[GRASS-dev] Add a cost distance measure to GRASS GIS lib

[Benjamin Ducke]

Hi All,

I have been pondering this for a while and would
like to know if people on this list think the
following would be a feasible/useful addition to
GRASS (7):

How about, in addition to the MASK raster, we'd
also allow the user to specify a COST raster?
This would allow all raster modules that currently
use an euclidean distance measure (KDE, IDW, ...)
to use a cost-based measure instead, without adding
more options to the individual modules.

In addition to the COST raster, we could modify the
basic distance function in the GRASS GIS lib to
automatically return a cost-based result if the
COST raster is present. This way, there would have
to be no or only minimal modifications to existing
modules.

For anisotropic cost distances, we could allow a
DIRECTION raster.

Ben