We are pleased to announce that the 50th ICA-OSGeo Lab has been established at the GIS and Remote Sensing Unit (Piattaforma GIS & Remote Sensing, PGIS), Research and Innovation Centre (CRI), Fondazione Edmund Mach (FEM), Italy. CRI is a multifaceted research organization established in 2008 under the umbrella of FEM, a private research foundation funded by the government of Autonomous Province of Trento. CRI focuses on studies and innovations in the fields of agriculture, nutrition, and environment, with the aim to generate new sharing knowledge and to contribute to economic growth, social development and the overall improvement of quality of life.

The mission of the PGIS unit is to develop and provide multi-scale approaches for the description of 2-, 3- and 4-dimensional biological systems and processes. Core activities of the unit include acquisition, processing and validation of geo-physical, ecological and spatial datasets collected within various research projects and monitoring activities, along with advanced scientific analysis and data management. These studies involve multi-decadal change analysis of various ecological and physical parameters from continental to landscape level using satellite imagery and other climatic layers. The lab focuses on the geostatistical analysis of such information layers, the creation and processing of indicators, and the production of ecological, landscape genetics, eco-epidemiological and physiological models. The team pursues actively the development of innovative methods and their implementation in a GIS framework including the time series analysis of proximal and remote sensing data.

The GIS and Remote Sensing Unit (PGIS) members strongly support the peer reviewed approach of Free and Open Source software development which is perfectly in line with academic research. PGIS contributes extensively to the open source software development in geospatial (main contributors to GRASS GIS), often collaborating with various other developers and researchers around the globe. In the new ICA-OSGeo lab at FEM international PhD students, university students and trainees are present.

PGIS is focused on knowledge dissemination of open source tools through a series of courses designed for specific user requirement (schools, universities, research institutes), blogs, workshops and conferences. Their recent publication in Trends in Ecology and Evolution underlines the need on using Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for completely open science. Dr. Markus Neteler, who is leading the group since its formation, has two decades of experience in developing and promoting open source GIS software. Being founding member of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo.org, USA), he served on its board of directors from 2006-2011. Luca Delucchi, focal point and responsible person for the new ICA-OSGeo Lab is member of the board of directors of the Associazione Italiana per l’Informazione Geografica Libera (GFOSS.it, the Italian Local Chapter of OSGeo). He contributes to several Free and Open Source software and open data projects as developer and trainer.

Details about the GIS and Remote Sensing Unit at http://gis.cri.fmach.it/

Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) is a not-for-profit organisation founded in 2006 whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open source geospatial technologies and data.

International Cartographic Association (ICA) is the world authoritative body for cartography and GIScience. See also the new ICA-OSGeo Labs website.

In our first posting (“Processing Landsat 8 data in GRASS GIS 7: Import and visualization“) we imported a Landsat 8 scene (covering Raleigh, NC, USA). In this exercise we use Landsat data converted to reflectance with i.landsat.toar as shown in the first posting.

Here we will try color balancing and pan-sharpening, i.e. applying the higher resolution panchromatic channel to the color channels, using i.landsat.rgb.

1. Landsat 8 – RGB color balancing: natural color composites

After import, the RGB (bands 4,3,2 for Landsat 8) may look initially less exciting than expected.This is easy to fix by a histogram based auto-balancing of the RGB color tables.

To brighten up the RGB composite, we can use the color balancing tool of GRASS GIS 7:

As input, we specify the bands 4, 3, and 2:

Using a “Cropping intensity (upper brightness level)” of 99 (percent), the result look as follows:

For special purposes or under certain atmospheric/ground conditions it may be useful to make use of the functions “Preserve relative colors, adjust brightness only” or “Extend colors to full range of data on each channel” in the “Optional” tab of i.landsat.rgb.

You will need to experiment since the results depend directly on the image data.

2. Landsat 8 pansharpening

Pansharpening is a technique to merge the higher geometrical pixel resolution of the panchromatic band (Band 8) with the lower resolution color bands (Bands 4, 3, 2).

GRASS GIS 7 offers several methods through the command i.pansharpen.

1) Brovey transform:

This module runs in multi-core mode parallelized. The management of the resolution (i.e., apply the higher resolution of the panchromatic band) is performed automatically.

2. IHS transform

Here we select as above the bands in the i.pansharpen interface but use the “ihs” method.

HINT: If the colors should look odd, then apply i.landsat.rgb to the pan-sharpened bands (see above).

Color-adjusted IHS pansharpening (with “Cropping intensity: strength=99″):

Comparison of Landsat 8 RGB composite (39m) and IHS pansharpened RGB composite (15m):

3. PCA transform

Here we select as above the bands in the i.pansharpen interface but use the “pca” method.

Likewise other channels may be merged with i.pansharpen, even when originating from different sensors.

3. Conclusions

Overall, the IHS pansharpening method along with auto-balancing of colors appears to perform very well with Landsat 8.

For our analysis example, we’ll obtain (freely – thanks, NASA and USGS!) a Landsat 8 scene from http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/

First of all, you should register.

1. Landsat 8 download procedure

1. Enter Search Criteria:

• path/row tab, enter Type WRS2: Path: 16, Row: 35
• Date range: 01/01/2013 – today
• Click on the “Data sets >>” button

2. Select Your Data Set(s):

• Expand the entry + Landsat Archive
      [x] L8 OLI/TIRS
• Click on the “Results >>” button

(We jump over the additional criteria)

4. Search Results

From the resulting list, we pick the data set:

Entity ID: LC80160352013134LGN03
Coordinates: 36.04321,-79.28696
Acquisition Date: 14-MAY-13

Using the “Download options”, you can download the data set (requires login). Select the choice:
[x] Level 1 GeoTIFF Data Product (842.4 MB)

You will receive the file “LC80160352013134LGN03.tar.gz”.

2. Unpacking the downloaded Landsat 8 dataset

To unpack the data, run (or use a graphical tool at your choice):

tar xvfz LC80160352013134LGN03.tar.gz

A series of GeoTIFF files will be extracted: LC80160352013134LGN03_B1.TIF, LC80160352013134LGN03_B2.TIF, LC80160352013134LGN03_B3.TIF, LC80160352013134LGN03_B4.TIF, LC80160352013134LGN03_B5.TIF, LC80160352013134LGN03_B6.TIF, LC80160352013134LGN03_B7.TIF, LC80160352013134LGN03_B8.TIF, LC80160352013134LGN03_B9.TIF, LC80160352013134LGN03_B10.TIF, LC80160352013134LGN03_B11.TIF, LC80160352013134LGN03_BQA.TIF

We may check the metadata with “gdalinfo“:

gdalinfo LC80160352013134LGN03_B1.TIF
Driver: GTiff/GeoTIFF
Files: LC80160352013134LGN03_B1.TIF
Size is 7531, 7331
Coordinate System is:
PROJCS["WGS 84 / UTM zone 17N",
    GEOGCS["WGS 84",
        DATUM["WGS_1984",
            SPHEROID["WGS 84",6378137,298.257223563,
...
Pixel Size = (30.000000000000000,-30.000000000000000)
...

3. Want to spatially subset the Landsat scene first?

If you prefer to cut out a smaller area (subregion), check here for gdal_translate usage examples.

4. Import into GRASS GIS 7

Note: While this Landsat 8 scene covers the area of the North Carolina (NC) sample dataset, it is delivered in UTM rather than the NC's state plane metric projection. Hence we preprocess the data first in its original UTM projection prior to the reprojection to NC SPM.

Using the Location Wizard, we can import the dataset easily into a new location (in case you don't have UTM17N not already created earlier):

grass70 -gui

Now start GRASS GIS 7 and you will find the first band already imported (the others will follow shortly!).

For the lazy folks among us, we can also create a new GRASS GIS Location right away from the dataset on command line:

grass70 -c LC80160352013134LGN03_B10.TIF ~/grassdata/utm17n

5. Importing the remaining Landsat 8 bands

The remaining bands can be easily imported with the raster import tool:

The bands can now be selected easily for import:

• Select "Directory" and navigate to the right one
• The available GeoTIFF files will be shown automatically
• Select those you want to import
• You may rename (double-click) the target name for each band
• Extend the computation region accordingly automatically

Click on "Import" to get the data into the GRASS GIS location. This takes a few minutes. Close the dialog window then.

In the "Map layers" tab you can select the bands to be shown:

6. The bands of Landsat 8

(cited from USGS)

Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) images consist of nine spectral bands with a spatial resolution of 30 meters for Bands 1 to 7 and 9. New band 1 (ultra-blue) is useful for coastal and aerosol studies. New band 9 is useful for cirrus cloud detection. The resolution for Band 8 (panchromatic) is 15 meters. Thermal bands 10 and 11 are useful in providing more accurate surface temperatures and are collected at 100 meters. Approximate scene size is 170 km north-south by 183 km east-west (106 mi by 114 mi).

* TIRS bands are acquired at 100 meter resolution, but are resampled to 30 meter in delivered data product.

7. Natural color view (RGB composite)

Due to the introduction of a new "Cirrus" band (#1), the BGR bands are now 2, 3, and 4, respectively. See also "Common band combinations in RGB" for Landsat 7 or Landsat 5, and Landsat 8.

From Digital Numer (DN) to reflectance:
Before creating an RGB composite, it is important to convert the digital number data (DN) to reflectance (or optionally radiance). Otherwise the colors of a "natural" RGB composite do not look convincing but rather hazy (see background in the next screenshot). This conversion is easily done using the metadata file which is included in the data set with i.landsat.toar:

Now we are ready to create a nice RGB composite:

Select the bands to be visually combined:

... and voilà!

8. Applying the Landsat 8 Quality Assessment (QA) Band

One of the bands of a Landsat 8 scene is named "BQA" which contains for each pixel a decimal value representing a bit-packed combination of surface, atmosphere, and sensor conditions found during the overpass.  It can be used to judge the overall usefulness of a given pixel.

We can use this information to easily eliminate e.g. cloud contaminated pixels. In short, the QA concept is (cited here from the USGS page):

For the single bits (0, 1, 2, and 3):
0 = No, this condition does not exist
1 = Yes, this condition exists.

The double bits (4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13, and 14-15) represent levels of confidence that a condition exists:
00 = Algorithm did not determine the status of this condition
01 = Algorithm has low confidence that this condition exists (0-33 percent confidence)
10 = Algorithm has medium confidence that this condition exists (34-66 percent confidence)
11 = Algorithm has high confidence that this condition exists (67-100 percent confidence).

Detailed bit patterns (d: double bits; s: single bits):
d  Bit 15 = 0 = cloudy
d  Bit 14 = 0 = cloudy
d  Bit 13 = 0 = not a cirrus cloud
d  Bit 12 = 0 = not a cirrus cloud
d  Bit 11 = 0 = not snow/ice
d  Bit 10 = 0 = not snow/ice
d  Bit 9 = 0 = not populated
d  Bit 8 = 0 = not populated
d  Bit 7 = 0 = not populated
d  Bit 6 = 0 = not populated
d  Bit 5 = 0 = not water
d  Bit 4 = 0 = not water
s  Bit 3 = 0 = not populated
s  Bit 2 = 0 = not terrain occluded
s  Bit 1 = 0 = not a dropped frame
s  Bit 0 = 0 = not fill

Usage example 1:  Creating a mask from a bitpattern

We can create a cloud mask (bit 15+14 are set) from this pattern:
cloud:   1100000000000000

Using the Python shell tab, we can easily convert this into the corresponding decimal number for r.mapcalc:

Welcome to wxGUI Interactive Python Shell 0.9.8

Type "help(grass)" for more GRASS scripting related information.
Type "AddLayer()" to add raster or vector to the layer tree.

Python 2.7.5 (default, Aug 22 2013, 09:31:58) 
[GCC 4.8.1 20130603 (Red Hat 4.8.1-1)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> int(0b1100000000000000)
49152

Using this decimal value of 49152, we can create a cloud mask:

# set NULL for cloudy pixels, 1 elsewhere:
r.mapcalc "cloudmask = if(LC80160352013134LGN03_BQA == 49152, null(), 1 )"

# apply this mask
r.mask cloudmask

In our sample scene, there are only tiny clouds in the north-east, so no much to be seen. Some spurious cloud pixels are scattered over the scene, too, which could be eliminated (in case of false positives) or kept.

Usage example 2:  Querying the Landsat 8 BQA map and retrieve the bitpattern

Perhaps you prefer to query the BQA map itself (overlay the previously created RGB composite and query the BSA map by selecting it in the Layer Manager). In our example, we query the BQA value of the cloud:

Using again the Python shell tab, we can easily convert the decimal number (used for r.mapcalc) into the corresponding binary representation to verify with the  table values above.

>>> x=61440
>>> print(bin(x & 0xffffffff))
0b1111000000000000

Hence, bits 15,14,13, and 12 are set: cloudy and not a cirrus cloud. Looking at the RGB composite we tend to agree Time to mask out the cloud!

wxGUI menu >> Raster >> Mask [r.mask]

Or use the command line, as shown already above:

# remove existing mask (if active)
r.mask -r

# set NULL for cloudy pixels, 1 elsewhere:
r.mapcalc "cloudmask = if(LC80160352013134LGN03_BQA == 61440, null(), 1 )" --o

# apply the new mask
r.mask cloudmask

The visual effect in the RGB composite is minimal since the cloud is white anyway (as NULL cells, too). However, it is relevant for real calculations such as NDVI (vegetation index) or thermal maps.

We observe dark pixels around the cloud originating from thin clouds. In a subsequent identification/mask step we may eliminate also those pixels with a subsequent filter.

Thanks to Volker Fröhlich’s efforts, a source code RPM package (SRPM) of QGIS 2.0.1 is now available for Fedora. If you are not yet F20 user (like me), you can just take the F20 package and compile it for F19 (or even F18) since there will be no backport of QGIS 2 to F19 (it comes with QGIS 1.8). But: we do want QGIS 2 on Fedora19!

Solution: compile it yourself.

1. 1. Preparations

The best way is  to use “mock” which is used to recompile SRPMS in a separate local environment (“chroot”) without cluttering the system with extra packages needed for the compilation (run as “root”):

su
yum install mock

2. 2. Get the source code

Next download the SRPM package from the Koji  server:
QGIS:  http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/buildinfo?buildID=467757 (–> src – download) or check here for more recent versions.

3. 3. Compile it locally as RPM package

The general compilation command (“mock”) would be:

mock -r my_fedora_version_config --rebuild my_source_rpm.src.rpm

So, check for Fedora version config name which is suitable for your system (“my_fedora_version_config“)

ls /etc/mock/

In my case of a 64bit machine, it is “fedora-19-x86_64″. Hence we can compile QGIS 2.0.1 directly from the SRPM file:

mock -r fedora-19-x86_64 --rebuild qgis-2.0.1-2.fc20.src.rpm

Note: the compilation takes 40min on my tiny core i3 laptop (ASUS X202). Use the time to donate some coins to the QGIS project

4. 4. Install and enjoy

Once the compilation job is done, i.e. the binary RPM files are available for installation. To install the freshly compiled QGIS 2.0.1 RPMs, run:

cd /var/lib/mock/fedora-19-x86_64/result/

# an existing QGIS1.8 installation will be replaced: 
yum localinstall qgis-2.0.1-2.fc19.x86_64.rpm \
qgis-grass-2.0.1-2.fc19.x86_64.rpm qgis-python-2.0.1-2.fc19.x86_64.rpm

# consider to cleanup (or keep it for the next update, it is about 1.5GB):
rm -rf /var/lib/mock/fedora-19-x86_64/
# leave the "root" shell
exit

Now we can happily use QGIS 2.0.1 on Fedora 19!

qgis

Dal 10 al 11 Ottobre 2013 si terrà a Bologna presso i laboratori della Scuola di Ingegneria e Architettura (V.le del Risorgimento, 2), e le sale conferenze della Regione Emilia-Romagna (V.le della Fiera, 8), la sesta conferenza italiana sul software geografico e sui dati geografici liberi (GFOSS DAY 2013).

Lo scopo principale della conferenza è quello di coinvolgere imprese, enti pubblici, scuole, università, centri di ricerca, sviluppatori, cittadini, operatori del settore ed appassionati dei temi del software libero geografico e degli open data.

Sarà inoltre possibile seguire in diretta streaming il convegno.

Registrati:

http://www.gfoss.it/drupal/gfossday2013/registrazione

La partecipazione alla conferenza è libera e gratuita ma è richiesta una registrazione (meglio anticipata) per consentire una migliore organizzazione dell’evento e garantire la stampa di badge e attestati.
L’accesso ai workshop è garantito fino al raggiungimento numero massimo di partecipanti.

Section 1. Programma

http://www.gfoss.it/drupal/gfossday2013/programma

Section 2. Sede della conferenza

http://www.gfoss.it/drupal/gfossday2013/locations

Parteciperete a #gfoss13? Ditelo al mondo!

(reposting from here, Note to English speakers below)

Sie forschen, Sie entwickeln, Sie beschäftigen sich mit Open-Source-Geo-Software oder freien Geodaten? Sie haben neue Ideen in diesem Themenbereich oder sind bereits dabei, freie Software und freie Geodaten zu nutzen oder zu entwickeln? Dann sind Sie auf unserer Konferenz – der FOSSGIS-Konferenz 2014 - genau richtig.

WIR BIETEN: Eine Plattform für Ihre Idee, Ihr Projekt, Ihren Erfahrungsbericht auf der größten deutschsprachigen Anwenderkonferenz für freie Geoinformationssysteme und freie Geodaten. Im Jahr 2014 findet die FOSSGIS vom 19. bis 21. März auf dem Gelände der Beuth Hochschule für Technik in Berlin statt. Wir rechnen mit über 400 Teilnehmern. An der Konferenz 2013 in Rapperswil (Schweiz) nahmen über ca. 350 Besucher teil.

WIR SUCHEN: Ihre Idee. Ihr Projekt. Ihren Erfahrungsbericht. Ihr Thema. Genauer gesagt, suchen wir Vorträge für Einsteiger und Fortgeschrittene, um spannende Themen zu behandeln, Diskussionen zu entwickeln, praxisorientierte Workshops* runden unser Programm ab. Vorträge zum Thema freie Geodaten, zum Beispiel OpenStreetMap, Open Data sind ebenso möglich wie Beiträge zu beispielsweise Softwarelösungen aus dem Bereich WebGIS, Desktop GIS, Geodatenbanken oder Location-Based-Services. Bewerben Sie sich jetzt mit einem Vortrag, Lightning Talk oder Workshop* beim Call for Papers.

ABSTRACT: Die Einreichung eines Abstracts für die FOSSGIS 2014 ist ab sofort bis zum 15. November 2013 über unsere Konferenzsoftware Pentabarf möglich. Beitrags-Einreichungen ohne Abstract müssen leider abgelehnt werden, da sich das Programm-Komitee anhand des Abstracts ein Bild von Inhalt und Relevanz des Beitrags macht. Der Abstract sollte ca. 1500 Zeichen umfassen. Ob die Einreichung angenommen wurde, wird im Dezember 2013 bekanntgegeben. Es besteht die Möglichkeit einen Lightning Talk einzureichen. Ein Lightning Talk ist eine kurze, knackige Auseinandersetzung mit einem Thema, welches in 5 Minuten, gern humorvoll, Anregung zur Diskussion bietet. Weiterhin können Poster eingereicht werden.

*Workshops: Bitte berücksichtigen Sie bei der Planung, dass für die Workshops nur 90 Minuten vorgesehen sind und die Teilnehmer ein Mix aus Theorie und vor allem Praxis erwarten. Die Beschreibung des Workshops soll erreichbare Lernziele und die notwendigen Vorkenntnisse der Teilnehmer enthalten. Ein Workshop findet ab einer Teilnehmerzahl von 5 statt.

WER WIR SIND: Veranstaltet wird die Konferenz vom FOSSGIS e.V., von der OSGeo Foundation und der Beuth Hochschule für Technik Berlin.

Unsere Konferenz lebt von Ihren Beiträgen und Ihrem Besuch. Werden Sie Teil der Konferenz – wir freuen uns auf Sie!

Noch Fragen? Wir haben versucht, in unseren FAQs alle wichtigen Fragen zu beantworten. Falls weitere Fragen bestehen, zögern Sie nicht uns eine E-Mail zu schreiben.

Note to English speakers

The FOSSGIS-conference is the largest German-language conference for Free and Open Source Software for GIS and Free Geodata hosting about 400 participants.

Today, the Conference Committee announced the “Call for papers” for 2014. Because the conference-language is German, the CfP is either.

The program committee will, however, also consider applications for talks or workshops held in English if they are deeemed to add to the quality of the conference. So if you don’t speak German, but are a FOSS/Open Data celebrity, or have a story that only you can tell, please do submit your talk. We are unlikely to be able to provide interpreters, but we’ll make sure you don’t get lost in Berlin. Please be aware that you can submit paper until November, 15. 2013. You can submit your abstract using our Conference Software.

We are looking forward to see you in Berlin March 19-21, 2014!

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) is pleased to announce that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has accepted their application (PDF) for non-profit status under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code. Our 501(c)(4) status declares that OSGeo is a Social Welfare Organization. This determination affirms OSGeo’s role in serving the public through their mission, focused around Open Source Geospatial software.

This determination helps ensure that the organization will not have to pay US federal taxes on money accumulated toward the fulfilment of their mission. Unfortunately, unlike a 501(c)(3) (Charitable) status, this does not allow financial contributors to OSGeo to treat the contributions as a charitable contribution which can have a tax benefit for US tax payers. There should still be no problem with commercial organizations treating contributions to OSGeo as a business expense.

OSGeo owes a special debt to past Executive Director Tyler Mitchell, and current Treasurer Daniel Morissette who have carried this process to a successful conclusion after several years of work. Current OSGeo President, Jeff McKenna, says “Both Daniel and Tyler should be thanked by the entire community for their dedication to such a challenging task. Our future foundation events, and OSGeo in general, will benefit from their hard work for years to come.”

About the Open Source Geospatial Foundation

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation, or OSGeo, is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2006 whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data.  The Foundation provides financial, organizational and legal support to the broader open source geospatial community. It also serves as an independent legal entity to which community members can contribute code, funding and other resources, secure in the knowledge that their contributions will be maintained for public benefit.

On 7th Sep 2013 the final results from the 2013 elections for the open seats of the OSGeo Board of Directors have been published. There were four seats open and they have been filled by (in no particular order):

• Jáchym Čepický
• Jorge Sanz
• Bart van den Eijnden
• Gérald Fenoy

Thanks to all candidates for going through the elections and exposing themselves. All six candidates received excellent support with more then 60 votes each. Overall voting participation was 72% (129 out of 180) and there were no tie scores to arbitrate. Thanks to all Charter Members who voted!

The complete resulting OSGeo Board is:

• Anne Ghisla
• Bart van den Eijnden
• Gérald Fenoy
• Cameron Shorter
• Daniel Morissette
• Frank Warmerdam
• Gérald Fenoy
• Jáchym Čepický
• Jeff McKenna
• Jorge Sanz

With the election results published the new board of directors becomes immediately effective.

OSGeo wishes to thank the outgoing directors for their continued support of OSGeo and for helping to run a fantastic organizations with a great membership and lots of energy. We thank all candidates who stood in this election and all OSGeo Charter Members for their contribution and votes.

The OSGeo-Live geospatial software collection version 7.0 has been released, featuring more than sixty open source, standards compliant geospatial desktop applications, web applications and frameworks. A complete installation kit and high-quality sample data in multiple industry standard formats are included. The OSGeo Live will be officially launched at FOSS4G 2013 in Nottingham, UK, 17-21 September, 2013.

Release Highlights

Projects new to this release include:

• GeoNode — a web-based application and platform for developing geospatial information systems (GIS) and for deploying spatial data infrastructures (SDI)
• Leaflet — a modern, open source JavaScript library for mobile-friendly interactive maps
• ncWMS — a Web Map Service (WMS) for geospatial data stored in CF-compliant NetCDF files
• netCDF dataset — daily maximum temperature and rainfall, worldwide

All geospatial applications on the disc have been updated to their latest stable releases.

About OSGeo-Live

OSGeo-Live is a self-contained bootable DVD, USB flash drive and Virtual Machine based upon Ubuntu Linux (version 12.04 LTS). OSGeo-Live is pre-configured with a wide variety of robust open source geospatial software. All applications can be trialled without installing anything on your computer, simply by booting the computer from a DVD or USB drive, or running in a Virtual Machine environment. Each featured package is accompanied by both a publication quality one page descriptive summary and a short tutorial on how to get started using it.

http://live.osgeo.org

OSGeo-Live includes:

• Over sixty quality geospatial Open Source applications installed and pre-configured
• Free world maps and geodata
• One page overview and quick start guide for every application
• Overviews of key OGC standards
• Translations to multiple languages

Credits

Over 160 people have directly helped with OSGeo-Live packaging, documenting and translating, and thousands have been involved in building the packaged software.

Packagers, documenters and translators include:

Activity Workshop, Agustín Dí­ez, Aikaterini Kapsampeli, Alan Beccati, Alan Boudreault, Alessandro Furieri, Alexander Bruy, Alexander Kleshnin, Alexander Muriy, Alexandre Dube, Alexey Ardyakov, Alex Mandel, Amy Gao, Andrea Antonello, Andrea Yanza, Andrey Syrokomskiy, Andry Rustanto, Angelos Tzotsos, Anna Muñoz, Antonio Falciano, Anton Novichikhin, Anton Patrushev, Argyros Argyridis, Ariel Núñez, Assumpció Termens, Astrid Emde, Barry Rowlingson, Benjamin Pross, Brian Hamlin, Bruno Binet, Cameron Shorter, Christophe Tufféry, Christos Iossifidis, Cristhian Pin, Damian Wojsław, Dane Springmeyer, Daniel Kastl, Daria Svidzinska, David Mateos, Denis Rykov, Diego González, Diego Migliavacca, Dimitar Misev, Dmitry Baryshnikov, Dominik Helle, Edgar Soldin, Eike Hinderk Jürrens, Elena Mezzini, Eric Lemoine, Estela Llorente, Etienne Delay, Etienne Dube, Evgeny Nikulin, Fran Boon, François Prunayre, Frank Gasdorf, Frank Warmerdam, Friedjoff Trautwein, Gavin Treadgold, Giuseppe Calamita, Gerald Fenoy, Grigory Rozhentsov, Guy Griffiths, Hamish Bowman, Haruyuki Seki, Henry Addo, Hernan Olivera, Howard Butler, Hyeyeong Choe, Ian Edwards, Ian Turton, Ilya Filippov, Jackie Ng, Jan Drewnak, Jane Lewis, Javier Rodrigo, Javier Sánchez, Jesús Gómez, Jim Klassen, Jing Wang, Jinsongdi Yu, Jody Garnett, Johan Van de Wauw, John Bryant, Jorge Arévalo, Jorge Sanz, José Antonio Canalejo, José Vicente Higón, Judit Mays, Klokan Petr Pridal, Kristof Lange, kuzkok, Lance McKee, Lars Lingner, Luca Delucchi, Lucía Sanjaime, Mage Whopper, Manuel Grizonnet, Marc-André Barbeau, Marco Curreli, Marco Puppin, Marc Torres, Margherita Di Leo, Maria Vakalopoulou, Mario Andino, Mark Leslie, Massimo Di Stefano, Mauricio Miranda, Mauricio Pazos, Maxim Dubinin, Michaël Michaud, Michael Owonibi, Micha Silver, Mike Adair, Milena Nowotarska, M Iqnaul Haq Siregar, Nacho Varela, Nadiia Gorash, Nathaniel V. Kelso, Ned Horning, Nobusuke Iwasaki, Oliver Tonnhofer, Òscar Fonts, Otto Dassau, Pasquale Di Donato, Patric Hafner, Paul Meems, Pavel, Pedro-Juan Ferrer, Pirmin Kalberer, Raf Roset, Ricardo Pinho, Roald de Wit, Roberta Fagandini, Roberto Antolin, Roberto Antolí­n, Roger Veciana, Ruth Schoenbuchner, Samuel Mesa, Scott Penrose, Sergey Grachev, Sergio Baños, Simon Cropper, Simon Pigot, Stefan A. Tzeggai, Stefan Hansen, Stefan Steiniger, Stephan Meissl, Steve Lime, Thierry Badard, Thomas Baschetti, Thomas Gratier, Tom Kralidis, Toshikazu Seto, Trevor Wekel, Valenty González, Vera, Xianfeng Song, Yoichi Kayama, Zhengfan Lin

Sponsoring organisations

• The Open Source Geospatial Foundation OSGeo provides the primary development & hosting infrastructure and personnel for the OSGeo-Live project, and infrastructure for many of the software projects themselves. http://www.osgeo.org/
• LISAsoft provides sustaining resources and staff toward the management and packaging of software onto the Live DVD. http://www.lisasoft.com
• Information Center for the Environment (ICE) at the University of California, Davis provides hardware resources and development support to the OSGeo Live project. http://ice.ucdavis.edu
• Remote Sensing Laboratory at the National Technical University of Athens, provides hardware resources and development support to the OSGeo-Live project. http://www.ntua.gr
• The DebianGIS and UbuntuGIS teams provide and quality-assure many of the core packages. http://wiki.debian.org/DebianGis and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGIS

The GRASS GIS community is delighted to present the outcome of the 4th Community Sprint that took place in a warm and sunny Prague, Czech Republic, from July 12 to July 18, 2013. The event happened after the Geoinformatics conference at the Czech Technical University in Prague. The Community Sprint was once more a creative gathering of both long-term and new developers, as well as users.
This meeting was held in the light of 30 YEARS OF GRASS GIS!

We wish to cordially thank the Department of Mapping and Cartography, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague for hosting and technical support. In particular, we gratefully acknowledge our association sponsors OSGeo  and FOSSGIS e.V., and many individual donors: Peter Löwe, Andrea Borruso, Massimo Di Stefano, Alessandro Sarretta, Joshua Campbell, Andreas Neumann, Jon Eiriksson, Luca Casagrande, Karyn O Newcomb, Holger Naumann, Anne Ghisla, Helena Mitasova and Lubos Mitas, Dimitris Tamp, Mark Seibel, Markus Metz, and Tawny Gapinski. These financial contributions were used to cover costs such as meals and to help reducing travelling and accommodation expenses for participants with far arrival who came on own expenses.

Developers and users who joined the event came from various countries like Italy, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland, Sri Lanka/France, USA and Germany.
The Community Sprint focused on:

• testing/bugfixing of the upcoming GRASS 7 version,
• backporting new functionalities to the stable GRASS 6.4 series,
• testing/bugfixing related to Mac OS X, MS-Windows and Linux,
• presenting and developing the new Temporal GIS Algebra in GRASS 7,
• connecting GRASS 7 with the planetary science software ISIS,
• discussing integration with rasdaman.org software, a powerful multidimensional raster processor,
• creating 3D vector test data for 3D interpolation,
• discussing vector conflation,
• discussing Bundle Block Adjustments,
• presenting the state of image processing in GRASS 7, and discussing its future,
• improving documentation, with focus on image processing and Temporal GIS Algebra,
• developing/refactoring and bugfixing several wxGUI’s components,
• further developing customizable wxGUI Toolboxes concept,
• improving translation in Polish and Romanian languages,
• fixing v.krige in GRASS7 and proposing merge with the recently developed v.kriging module,
• meeting between Google Summer of Code 2013 mentor and students.

A lot of topic oriented discussions happened among small groups of participants: for more detailed information, please visit the Wiki pages at http://grasswiki.osgeo.org/wiki/GRASS_Community_Sprint_Prague_2013 and the related discussion page at http://grasswiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Talk:GRASS_Community_Sprint_Prague_2013

About GRASS GIS
The Geographic Resources Analysis Support System, commonly referred to as GRASS GIS, is an Open Source Geographic Information System providing powerful raster, vector and geospatial processing capabilities in a single integrated software suite. GRASS GIS includes tools for spatial modeling, visualization of raster and vector data, management and analysis of geospatial data, and the processing of satellite and aerial  imagery. It also provides the capability to produce sophisticated presentation graphics and hardcopy maps. GRASS GIS has been translated into about twenty languages and supports a huge array of data formats. It is distributed freely under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). GRASS GIS is an official project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo).

GRASS GIS Development Team, July 2013

GRASS GIS 6.4.3 released – Birthday release for 30 years of GRASS GIS
http://grass.osgeo.org

We are pleased to announce the release of a new stable version of GRASS GIS. This release fixes bugs discovered in 6.4.2 version of the program and adds a number of new features. This release includes over
830 updates to the source code since 6.4.2. As a stable release series, the 6.4 line will enjoy long-term support and incremental enhancements while preserving backwards-compatibility with the entire GRASS 6 line.

Key improvements of this release include some new functionality (assistance for topologically unclean vector data), major speedup for some vector modules, fixes in the vector network modules, fixes for the wxPython based portable graphical interface (attribute table management, wxNVIZ, and Cartographic Composer). A number of new modules have been added for processing LANDSAT and MODIS satellite data, and a new vector statistics module is also introduced. Many new symbols and north arrows are available, and the user will find an improved and easier to use wizard for creating custom project locations with precise map projection and datum support. Community-contributed add-on modules are now more easily and robustly installed from an online archive. Other major developments include enhancements to the Python scripting library and numerous software-compatibility fixes and translation updates. Important is the enhanced portability for MS-Windows (native support, fixes in case of missing system DLLs). And we welcome Romanian as our twenty-fourth language!

Source code download:

• http://grass.osgeo.org/grass64/source/
• http://grass.osgeo.org/grass64/source/grass-6.4.3.tar.gz

Binaries download:

• winGRASS 6.4.3 standalone installer
• winGRASS 6.4.3 in OSGeo4W installer
• Arch Linux
• openSUSE One-Click installer
• Ubuntu
• Mac OS X

• … further packages will follow shortly.

To get the GRASS GIS 6.4.3 source code directly from SVN:
svn checkout http://svn.osgeo.org/grass/grass/tags/release_20130727_grass_6_4_3

GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System) is a free and open source Geographic Information System (GIS) software suite used for geospatial data management and analysis, image processing, graphics and map production, spatial modeling, and 3D visualization. GRASS GIS is currently used in academic and commercial settings around the world, as well as by many governmental agencies and environmental consulting companies. GRASS GIS can be used either as a stand-alone application or as backend for other software packages such as QGIS and R geostatistics. It is a founding member of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo).

Fourth (and last) release candidate of GRASS GIS 6.4.3 with improvements and stability fixes
A fourth release candidate of GRASS GIS 6.4.3 is now available.

Source code download:

• http://grass.osgeo.org/grass64/source/
• http://grass.osgeo.org/grass64/source/grass-6.4.3RC4.tar.gz

Binaries download:

• winGRASS 6.4.3RC4 standalone installer
• winGRASS 6.4.3RC4 in OSGeo4W installer
• Arch Linux
• openSUSE One-Click installer
• Mac OS X 10.6 Snow leopard
• … further packages will follow shortly.

To get the GRASS GIS 6.4.3RC4 source code directly from SVN:
 svn checkout http://svn.osgeo.org/grass/grass/tags/release_20130710_grass_6_4_3RC4

Key improvements of this release include some new functionality (assistance for topologically unclean vector data), fixes in the vector network modules, fixes for the wxPython based portable graphical interface (attribute table management, wxNVIZ, and Cartographic Composer), fixes in the location wizard for Datum transform selection and support for PROJ.4 version 4.8.0, improvements for selecting the Python version to be used, enhanced portability for MS-Windows (native support, fixes in case of missing system DLLs), and more translations (esp. Romanian).

Please contact Markus Neteler ([email protected] – GRASS GIS PSC Chair) for further details.
Wait – it is also possible to buy a round of beer for the developers with a quick click using the PayPal “Buy [pizza/beer/...] Now” button below: (… more pizza & beer for the developers)

About the Community Sprint

Join us at FOSS4G Central and Eastern Europe (FOSS4G-CEE) 2013 from 16th – 20th June, National Library of Romania, Bucharest, Romania.

You will meet well known Keynote Speakers (random order): Jeff McKenna, Paul C. Smits, Jáchym Čepický, Schuyler Erle, Maria Antonia Brovelli, Dirk Frigne, Markus Neteler, Alyssa Wright, and Radu Puchiu.

Check the long list of Practical Workshops and Oral Presentations at: http://2013.foss4g-cee.org/program/schedule
Check out for the additional Code Sprint, the Open GeoData Hackathon, and the Open Data Side Event.

How to arrive? See http://2013.foss4g-cee.org/venue/map

Disclaimer: strictly offtopic Just a personal health state report, nutshell version…

Maybe some have noted my temporal “disappearance” from email and such in January. The reason was that I spent almost 50 days in hospital since beginning of December. So, what happened?

On 10th December I went to the “Centro Gallucci” of the Padua University Hospital for “routine” examinations in preparation for a future surgery (I know of my heart problems for years; they did not have much effect on my life since I was asymptomatic). But after the initial examinations they scheduled me for an emergency surgery. Err, little shock…

Eventually, I got the open heart surgery on 3rd January (“Bentall-De Bono” method, 7hs of surgery in total, 2hs heart in standstill). During the surgery they realized that the heart state was even worse than known before, with an estimated life expectancy of perhaps months only not having it done immediately (they got me from the cliff). Anyway, the surgery went well, I have now a mechanical valve + ascending aorta (so, you can hear me now :p). BTW: you go in awake, the Padua staff was really nice. And interesting to see how they prepare the surgery, a busy moment (then send make you sleep in no time).

On 10th January I was send to the rehabilitation center (Codivilla-Putti hospital, Cortina d’Ampezzo). However, I got a complication which is not uncommon: inner bleedings with a starting cardiac tamponade as discovered some days later. On 14th January, during heavy snowfall at Cortina, high speed ambulance ride back to Padua, with immediate drainage surgery (lung area and heart, removing more than 2l of liquid). Not really fun… (this little surgery also on a Monday, same time, same room, same staff!). But after some days I got way better. Just 10% of my body weight was meanwhile gone.

On 23rd January I was brought back again to the Cortina rehabilitation center where I spend two nice weeks – no more issues so far

Since 5th February I am back home – and will stay here for a longer while. Various odds and ends need to be resolved first – the recovery is long but steady!

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