November 29, 2012
Export UMBS Research Site Gazetteer to CSV to KML
1. Visit and download sites and lats/longs http://umbs.lsa.umich.edu/research/research_sites
2. Install a csv to KML converter
- I dowloaded the 32bit debian and ran the installer
- To open a the program go here and double-click /usr/local/bin/kmlcsv-converter (note I navigated within a sudo nautilus window to give the program permission to write within my Documents folder)
3. Move lats/longs on CSV to first two columns (kmlcsv expects this apparently.) Remove header line as that will become a site otherwise.
4. In google-earth go to File > Open and select your KML file.
5. To select a subset of the research sites add a new Folder under My Places then locate a site of interest > Right click > Save to My Places
Posted by kkwaiser at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)
June 17, 2011
Convert TIFF file to IMG or other raster in ArcMap
After loading the TIFF files into an ArcMap window, simply right-click > Data > Data export.
A
Posted by kkwaiser at 03:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 30, 2011
Installing PostGIS and Postgres on Ubuntu
Note: These are my working notes, there are better tutorials online.
PostgresSQL and PGAdmin
$ sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-client postgresql-contrib pgadmin3
PostGIS
$ sudo apt-get install postgresql-8.4-postgis
$ sudo su postgres
$ createdb postgistemplate
$createlang plpgsql postgistemplate
These fail (no file or directory):
psql -d postgistemplate -f /usr/share/postgresql-8.2-postgis/lwpostgis.sql
psql -d postgistemplate -f /usr/share/postgresql-8.2-postgis/spatial_ref_sys.sql
Install PHPpgAdmin (because it is different than pgadmin3):
$ sudo apt-get install phppgadmin
$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
$ sudo nano /etc/phppgadmin/apache.conf
$ sudo service apache2 reload
Login to postgresql:
$ sudo -u postgres psql postgres
Set superuser password:
postgres=# \password postgres
Restart postgresql:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.4 restart
To connect via PHPPgAdmin you need to create a non-superuser role (i.e., you can't connect via user postgres)
Posted by kkwaiser at 03:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 09, 2011
Connecting ArcGIS and PostGIS
Doing some research on the viability of setting up a spatial server. One option is to setup Postgres + PostGIS but a precondition would be the ability to read data from PostGIS directly into ArcMap for viewing (if not editing.)
How can I connect to a PostGIS database from ArcMap 9.3 and 10.0?
- Suggestions are ZigGIS for Arc 9.x
- Use a Query Layer to connect for Arc 10.x (viewing only)
zigGIS
- A summary of some of zigGIS' capabilities.
- Version 2.0 is propreitary but 3.0 will be opensource. Here's the roadmap for 3.0.
- Thoughtful blogpost from a developer with first-hand involvement in zigGIS.
Query Layer in Arc 10.x
- What is a query layer?
- Summary information from ESRI.
- Potentially useful How To involving Query Layers, postGIS and Dekho(?).
Posted by kkwaiser at 09:33 AM | Comments (1)
March 06, 2011
Cloud based GIS server
Possible solution to our need for a GIS-based data management solution.
Original ESRI press release.
More on ESRI's relationship with Amazon.
Suggested read from SpatiallyAdjusted.
PostGIS on a Window 2008 Server installed on the cloud.
What about running Postgres on Amazon's EC2?
Email exchange on Amazon EC2 and geoservers.
Posted by kkwaiser at 01:29 PM | Comments (0)
February 24, 2011
Opensource Web Mapping and GIS Summary
Premise: we do not have a sufficient plan for managing spatial data at UMBS. Currently, it is housed on a computer maintained by the Resident Biologist which, while backed-up and secure, makes version control, editing and access difficult. Ideally, at some point we will go to a web infrastructure for this. I've got a lot to learn on this subject so here goes.
Following this talk Stefan Steiniger - Building on Open Source GIS @ COSSFest 2010:
- WMS (Web Map Service) - allows for the provision of maps as images
- WFS (Web Feature Service) - allows transmission of geographical features. OGC, ESRI and the above video indicate it is used for vector data while other definitions indicate WFS and WCS provide similar uses and that WFS is better and could potentially replace WCS.
- WCS (Web Coverage Service) - allows for the transmission of raster data.
- WPS (Web Processing Service) - allows spatial operations (e.g. subtracting layers) to be conducted on stored data
- WFS-T (Web Feature Service) - allows creation, deletion, and updating of features
Web Map Server Software
- GeoServer - supports WMS, WFS, WFS-T, WCS, SLD, GML, KML. GeoServer and MapServer have many similarities but there are distinguishing characteristics.
- MapServer - supports EMS, WFS, WFS, WCS, SLD, WMC, GML but not WFS-T
- AutoDesk MapGuide - have an opensource, feature-limited version.
- deegree - how ze Germans do web mapping. A development framework.
- FeatureServer - REST based
- GeoRest - REST based
Web GIS Server - server-side data processing utilizing WPS
- GeoServer - Planned for the 2.1 version but is still in the works.
- 52 North WPS
- PyWPS
- deegree - probably warrants more investigation
Spatial Database Management Systems
- PostGIS - most advanced
- MySQL Spatial - bounding queries use rectangles only
- SQLite
Catalogue/Registry Metadata - data discovery tools which offer UI's for querying and displaying data
- GeoNetwork OS - ISO19115/ISO19119/ISO19110 following ISO19139, FGDC and Dublin Core. Several mentions of GeoServer interoperability
- MDweb - (ISO 19115, 19119) and communication (OGC’s CSW-2)
- deegree
Posted by kkwaiser at 09:12 AM | Comments (0)