Title: Lesson 1: Introduction to MS DOS – GDAL/OGR
Course: Free and open source tools for GI-Science - GDAL, QGIS and ILWIS 386 > Section: Course Content

This lesson will instruct on the use of MS DOS and GDAL. The import procedures used are commonly applied in many GIS and RS software tools, but in this lesson the participants  are introduced to the command line routines to operate GDAL Info and GDAL Translate as well as OGR info. Utilizing GDAL from the command line is providing additional flexibility during import and data translation. It might be that participants are not familiar any more using the command line tool and some of the more basic commands. Therefore the lesson starts with a short primer on the use of MS DOS and some of the most frequent used commands.

Objectives:

The main objective is to provide the participant with an appropriate background, to enable efficient data translation and utilizing the appropriate information available in the meta data descriptions of the various data sets provided.

The ultimate objectives of this lesson are:

- To understand how to operate MS DOS using the command line interpreter;
- To understand and operate GDAL from the command line;
- To exercise and experience the import of different commonly used geo-spatial data formats into a free GIS environment for further data processing.

Entrance Requirements:

Preferably have acquired basic knowledge of in the field of RS and GIS.

Furthermore the course requires the following background from the participants:

- Working knowledge of English;
- Ability to use notepad to retrieve meta data information;
- Proficiency using computers and ability to install software tools used during the course;
- Online access and familiar to use the EENSAT Education portal, upload of assignments;

Notions to be Grasped:

- The participant is knowledgeable on the use of basic MS DOS commands;
- The participant is able retrieve meta data information contained in raster and vector files and analyse the information provided;
- The participant knows to apply GDAL and perform raster and vector translations

Learning Activities:

Suggested sequence of studies:

- Study the PowerPoint presentation “GDAL_overviewPPT.pdf”
- Read chapter 2.1.1 and 2.1.2 from the document  “GDAL_overview.pdf” – dealing with GDAL Info
- Read chapter 2.2.1 to 2.2.5 and  from the document  “GDAL_overview.pdf” – dealing with GDAL Translate. Take special note of the command line syntax used.
- Conduct the exercises a described under “Tasks”

Tasks:

The tasks for this lesson are described in the document “Introduction to MS DOS ‐ GDAL/OGR.pdf”. Follow the instructions provided in this document and conduct the exercises as described.

Assignment:

The assignment for this lesson is to write a 2 page report showing the results of the import of the projected image as described in Chapter 7 of the lesson 1 document “Introduction to MS DOS ‐ GDAL/OGR.pdf”. The report should describe the command line syntax used during the various steps and provide a visualization of the results obtained. This document should be uploaded in the LMS.

Only if time allows Note that the data used within the document “GDAL_overview.pdf” is also provided. Now that you are introduced to GDAL from the command line prompt, you can try some of the commands as stated in the document “GDAL_overview.pdf” for chapter 2.1.1 and 2.1.2 and chapter 2.2.1 to 2.2.5. In order to do this retrieve the file “GDAL_exercise_data.zip”, unzip this file on your system. Start GDAL and navigate to the folder and execute the commands as indicated in the workshop handout for the respective chapters indicated above.

Planned time for this lesson:

6 hours