GRASS Basics - Desktop GIS: Mapping the Planet with Open Source Tools - page 285

Appendix C

GRASS Basics

Once you have GRASS installed, setting up GRASS and creating your
locations is key to getting off the ground. This appendix will guide you
through creating a location using both QGIS and the GRASS shell.
From there you'll get a basic introduction to working with GRASS GIS.
Once you've mastered the basics of GRASS, you might be interested in
diving deeper with Open Source GIS: A GRASS GIS Approach by Markus
Neteler and Helena Mitasova.

C.1 Location, Location, Location

Why are we repeating ourselves? Because it's real important. One of the
key concepts in using GRASS is that of a location. Remember the old
axiom about location used in both real estate and business? Well, the
same holds true for GRASS. Once you get the concept down, you will
have mastered what many have stumbled on.

Quick Start
We are going to “cheat” to get started with GRASS data by using the
QGIS/GRASS plugin to create a new location and mapset. We'll then go
back and look at alternative ways to do the same. This method makes
it very easy to create a new location. We simply add one or more layers
to QGIS that encompass the geographic region of interest and then use
the plugin to do the dirty work. Before we do that, though, we need a
GRASS database to get started with.

A GRASS database is simply a directory where we will store our GRASS
locations and mapsets, along with the data. You can have as many