GRASS Installation

Required elements

Create directory structure required for this tutorial

  $ mkdir ~/grass

  $ mkdir ~/grass/indata

Create GRASS location using SPEARFISH data to be able create new locations

  $ cd ~/grass
  $ tar zxf spearfish_grass60data-0.3.tar.gz

Start GRASS

  $ grass -text spearfish60/PERMANENT

Obtaining Data

We assume that one wants to create UK map. Following steps can be easily applied to other countries' data.

Country related GIS data can be obtained from Digital Chart of the World.

First create country related input directory

  $ mkdir ~/grass/indata/uk

Let's download UK data

go to Digital Chart of the World
click Europe link
choose United Kingdom in select box on the right and click Continue
page _Digital Chart of the World Layer Interface for United Kingdom_ will be displayed
click Download Data button
another page will be shown, mark checkboxes
- Populated Places (Polygon)
- Roads (Line)
- Rail Roads (Line)
click Continue
on new page click Compute Data
on new page you will be able to obtain set of data (<NUMBER> is part of filename with data exported by DCW)

  <NUMBER>.tar.Z

Importing data into GRASS is two fold step

One can create new location using another location. We will use SPEARFISH location to create UK location.

Start GRASS

  $ cd ~/grass
  $ grass -text spearfish60

Enter UK input data directory and unpack downloaded data from DCW

  $ cd indata/uk
  $ tar zxf <NUMBER>.tar.Z

You will have several files