Unleash the power of GRASS GIS at US-IALE 2017: Difference between revisions

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This is material for [[GRASS GIS at US-IALE 2017 Annual Meeting|US-IALE 2017]] workshop ''Unleash the power of GRASS GIS'' at held in Baltimore April 9, 2017. This workshop introduces GRASS GIS and processing capabilities relevant to landscape ecology.  
This is material for [[GRASS GIS at US-IALE 2017 Annual Meeting|US-IALE 2017]] workshop ''Unleash the power of GRASS GIS'' at held in Baltimore April 9, 2017. This workshop introduces GRASS GIS and processing capabilities relevant to landscape ecology.  

Revision as of 02:02, 23 March 2017

This is material for US-IALE 2017 workshop Unleash the power of GRASS GIS at held in Baltimore April 9, 2017. This workshop introduces GRASS GIS and processing capabilities relevant to landscape ecology.

GRASS GIS introduction

Here we provide an overview of the GRASS GIS project: grass.osgeo.org that might be helpful to review if you are a first time user. For this exercise it's not necessary to have a full understanding of how to use GRASS GIS. However, you will need to know how to place your data in the correct GRASS GIS database directory, as well as some basic GRASS functionality. Here we introduce main concepts necessary for running the tutorial:

Setting up GRASS for the tutorial

GRASS uses unique database terminology and structure (GRASS database) that are important to understand for the set up of this tutorial, as you will need to place the required data (e.g. Location) in a specific GRASS database. In the following we review important terminology and give step by step directions on how to download and place you data in the correct location.

Important GRASS directory terminology

  • A GRASS database consists of directory with specific Locations (projects) where data layer are stored
  • Location is a directory with data related to one geographic location or a project. All data within one Location has the same coordinate reference system.
  • Mapset is a collection of maps within Location, containing data related to a specific task, user or a smaller project

Creating a GRASS database for the tutorial

You need to create a GRASS database with the Mapset that we will use for the tutorial before we can run the FUTURES model. Please download the GRASS Location for the workshop, noting where the files are located on your local directory. Now, create (unless you already have it) a directory named grassdata (GRASS database) in your home folder (or Documents), unzip the downloaded data into this directory. You should now have a Location futures_ncspm in grassdata.

Launching and exploring data in GRASS

Now that we have the data in the correct GRASS database, we can launch the Graphical User Interface (GUI) in Mapset practice1. The GUI interface allows you to display raster, vector data as well as navigate through zooming in and out. Advanced exploration and visualization, like many popular GIS software, is also possible in GRASS (e.g. queries, adding legend). The print screens below depicts how you can add different map layers (left) and display the metadata of your data layers.

GRASS functionality

One of the advantages of GRASS is the diversity and number of modules that let you analyze all manner of spatial and temporal. GRASS GIS has over 500 different modules in the core distribution and over 230 addon modules that can be used to prepare and analyze data layers.

Prefix Function Example
r.* raster processing r.mapcalc: map algebra
v.* vector processing v.clean: topological cleaning
i.* imagery processing i.segment: object recognition
db.* database management db.select: select values from table
r3.* 3D raster processing r3.stats: 3D raster statistics
t.* temporal data processing t.rast.aggregate: temporal aggregation
g.* general data management g.rename: renames map
d.* display d.rast: display raster map

Command line vs. GUI interface

GRASS modules can be executed either through a GUI or command line interface. The GUI offers a user-friendly approach to executing modules where the user can navigate to data layers that they would like to analyze and modify processing options with simple check boxes. The GUI also offers an easily accessible manual on how to execute a model. The command line interface allows users to execute a module using command prompts specific to that module. This is handy when you are running similar analyses with minor modification or are familiar with the module commands for quick efficient processing. In this workshop we provide module prompts that can be copy and pasted into the command line for our workflow, but you can use both GUI and command line depending on personal preference. Look how GUI and command line interface represent the same tool.
Task: compute aspect (orientation) from provided digital elevation model using module r.slope.aspect using both module dialog and command line.

  • How to find modules? Modules are organized by their functionality in wxGUI menu, or we can search for them in Search modules tab. If we already know which module to use, we can just type it in the wxGUI command console.
  • Modules can be found in wxGUI menu

    Modules can be found in wxGUI menu

  • You can search modules by name, description or keywords in Search modules tab

    You can search modules by name, description or keywords in Search modules tab

  • By typing prefix r. we make a list of modules starting with that prefix to show up.

    By typing prefix r. we make a list of modules starting with that prefix to show up.

Computational region

Computational region - is an important raster concept in GRASS GIS. In GRASS a computational region can be set, subsetting larger extent data for quicker testing of analysis or analysis of specific regions based on administrative units. We provide a few points to keep in mind when using the computational region function:

  • defined by region extent and raster resolution
  • applies to all raster operations
  • persists between GRASS sessions, can be different for different mapsets
  • advantages: keeps your results consistent, avoid clipping, for computationally demanding tasks set region to smaller extent, check your result is good and then set the computational region to the entire study area and rerun analysis
  • run g.region -p or in menu Settings - Region - Display region to see current region settings
Simple ways to set computational region from GUI. On the left, set region to match raster map. On the right, select the highlighted option and then set region by drawing rectangle.

GRASS 3D view

We can explore our study area in 3D view.

  1. Add elevation_30m and uncheck or remove any other layers.
  2. Zoom to an area around Asheville and in Map Display select Various zoom options - Set computational region extent from display. Switch to 3D view (in the right corner on Map Display).
  3. Adjust the view (perspective, height, vertical exaggeration)
  4. In Data tab, set Fine mode resolution to 1 and set landuse_2011 as the color of the surface.
  5. When finished, switch back to 2D view.
Land cover 2011 draped over elevation

Raster and vector analysis

Landscape structure analysis

Lidar data processing

Spatio-temporal data handling and visualization

Scripting with Python

Scripting with R