This is an unmaintained course material, please see current material at:
Assignments: in class practice and homework
For formal requirements go to Course logistics.Technical requirements
Software
This course is using GRASS GIS and ArcGIS, see Course logistics for details.Data
Data are provided at three hierarchical levels:- entire NC state with raster data at 500m resolution: region nc_500m
- South-west Wake County with raster data at resolutions 30m-10m: region swwake_10m
- small watershed in rural area with data resolutions of 1m-3m: rural_1m
- See more at GRASSbook datasets description
Download:
- GRASS GIS location nc_spm_08_grass7 (this is the same data set as North_Carolina provided during installation of GRASS GIS on MS Windows)
- ArcGIS geodatabase ncrast_geodatabase_08_31_09 and ncshape_geodatabase_02_15_10
Instructions:
- Create folders for your GIS data in a directory where you have permissions to write, for example:
- MS Windows: C:\Users\myname\grassdata and C:\Users\myname\arcdata
- Mac OS or Linux: ideally in your home directory, e.g. /home/myname/grassdata
- After downloading, unpack the datasets and copy GRASS GIS location into grassdata and ArcGIS geodatabase into arcdata
- Important: make sure that your unpacking software does not create additional directory with the same name, e.g. on MS Windows you typically get nc_spm_08_grass7\nc_spm_08_grass7, the instructions assume that you deal with this after unpacking)
- GRASS LOCATION in Geographic coordinates WGS84. (55MB),
- GRASS LOCATION in State Plane coordinates, in feet (8MB),
- 2013 Raleigh lidar survey, tile 073_016, point cloud in las format (22MB),
- in asci xyzirnc format (22MB)
1. Explore the provided data set
- Approach: GRASS solution, ArcGIS solution
- Homework: Prepare short paper describing general properties of provided data set (coordinate system, resolutions, spatial extents, etc.)
- Comments/answers to HW questions
2. Geospatial data models and visualization
2.A. Geospatial data models
2.B. Data display and visualization
- Approach: GRASS solution, ArcGIS solution
- Screen captures for 3D visualization with wxnviz in GRASS6.4.3RC2:
- Homework: Prepare paper on geospatial data models and their conversions (changing raster resolution, vector data type, raster to vector and vector to raster) issues, methods, results. Also describe methods and results for graphical representation of continuous and discrete geospatial data. Demonstrate the use of multiple surfaces for visual analysis of the difference between the bare ground surface and multiple return surface with vegetation.
- Comments/answers to HW questions
3. Geospatial Analysis
3.A. Global, zonal and focal operations, map algebra
3.B. Buffers, cost surfaces, least cost path
- Approach: GRASS solution, ArcGIS solution
- Homework: Prepare a paper on applications of global and zonal statistics, neighborhood operations and map algebra for analysis of continuous and discrete geospatial data. In this paper also explain and demonstrate the use of buffers and cost surfaces for solving proximity problems. Comment on specific results for the study area and given tasks.
- Comments/answers to HW questions
4. Spatial interpolation and approximation
4.A. Spatial interpolation and approximation I: methods
4.B. Spatial interpolation and approximation II: splines
- Approach: GRASS solution, ArcGIS solution
- Homework: Prepare a paper on impact of interpolation method and its parameters on the resulting surface including the properties of spline interpolation method, its parameters and measures of accuracy.
- Comments/answers to HW questions
5. Geomorphometry
5.A. Terrain modeling, working with point clouds
- Approach: GRASS solution, ArcGIS solution.
- The assignments use standard GIS tools to analyze the point clouds. Updates and links to specialized lidar data processing tools are provided in GRASS and ArcGIS solution webpages.
- Comments/answers to HW questions
5.B. Spatial and Temporal Terrain analysis
- Approach: GRASS solution, ArcGIS solution
- Homework: Prepare a paper on properties of lidar data and on computing topographic parameters from digital elevation models. Discuss how the topographic analysis methods and types of DEM influence the result. Describe results of elevation time series analysis.
- Comments/answers to HW questions
6. Viewshed, solar potential analysis
- Approach: GRASS solution, ArcGIS solution
- Homework: Prepare a paper on the results of viewshed computation and solar irradiation mapping. Note that this is a single assignment paper.
7. Hydrology and modeling geospatial processes
7.A. Flow routing, watershed analysis
7.B. Modeling Geospatial Processes: Hydrologic and erosion modeling
- Brief theoretical background (equations used to write map algebra expressions)
- Approach: GRASS solution, ArcGIS solution
- Optional: process based hydrologic modeling using path sampling method: SIMWE
- GRASS solution: SIMWE
- Homework: Prepare a paper where you compare different methods for flowrouting and watershed analysis, explain and discuss impact of model parameters and land use scenarios on spatial pattern and magnitude of erosion as simulated by simple GIS-based models.