Assessing Wind Energy Resources using Grass and QGIS

All Authorities need to assess the potential for low, medium and high wind resources within their respective areas. In Wales the WG (Welsh Government) have produced a publication entitled 'Planning for Renewable and Low Carbon Energy - A Toolkit for Planners' in 2010.

I've attached a 'How to' guide which attempts to work through the toolkit using Grass and QGIS 1.8 to interpret the guide as we understand it. This includes a detailed description of how to import ascii files into Grass GIS to display as a raster layer.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwWaeb1nDyejSnRTTV9JV3BrN3M/edit?usp=sharing

New German Open Source Blog worth a visit

I've come across another Open Source Blog worthy of a look. What is immediately interesting about this Blog is that it does not use any reference to 'I.T', 'Information' 'System', 'Science' or 'location' in it's title...how refreshing to know 'Geography' is still out there.

http://www.digital-geography.com/tag/en/

QGIS and Python

Until now there has not been a book that covers QGIS and Python. There was 'Rapid GUI Programming with Python and Qt' by Mark Summerfield and 'Python Geo-spatial Development' by Eric Westra but for people like me who never learned programming in thier youth this prospective new book may be the incentive I need to get started. There are plenty of Python Books available but if I'm going to learn a scripting language I want it to be relevant to the geo-spatial field I work in.

Gary E. Sherman author of 'The Geospatial Desktop' and 'Desktop GIS, Mapping the Planet with Open Source Tools' is promising to fill the gap again with 'The PyQGIS Programmers Guide, Extending Quantum GIS with Python'. Although not available yet it is due in the second quarter of 2013. Click on the link for the proposed content.

http://pythongisbook.com/

FOSS4G 2013 here in the UK

Don't forget the dates...17th-21st September 2013 East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham. This event is directly following on from the AGI Conference.

http://2013.foss4g.org/

OSGeo-Live (now at version 6)

Now that OSGIS is an acceptable alternative to proprietary offerings we need to be aware of 'the other' tools and libraries that rarely get a second look against the likes of QGIS, Geoserver and PostGIS.

I'm referring to Cameron Shorter's excellent OSGEO Live DVD, a ready compiled .iso image which can be copied and run from a usb drive or DVD and used without installation on the host computer. It is worth checking this presentation for a comprehensive selection of Open Source Mapping Tools.

http://live.osgeo.org/