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NAME

       rasterintro - Raster data processing

       Raster data processing

Raster data processing in GRASS GIS

   Raster maps in general
       A  "raster  map" is a data layer consisting of a gridded array of cells.  It has a certain
       number of rows and columns, with a data point (or null  value  indicator)  in  each  cell.
       These  may  exist as a 2D grid or as a 3D cube made up of many smaller cubes, i.e. a stack
       of 2D grids.

       The geographic boundaries of the raster map are described by the north, south,  east,  and
       west fields. These values describe the lines which bound the map at its edges. These lines
       do NOT pass through the center of the grid cells at the edge of the  map,  but  along  the
       edge  of  the map itself.  i.e. the geographic extent of the map is described by the outer
       bounds of all cells within the map.

       As a general rule in GRASS:

       1
               Raster output maps have their bounds and resolution equal to those of the  current
              computational region.

       2
               Raster  input  maps  are automatically cropped/padded and rescaled (using nearest-
              neighbour resampling) to match the current region.

       3
               Raster input maps are automatically masked if a raster map named MASK exists.  The
              MASK is only applied when reading maps from the disk.

       There  are  a few exceptions to this: r.in.* programs read the data cell-for-cell, with no
       resampling. When reading non-georeferenced data, the imported map will  usually  have  its
       lower-left  corner  at  (0,0)  in  the location's coordinate system; the user needs to use
       r.region to "place" the imported map.

       Some programs which need to perform specific types of resampling (e.g.  r.resamp.rst) read
       the input maps at their original resolution then do the resampling themselves.

       r.proj  has  to  deal  with two regions (source and destination) simultaneously; both will
       have an impact upon the final result.

   Raster import and export
       The module r.in.gdal  offers  a  common  interface  for  many  different  raster  formats.
       Additionally,  it also offers options such as on-the-fly location creation or extension of
       the default region to match the extent of the imported raster  map.   For  special  cases,
       other import modules are available. The full map is always imported.

       For  importing  scanned maps, the user will need to create a x,y-location, scan the map in
       the desired resolution and save it into an appropriate raster  format  (e.g.  tiff,  jpeg,
       png,  pbm)  and then use r.in.gdal to import it. Based on reference points the scanned map
       can be recified to obtain geocoded data.

       Raster maps are exported with r.out.gdal into common formats. Also r.out.bin,  r.out.ascii
       and  other  export  modules  are  available. They export the data according to the current
       region settings. If those differ from the original map, the map is resampled  on  the  fly
       (nearest  neighbor  algorithm).  In  other  words,  the  output will have as many rows and
       columns as the current region.  To export maps with various grid spacings (e.g, 500x500 or
       200x500), you can just change the region resolution with g.region and then export the map.
       The resampling is done with nearest neighbor algorithm in this  case.  If  you  want  some
       other  form  of resampling, first change the region, then explicitly resample the map with
       e.g.  r.resamp.interp or r.resamp.stats, then export the resampled map.

   Metadata
       The r.info module displays general information about a map such  as  region  extent,  data
       range,  data  type,  creation  history,  and  other metadata.  Metadata such as map title,
       units, vertical datum etc. can be updated with  r.support.  Timestamps  are  managed  with
       r.timestamp. Region extent and resolution are mangaged with r.region.

   Raster map operations
   Resampling methods and interpolation methods
       GRASS  raster  map  processing  is  always  performed  in the current region settings (see
       g.region), i.e. the current region extent and current raster resolution is  used.  If  the
       resolution  differs  from  that  of  the  input  raster  map(s),  on-the-fly resampling is
       performed (nearest neighbor resampling). If this is not desired, the input map(s) has/have
       to be resampled beforehand with one of the dedicated modules.

       The  built-in  nearest-neighbour  resampling  of raster data calculates the centre of each
       region cell, and takes the value of the raster cell in which that point falls.

       If the point falls exactly upon a grid line, the exact result will be  determined  by  the
       direction  of any rounding error. One consequence of this is that downsampling by a factor
       which is an even integer will always sample exactly on the boundary between cells, meaning
       that the result is ill-defined.

       The   following  modules  are  available  for  reinterpolation  of  "filled"  raster  maps
       (continuous data) to a different resolution:

                     r.resample uses the built-in resampling,  so  it  should  produce  identical
                     results as the on-the-fly resampling done via the raster import modules.

                     r.resamp.interp  Resampling  with  nearest  neighbor,  bilinear, and bicubic
                     method: method=nearest uses the same algorithm as r.resample,  but  not  the
                     same  code,  so  it  may  not  produce  identical results in cases which are
                     decided by the rounding of floating-point numbers.
                     For r.resamp.interp method=bilinear and method=bicubic,  the  raster  values
                     are  treated  as samples at each raster cell's centre, defining a piecewise-
                     continuous surface. The resulting raster values are obtained by sampling the
                     surface  at  each region cell's centre.  As the algorithm only interpolates,
                     and doesn't extrapolate, a margin of 0.5 (for bilinear) or 1.5 (for bicubic)
                     cells  is  lost  from  the  extent of the original raster. Any samples taken
                     within this margin will be null.

                     r.resamp.rst Regularized Spline with Tension (RST) interpolation 2D: Behaves
                     similarly,  i.e.  it computes a surface assuming that the values are samples
                     at each raster cell's centre, and samples the surface at each region  cell's
                     centre.

                     For  r.resamp.stats  without -w, the value of each region cell is the chosen
                     aggregate of the values from all of the  raster  cells  whose  centres  fall
                     within the bounds of the region cell.
                     With  -w, the samples are weighted according to the proportion of the raster
                     cell which falls within the bounds of the region  cell,  so  the  result  is
                     normally  unaffected  by  rounding  error  (a  miniscule  difference  in the
                     position of the boundary results in the addition or subtraction of a  sample
                     weighted  by  a miniscule factor; also, The min and max aggregates can't use
                     weights, so -w has no effect for those).

                      r.fillnulls for Regularized Spline with Tension (RST) interpolation 2D  for
                     hole filling (e.g., SRTM DEM)

       Furthermore, there are modules available for reinterpolation of "sparse" (scattered points
       or lines) maps:

                      Inverse distance weighted average (IDW) interpolation (r.surf.idw2)

                      Interpolating from contour lines (r.contour)
       For Lidar and similar data, r.in.xyz supports loading and binning of ungridded x,y,z ASCII
       data  into  a new raster map. The user may choose from a variety of statistical methods in
       creating the new raster.

       Otherwise, for interpolation of scattered data, use the v.surf.* set of modules.

   Raster MASKs
       If a raster map named "MASK" exists, most GRASS raster modules will operate only  on  data
       falling  inside  the masked area, and treat any data falling outside of the mask as if its
       value were NULL. The mask is only applied when reading an existing GRASS raster  map,  for
       example when used in a module as an input map.

       The  mask  is read as an integer map. If MASK is actually a floating-point map, the values
       will be converted to integers using the map's quantisation rules (this defaults to  round-
       to-nearest, but can be changed with r.quant).

       (see r.mask)

   Raster map statistics
       A couple of commands are available to calculate local statistics (r.neighbors), and global
       statistics (r.surf.area, r.sum).  Profiles and  transects  can  be  generated  (r.profile,
       r.transect)  as well as histograms (d.histogram) and polar diagrams (d.polar).  Univariate
       statistics    (r.univar)    and    reports     are     also     available     (r.report,<a
       href="r.stats.html">r.stats, r.volume).

   Raster map algebra and aggregation
       The  r.mapcalc  command  provides  raster map algebra methods.  The r.resamp.stats command
       resamples raster map layers using  various  aggregation  methods,  the  r.average  command
       aggregates  one  map  based  on a second map.  r.resamp.interp resamples raster map layers
       using interpolation.

   Hydrologic modeling toolbox
       Watershed modeling related modules are  r.basins.fill,  r.water.outlet,  r.watershed,  and
       r.terraflow.   Water  flow  related modules are r.carve, r.drain, r.fill.dir, r.fillnulls,
       r.flow, and r.topidx.  Flooding can be simulated with r.lake.  Hydrologic simulation model
       are available as r.sim.sediment, r.sim.water, and r.topmodel.

   Raster format
       Raster  data  can  be  stored in GRASS as 2D or 3D grids. 2D rasters support 3 data types:
       32bit signed integer, single- and double-precision floating-point. 3D rasters support only
       single-  and  double-precision floating-point. In most GRASS resources, 2D raster maps are
       usually called "raster", their integer data type "CELL",  single-precision  floating-point
       data  type  "FCELL" and double-precision floating-point "DCELL". The 3D raster map type is
       usually called "3D raster" but other names like "G3D", "voxel", "volume", "GRID3D" or  "3d
       cell"  are  common.   3D raster's single-precision data type is most often called "float",
       and the double-precision one "double".

       GRASS raster format is architecture independent  and  portable  between  32bit  and  64bit
       machines.

       GRASS  distinguishes  NULL  and zero. When working with NULL data, it is important to know
       that operations on NULL cells lead to NULL cells.

   See also
                     Introduction to GRASS vector map processing

                     Introduction to GRASS 3D raster map (voxel) processing

       raster index - full index

       © 2008-2012 GRASS Development Team