Free and Open Source Geospatial Software

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Free and Open Source Geospatial Software

• Helena Mitasova
• Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric
  Sciences
• North Carolina State University

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Free and Open Source Software Session at NCSU
FOSS Fair 2008

• Helena Mitasova What is OSGeo and where you can
  learn GRASS GIS
• Eric Hardin What you can do with GRASS6
• Doug Newcomb Processing massive lidar data with
  GRASS for NC canopy height mapping
• Helena, Eric, others GRASS applications for
  coastal erosion mapping and environmental
  modeling

GRASS GIS
Open Source Geospatial
Foundation
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What is Free and Open Source Software

• free to run, study, modify and distribute
• free means freedom matter of liberty not price
• it can be commercial but not proprietary
• open community of developers and users
• flexible, interoperable and portable

Different from OGC (was Open GIS) - Open
Geospatial Consortium sets standards for
interoperability (similar to Open GL) both
proprietary and open source software follows
these standards where it is good for them
GRASS GIS
Open Source Geospatial
Foundation
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What is Geospatial Software

• integration, management, analysis, modeling and
  visualization of data that are referenced to
  Earth
• diverse applications - business planning,
  elections, environmental modeling, disaster
  management, navigation, epidemiology, location
  based services, utilities, energy, .
• complex tools for professionals (ArcGIS, GRASS
  GIS, ERDAS, OSSIM, ), easy to use viewing and
  mapping tools for citizens (Google, GPS
  visualizer)

GRASS GIS
Open Source Geospatial
Foundation
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Open Source Geospatial Foundation

• Motivation by 2005 there was more than 200
  foss4g projects need for selection and
  organization
• Founding projects (February 2006)
• GDAL/OGR, GeoTools, GRASS, Mapbender, MapBuilder,
  MapGuide Open Source (Autodesk), MapServer, OSSIM
• Mission To support the development of open
  source
• geospatial software and promote its widespread
  use.
• Google Summer of Code
• Google has provided funding (4500 per student)
  for the selected projects in 2007 and 2008

GRASS GIS

Open Source Geospatial Foundation
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Example Desktop System

Portability, interoperability
Spatial Analysis Modeling
GRASS
GRASS GIS
Open Source Geospatial
Foundation
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WebGIS integrated services

Raster
Oracle Sp.
Vector/DBMI
PostGIS
ArcSDE
Raster GeoTIFF, IMG, ...
Vector SHAPE, MapInfo,...
PyWPS implementation of OGS Web Processing
Service standard in Python programming language.
it has native support for GRASS GIS
GRASS GIS
Open Source Geospatial
Foundation
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GRASS desktop FOSSGIS

• 1984 developed at USArmy CERL as land management
  support system, evolved into general purpose GIS
• 1999 GPL, international team of developers
• Portable all common OS, 32/64bit, code in C
• Interoperability through GDAL
• Web-based infrastructure SVN with on-line source
  code browser, bug reports, users and programmers
  manual, wiki, IRC
• Commercial support

GRASS GIS
Open Source Geospatial
Foundation
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GRASS at NCSU

MEA592 Geospatial Analysis and Modeling Core
course in MS Geospatial Information Science and
Technology (GIST) Counts towards GIS certificate,
GIS minor Topics Data acquisition,
integration, display and 3D visualization
Geospatial Analysis map algebra, cost surfaces,
shortest path Terrain Modeling and Analysis
(Geomorphometry I-III) Flow tracing, Watershed
Analysis and Landforms I-II Modeling of
Geospatial Processes and Tangible GIS
GRASS GIS
Open Source Geospatial
Foundation
10
GRASS at NCSU

MEA592 Geospatial Analysis and Modeling Hands on
assignments in Center for Earth Observation
Classroom
GRASS GIS
Open Source Geospatial
Foundation
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GRASS at NCSU Tangible GIS

3D land use exploration and design scanning the
model, projecting data and simulation
results 2-3 students can work together
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Real-world and model DEMs

scanned model-based 1mm (2m) DEMs with
modifications and their impact on runoff
lidar-based 2m DEM 2001
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Building TanGIS at the VISSTA lab
3D scanners projectors 3D display
workstations web cameras flexible models
GIS
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Integrated dynamic virtual model
Real-time data from terrestrial sensors ISCO
samplers, Econet weather station StarDot
webcams, Leica laser scanner imagery
GIS OSGEO software stack integration analysis mod
eling

• Tangible GIS
• Overlay and analyze
• - real-time data and
• simulation results
• over the physical model
• Create
• new development scenarios
• new BMP configurations

Multitemporal geospatial data multiple return
airborne lidar, high resolution orthophoto,
multispectral imagery
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More Open Source GIS at NCSU

• MEA6XX Advanced Geospatial Modeling
• Elective course in MS Geospatial Information
  Science and Technology (GIST),GIS certificate,
  GIS minor
• Topics
• working with OSGeo software stack
• downloading from SVN and compiling from source
• contributing to the project as power user
• contributing add-ons
• advanced applications for environment and energy

Advanced Geospatial Modeling