[GRASS-dev] GRASS "custom" applications

[Thomas Adams]

Folks:

Please take a look at this: http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/ohrfc/fop.html

which was created using ArcGIS 9.x through some customization of the GUI 
to make the creation of the graphic a one-step process. Now, this 
graphic could easily be created using a script in GRASS (or, presumably, 
in ArcGIS), so it's an uninteresting example. But we use the graphic to 
depict areas of potential flooding (as indicated by the legend) by 
drawing color-filled polygons with text annotations to indicate the 
period over which the flooding is likely, as shown here:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/wgrfc/fop/wgrfcfop.html

for a different region of the U.S. My question is this: how should I 
proceed to do this through some customization of the GRASS interface to 
"hide" GRASS details using a somewhat simplified GUI tool. I should add, 
that the flood risk polygons are exported to a text format file, which 
is then transmitted to a national center to generate a National product 
like this:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/wgrfc/fop/wgrfcfop.html

I am also interested in an unrelated 'custom applcation' that would 
essentially combine a series of GRASS analyses into single step 
processes utilizing the GRASS GUI to initiate the analyses and set some 
parameters — for various hydrologic analyses, including:

(1) identification of snow elevation zones (disconnected regions within 
a watershed, above a certain elevation)
(2) basin boundary delineation for a set of watershed outlets (utilizing 
r.water.outlet, etc.)
(3) model parameter estimation

I think most of this could be done as GRASS add-ons; would this be the 
way to go, or would embellishing the GRASS Tcl/Tk interface be necessary 
(something I would rather NOT do for several reasons).

Thanks for any and all feedback!

Tom

-- 
Thomas E Adams
National Weather Service
Ohio River Forecast Center
1901 South State Route 134
Wilmington, OH 45177

EMAIL:	thomas.adams at noaa.gov

VOICE:	937-383-0528
FAX:	937-383-0033