State of GRASS GIS

Vaclav (Vashek) Petras

NCSU GeoForAll Lab at the Center for Geospatial Analytics
NC State University

FOSS4G NA St. Louis, September 9-11, 2024

wenzeslaus.github.io/grass-gis-talks

Vaclav (Vashek) Petras

• Sr. Research Software Engineer at NC State's Center for Geospatial Analytics
• GRASS GIS: Core Development Team, Project Steering Committee
• OSGeo: Charter Member, GRASS GIS is an OSGeo Project

Community

GRASS GIS

• geospatial processing engine
• 400+ processing tools
• 400+ more tools in GRASS Addons

Releases

• 8.4.0, July 2024 Current version for everyday user
• 8.5.0 Preview, Daily Latest reviewed functional code
• 7.8.8 Legacy, August 2023 Maintained legacy version for some production systems

New in 8.4.0

Tools: More Machine Learning

Supervised classification with Support Vector Machines

• i.svm.train: Train a Support Vector Machine
• i.svm.predict: Predict with a Support Vector Machine

Tools: More Topology Handling

v.fill.holes: Fill holes in areas by keeping only outer boundaries

Tools: Better Horizon Identification

r.horizon: Output for multiple points, distances, and many other improvements

Interfaces: JSON for Text Outputs

        v.db.select roadsmajor format=json
    

With better integration in Python:

        import json
        import grass.script as gs

        data = gs.parse_command("v.db.select", map="roadsmajor", format="json")
        for row in data["records"]:
            print(row["ROAD_NAME"])
    

More coming in 8.5 (r.report, r.info, …)

Locations are now Projects

The Python API, command line, and GUI are now using project instead of location for the main component of the data hierarchy.

• ~/data
  • missouri (location → project)
    • interstate_44 (mapset aka sub-project)

CLI: --tmp-project with --exec

grass --tmp-project EPSG:3358 --exec \
        r.viewshed input=elevation \
        output=viewshed coordinates=642964,222890
    

--tmp-location continues to work

Python API: Simpler Creation of Projects

grass.script Python package:

Greatly simplified the creation of new projects in Python without a running session (no more chicken and egg problems)

        import grass.script as gs

        gs.create_project("cordoba_utm21s", epsg="32721")
        gs.setup.init("cordoba_utm21s")
    

Python API: Animations and ipyleaflet

grass.jupyter Python package:

• New grass.jupyter.SeriesMap class for animating series of vectors or rasters (temporal animations already available)
• New option to create a maps with ipyleaflet (will bring interactivity in 8.5)

    s = gj.SeriesMap(height = 500)
    s.add_rasters(["elevation_shade", "geology", "soils"])
    s.add_vectors(["streams", "streets", "viewpoints"])
    s.d_barscale()
    s.show()

    m = InteractiveMap(map_backend="ipyleaflet")
    m.add_vector("streams")
    m.add_raster("elevation")
    m.show()
    

GUI: New History Browser Panel

Project Roadmap

grass.osgeo.org/about/roadmap

Addon Tools: Wind-water Interactions

r.windfetch – distance which winds blow without obstruction

by Anna Petrasova, funded by NSF Award #2322073, granted to Natrx, Inc.

Addon Tools: Digest Data with EODAG

download, import, preprocessing, cloud detection, and masking of remote sensing data with EODAG (Earth Observation Data Access Gateway)

by Hamed A. Elgizery, Veronica Andreo, Stefan Blumentrath

Funding of Maintenance

NSF Grant Lead by NC State

• NSF grant awarded to NC State, ASU, NMSU, Yale
  • To enhance infrastructure
  • To revise contributing guidelines
  • To support community building
• The NSF program is not funding new features, bug fixes, or ongoing maintenance
• Starting year 2 (out of 2)

Financial Contributions

• Contributions through Open Collective partially support face-to-face meetings and student grants.
• We would like to finance ongoing maintenance.
• Talk to me if Open Collective does not work for you.

opencollective.com/grass

Community

PSC Elections

Broad community can nominate and anyone can be nominated (September)
Voting restricted to recognized contributors and participants (October)

Community Meeting 2024

Mentoring and Student Grants Program

• Mentoring to integrate GRASS GIS into your workflows (open now)
• Student grants to contribute to GRASS GIS (call open for 2024/2025)

Join a Working Group

• Groups:
  • Geoprocessing Engine
  • Open-Source Ecosystem
  • Documentation and Education
  • Community Engagement
• See wiki for details!

Highlights

Tools: Temporal Algebra

D = if(start_date(A) < "2005-01-01", A + B)
Sum maps from A with maps with equal time stamps from B which are temporally before Jan 1, 2005

by Thomas Leppelt and Soeren Gebbert

Tools: Skyview

by Anna Petrasova

Tools: SLIC

i.superpixels.slic - image segmentation using SLIC superpixels

by Rashad Kanavath and Markus Metz

Tools: Fast Hydrology Algorithms

by Huidae Cho

Tools: Vector Topology Cleaning

v.clean – automated topology with outputs for additional checks

by Markus Metz, Radim Blazek, and others

Tools: Urban Modeling

r.futures - set of tools for urban growth modeling

by NC State Center for Geospatial Analytics

Ask me for a a special sticker.

vpetras@ncsu.edu, @vaclavpetras, @wenzeslaus
wenzeslaus.github.io/grass-gis-talks
This talk was funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), award 2303651.