If someone has a work flow for digitizing boundaries (e.g., river banks)
from Google Earth images I would appreciate learning how to do this better
than my previous efforts. Or, if there's a way to convert a GE map to a
raster that can be used and analyzed in GRASS that would be even better.
Regards,
Rich
Not sure if r.in.gdal or r.in.wms can load Google Earth tiles.
QGIS has a nice way of loading external tiles and WMS servers as a background image. You could than digitize on top of that. But since Google changed their MAPs API, I’m not sure if QGIS is loading Google Earth Images straight out of the box. It’s been a while since I’ve used this feature.
Also, I’m not sure what to make of this part of the Google Maps Platform terms of service, in the section about “restrictions against misusing”
https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/terms/
3.2.4 Restrictions Against Misusing the Services.
(a) No Scraping. Customer will not extract, export, scrape, or cache Google Maps Content for use outside the Services. For example, Customer will not:(i) pre-fetch, index, store, reshare, or rehost Google Maps Content outside the services; (ii) bulk download geocodes; (iii) copy business names, addresses, or user reviews; or (iv) use Google Maps Content with text-to-speech services. Caching is permitted for certain Services as described in the Maps Service Specific Terms.
(b) No Creating Content From Google Maps Content. Customer will not create content based on Google Maps Content, including tracing, digitizing, or creating other datasets based on Google Maps Content
Cheers
Daniel
On Sat, Feb 2, 2019 at 3:57 PM Rich Shepard <rshepard@appl-ecosys.com> wrote:
If someone has a work flow for digitizing boundaries (e.g., river banks)
from Google Earth images I would appreciate learning how to do this better
than my previous efforts. Or, if there’s a way to convert a GE map to a
raster that can be used and analyzed in GRASS that would be even better.Regards,
Rich
grass-user mailing list
grass-user@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-user
On Mon, 4 Feb 2019, Daniel Victoria wrote:
Not sure if r.in.gdal or r.in.wms can load Google Earth tiles.
Daniel,
Both are worth a try.
QGIS has a nice way of loading external tiles and WMS servers as a
background image. You could than digitize on top of that. But since Google
changed their MAPs API, I'm not sure if QGIS is loading Google Earth
Images straight out of the box. It's been a while since I've used this
feature.
Also something for me to consider.
Also, I'm not sure what to make of this part of the Google Maps Platform
terms of service, in the section about "restrictions against misusing"
(a) No Scraping. Customer will not extract, export, scrape, or cache
Google Maps Content for use outside the Services. For example, Customer
will not:(i) pre-fetch, index, store, reshare, or rehost Google Maps
Content outside the services; (ii) bulk download geocodes; (iii) copy
business names, addresses, or user reviews; or (iv) use Google Maps Content
with text-to-speech services. Caching is permitted for certain Services as
described in the Maps Service Specific Terms.(b) No Creating Content From Google Maps Content. Customer will not create
content based on Google Maps Content, including tracing, digitizing, or
creating other datasets based on Google Maps Content
I read the above as prohibiting re-using GE maps in web applications or for
profit as products, but not prohibiting using the tiles as background for
maps produced by a GIS.
The other part of my question, which was not clearly stated, is how to use
v.edit or the GUI digitizing tool to closely follow an edge in a background
map. Perhaps the way to do this is to zoom in on a small section, digitize a
series of short arcs, save the work and exit digitizing, then pan the
working widow and repeat the above. I've not been able to digitize a project
area, for example, while viewing the entire area.
Thanks for your reply,
Rich
Hi Rich,
Regarding the use of Google Maps for digitizing, I just bumped into another site stating the permissions.
I’m not a lawyer so I’m not sure I understood everything correctly. But from the site, I could not find anything prohibiting the use of Google Maps to digitize things ‘not for profit’.
https://www.google.com/permissions/geoguidelines/
Of course, I could be wrong…
As for your other question, about using v.digit, I’m afraid I can’t give much help.
Cheers
Daniel
On Mon, Feb 4, 2019 at 11:11 PM Rich Shepard <rshepard@appl-ecosys.com> wrote:
On Mon, 4 Feb 2019, Daniel Victoria wrote:
Not sure if r.in.gdal or r.in.wms can load Google Earth tiles.
Daniel,
Both are worth a try.
QGIS has a nice way of loading external tiles and WMS servers as a
background image. You could than digitize on top of that. But since Google
changed their MAPs API, I’m not sure if QGIS is loading Google Earth
Images straight out of the box. It’s been a while since I’ve used this
feature.Also something for me to consider.
Also, I’m not sure what to make of this part of the Google Maps Platform
terms of service, in the section about “restrictions against misusing”(a) No Scraping. Customer will not extract, export, scrape, or cache
Google Maps Content for use outside the Services. For example, Customer
will not:(i) pre-fetch, index, store, reshare, or rehost Google Maps
Content outside the services; (ii) bulk download geocodes; (iii) copy
business names, addresses, or user reviews; or (iv) use Google Maps Content
with text-to-speech services. Caching is permitted for certain Services as
described in the Maps Service Specific Terms.(b) No Creating Content From Google Maps Content. Customer will not create
content based on Google Maps Content, including tracing, digitizing, or
creating other datasets based on Google Maps ContentI read the above as prohibiting re-using GE maps in web applications or for
profit as products, but not prohibiting using the tiles as background for
maps produced by a GIS.The other part of my question, which was not clearly stated, is how to use
v.edit or the GUI digitizing tool to closely follow an edge in a background
map. Perhaps the way to do this is to zoom in on a small section, digitize a
series of short arcs, save the work and exit digitizing, then pan the
working widow and repeat the above. I’ve not been able to digitize a project
area, for example, while viewing the entire area.Thanks for your reply,
Rich
grass-user mailing list
grass-user@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-user
On Tue, 5 Feb 2019, Daniel Victoria wrote:
Regarding the use of Google Maps for digitizing, I just bumped into
another site stating the permissions. I'm not a lawyer so I'm not sure I
understood everything correctly. But from the site, I could not find
anything prohibiting the use of Google Maps to digitize things 'not for
profit'.
Daniel,
Almost all terms of use prohibit 'for profit' use. By this they almost
always mean reselling the content, not using it in a context where it is, as
in this instance, background for a map and the use is not reselling the
background alone.
Of course, I could be wrong...
Of course. 
As for your other question, about using v.digit, I'm afraid I can't give
much help.
This was actually the point of my original post. I'll keep futzing and work
out a process that perhaps I can optimize over time.
Regards,
Rich