DESCRIPTION

v.surf.mass creates a raster surface from vector areas, preserving the value of the area attribute. For example, if the selected area attibute is the population count, the sum of all pixel values in a given area is equal to the area's population count.

NOTES

The current region needs to be prepared with g.region, choosing a resolution such that the smallest area is covered by at least four pixels. The current region should be completely inside the bounding box of the vector.

EXAMPLE

Pycnophylactic interpolation of Voronoi triangles using annual precipitation in the North Carolina sample data

(see below for screenshots of the results)
# setting the region
g.region -p raster=elev_state_500m

# create Voronoi diagram based on meteorological stations
v.voronoi input=precip_30ynormals output=precip_annual

# List of attributes for the vector precip_annual
v.info -c precip_annual

# v.surf.mass converts attributes to density, but rainfall is
# typically measured in mm which is the same for all cells in the
# same input area, thus:
# new column for area size and adjusted precipitation
v.db.addcolumn map=precip_annual \
     column="area double precision, prec_adj double precision"
v.to.db map=precip_annual column=area option=area units=meters

# Getting the size of the smallest area
v.db.univar precip_annual column=area

# The smallest area with some population is 1.20789e+08 square meters
# and with a resolution of 5000 meters covered by appr. four pixels 
# (depending on the shape of the area). Adjust region for that:
g.region res=5000 -ap

# adjust precipitation values: multiply by area size, dived by pixel size
v.db.update map=precip_annual column=prec_adj \
     qcolumn="annual * area / 25000000"

# mass-preserving area interpolation
v.surf.mass input=precip_annual output=precip_annual_pycno column=prec_adj iterations=200

# rasterize Voronoi diagram for comparison
v.to.rast precip_annual out=precip_annual_voronoi type=area use=attr attrcolumn=annual

# verify results
d.mon wx0
d.rast.leg precip_annual_voronoi
d.rast.leg precip_annual_pycno

Annual precipitation (30 years avg.) of North Carolina shown as Voronoi diagram based on meteorological stations (perspective view in NVIZ).
Smooth Pycnophylactic Interpolation of annual precipitation (30 years avg.) of North Carolina using the Voronoi diagram map based on meteorological stations (perspective view in NVIZ).

REFERENCES

Tobler WR. 1979. Smooth Pycnophylactic Interpolation for Geographical Regions. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 74 (367): 519-530.

AUTHOR

Markus Metz

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