TT005E: Introduction to GDAL for TUFLOW - Free eLearning

The 2022 TUFLOW Classic/HPC release included two exciting new GIS file format options, namely GeoTiff and GeoPackage. These formats have a range of advantages over the previously supported GIS formats.

• GeoTiff is a new alternative option instead of ASC and FLT rasters. GeoTiff supports high order data compression than ASC and FLT. Greater compression translates to smaller file sizes. 
• GeoPackage is a new alternative to the MIF/MID and SHP vector formats. This new format uses a database format, subsequently reducing the number of files in a standard TUFLOW project by 100's to 1000's! GeoPackage is spatially indexed. This feature increases the data load and edit speed in GIS software by over an order of magnitude compared to the MIF/MID and SHP vector formats. The effecient architecture of GeoPackage also means TUFLOW can write outputs 2 to 3 times faster than to SHP files.   

GDAL is a translator library for raster and vector geospatial data formats. Participants will be introduced to the GDAL programs by working through a number of practical examples using gdal_translate.exe and ogr2ogr.exe. Course topics include:

1. How to to install GDAL, including options to install it without admininstrator rights
2. Convert between raster formats (e.g. ASC to GeoTiff)
3. Convert between vector formats (e.g. Shapefile to Geopackage)
4. How to use the advanced creation options to customise outputs (e.g. add compression)