gdal_grid has some problem with reading vrt file

Question

I am using gdal_grid module(from gdal 1.10) and it has some problem with reading the vrt file. I checked this link but it does not work. gdal_grid problem reading vrt file

The command is

./gdal_grid -l grid grid.vrt newgrid.tif

The Error Message is

Unable to open input datasource "grid.vrt".

The vrt file is like following

<ORGVRTDataSource>
    <OGRVRTLayer name="grid">
        <SrcDataSource>grid.csv</SrcDataSource>
        <GeometryType>wkbPoint</GeometryType>
        <LayerSRS>WGS84</LayerSRS>
        <GeometryField encoding="PointFromColumns" x="x" y="y" z="z"/>
    </OGRVRTLayer>
</OGRVRTDataSource>

The csv file is like following

x,y,z
565650,5121960,1048
565680,5121960,1043
565710,5121960,1039
565740,5121960,1038
565770,5121960,1036
565800,5121960,1024

Thanks.

Answer 1

I'm afraid it is a typo in the first line. Try:

<OGRVRTDataSource>
    <OGRVRTLayer name="grid">
        <SrcDataSource>grid.csv</SrcDataSource>
        <GeometryType>wkbPoint25D</GeometryType>
        <LayerSRS>WGS84</LayerSRS>
        <GeometryField encoding="PointFromColumns" x="x" y="y" z="z"/>
    </OGRVRTLayer>
</OGRVRTDataSource>

I also changed the GeometryType to wkbPoint25D so it includes the Z values in the geometry

You can test with 'ogrinfo -so -al grid.vrt' to see that it isn't a problem specific to gdal_grid and to see how the driver translates your files:

$ ogrinfo -al grid.vrt 

INFO: Open of `grid.vrt'
      using driver `VRT' successful.

Layer name: grid
Geometry: 3D Point
Feature Count: 6
Extent: (565650.000000, 5121960.000000) - (565800.000000, 5121960.000000)
Layer SRS WKT:
GEOGCS["WGS 84",
    DATUM["WGS_1984",
        SPHEROID["WGS 84",6378137,298.257223563,
            AUTHORITY["EPSG","7030"]],
        TOWGS84[0,0,0,0,0,0,0],
        AUTHORITY["EPSG","6326"]],
    PRIMEM["Greenwich",0,
        AUTHORITY["EPSG","8901"]],
    UNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433,
        AUTHORITY["EPSG","9108"]],
    AUTHORITY["EPSG","4326"]]
x: String (0.0)
y: String (0.0)
z: String (0.0)
OGRFeature(grid):1
  x (String) = 565650
  y (String) = 5121960
  z (String) = 1048
  POINT (565650 5121960 1048)

OGRFeature(grid):2
  x (String) = 565680
  y (String) = 5121960
  z (String) = 1043
  POINT (565680 5121960 1043)

Note that the fields associated with each feature are strings. You could change them to be other types with a grid.csvt file:

"Real","Real","Real"

gives ... x: Real (0.0) y: Real (0.0) z: Real (0.0) OGRFeature(grid):1 x (Real) = 565650 y (Real) = 5121960 z (Real) = 1048 POINT (565650 5121960 1048)

OGRFeature(grid):2
  x (Real) = 565680
  y (Real) = 5121960
  z (Real) = 1043
  POINT (565680 5121960 1043)
...

It happily pretends the large numbers are geographic, so a mis-specified SRS doesn't cause a error at this stage.

"UTM" as a LayerSRS causes problems since it doesn't choose a specific UTM zone. You might need something like 'EPSG:32618' or '+proj=utm +zone=18 +ellps=WGS84 +datum=WGS84 +units=m +no_defs'

Answer 2

I can see to possible sources of error in your vrt :

1. You use relative path, so the vrt may not find the .csv file if not in the same directory
2. You state a layer SRS in WGS84 (= lat long) but the coordinates in your csv are definitely not geographic coordinates. This look more like a global projected coordinate system or some UTM (but this is just a guess, many other projected coordiante system could have those coordinates, however I do not expect more "local" projections to have such large Y values like here)