (supervised); - reports on results; - image fusion with Brovey; - using temperature LANDSAT channel	-	Have Imagery data set (19.1MB size) installed (related image processing data for Spearfish) Also download LANDSAT-7 scene (all files, > 580MB) from GLCF Maryland Above LANDSAT-7 scene preprocessed to NAD27, ready for import	GRASS Book: Chapter 10 + 11 or your preferred image processing book (e.g. Schowengerdt)	Import of LANDSAT-7 data Notes 4
Session 5: DEM Proc.	raster map color tables, first order derivates: slope + aspect, second order derivates: curvatures + features, flow tracing, map algebra (r.mapcalc), cost surfaces, interpolation with RST (tips 'n tricks), Application: small project	-	-	GRASS Book: Chapter 5	Notes 5
Session 6: GRASS/R/PostgreSQL	Intro to R-stats, Intro to PostgreSQL, GRASS/R interface, Rdbi interface (R-PostgreSQL), reading raster maps from GRASS into R, exchanging data between PostgreSQL and R, lattice for nice plots, Application: LANDSAT-7 surf. temperature map vs. elevation	install notes session 6	-	GRASS Book: Chapter 13 (R section) and/or the R book of P. Dalgaard and the Bruce Momjian PostgreSQL book (see below)	Notes 6 Notes 7

Further reading

• GRASS:
  • GRASS books & tutorials
  • GRASS 5.7 online tutorial
• PROJ:
  • PROJ.4 - Cartographic Projections Library (See "Documentation" and G. Evenden's web site linked there)
  • Projections Transform List
  • Map Projection Overview by Peter H. Dana
  • Coordinate Systems Overview by Peter H. Dana
  • Geodetic Datum Overview by Peter H. Dana
  • Tutorial on Map Projections by Carlos A. Furuti
  • Cartografia Ufficiale Italiana IGMI (Gauss-Boaga etc) by Prof. Maria Brovelli
• R:
  • Online: R Contributed Documentation (English and non-english)
  • Short Introduction to Geostatistical and Spatial Data Analysis with GRASS and R statistical data language
  • Book: Peter Dalgaard. Introductory Statistics with R. Springer, 2002. ISBN 0-387-95475-9.
  • Book: William N. Venables and Brian D. Ripley. Modern Applied Statistics with S-Plus. Third Edition. Springer, 1999. ISBN 0-387-98825-4 (e.g. Time Series chapter)
  • Book: William N. Venables and Brian D. Ripley. Modern Applied Statistics with S. Fourth Edition. Springer, 2002. ISBN 0-387-95457-0.
• PostgreSQL:
  • Book:PostgreSQL: Introduction and Concepts by Bruce Momjian
  • PostgreSQL references