Open Source GIS:
A GRASS GIS Approach

Markus Neteler, Helena Mitasova
1. Edition 2002, 460 pages
ISBN: 1-4020-7088-8
Kluwer Academic Press, Boston, Dordrecht
available: May/June 2002

Open Source Software is one of the most striking innovations in software development in the 1990s. It has been stimulated by the success of LINUX and the Internet which facilitated global communication as well as data and software exchange. The Geographical Information System GRASS (Geographical Resources Analysis Support System) is the largest Free Software GIS Project and by the size of the code it belongs to the top ten list of all Open Source Projects worldwide.

Open Source GIS: A GRASS GIS Approach was written for experienced GIS users, who want to learn GRASS, as well as for the Open Source software users who are GIS newcomers.
Following the Open Source model of GRASS, the book includes links to sites where the GRASS system and on-line reference manuals can be downloaded and additional applications can be viewed. The project's web site can be reached at http://grass.itc.it and a number of mirror sites worldwide.

Open Source GIS: A GRASS GIS Approach, provides basic information about the use of GRASS from setting up the spatial database, through working with raster, vector and site data, to image processing and hands-on applications. This book also contains a brief introduction to programming within GRASS encouraging the new GRASS development. The power of computing within Open Source environment is illustrated by examples of the GRASS usage with other Open Source software tools, such as GSTAT, R statistical language, and linking GRASS to MapServer.

Open Source GIS: A GRASS GIS Approach is designed to meet the needs of a professional audience composed of researchers and practitioners in industry and graduate level students in Computer Science and Geosciences.