Geographic Information System (GIS) Software

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GIS Software

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are tools that specialize in helping understand and visualize large amounts of quantitative data multidisciplinary environments data in graphical and tabular forms. It has also other relevant capabilities of querying, analyzing, interpretation, visualization and presenting the results thematically. GIS software is mandatory and vital for holistic Information Management. It has the potential to deal and help with crucial and difficult activities by facilitating any overwhelmingly complex data-driven problems for decision makers, key policy-makers, funders and related constituents. Therefore anything that makes this process more efficient and effective is worth investigating. With this regard, some of the popular GIS Software, divided here below as Open Source, freely downloadable and applicable performing in geospatial analysis and the Commercial GIS software which can be acquired by paying a specific cost; are briefly described and their pertinent locations are indicated by a link path attached to respectively.

Open Source software

GRASS GIS

GRASS GIS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System) is a free, open source GIS applicable in handling raster, topological vector, image processing, and graphic data. It can be used on multiple platforms, including Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Linux. GRASS supports topology, and vector network analysis. Attributes are managed in .dbf files or SQL-based DBMS such as MySQL, PostgreSQL / PostGIS. The system is capable of visualizing 3D vector graphics. GRASS supports raster and vector formats including OGC-conformal features for interoperability with other GIS. For further information, see link: ^[1]

SAGA GIS

SAGA (System for Automated GeoScientific Analyses) is an open source GIS with an Application Programming Interface (API) and a set of GeoScientific methods, bundled in exchangeable Module Libraries. SAGA GIS is an effective tool with user friendly GUI and supports projection, interpolation and file system handling, Terrain analysis and is available for Windows and Linux. For further information, see link: ^[2]

uDig GIS

uDig is GIS software program produced by a community led by Canadian-based consulting company Refractions Research, features full layered Open Source GIS. It is written in Java. It supports shape files, PostGIS, WMS, and many other data sources natively. User friendly, Desktop located, runs on Windows, Mac OS/X and Linux and is Internet oriented. For further information, see link: ^[3]

ILWIS GIS

ILWIS (Integrated Land and Water Information System) is an open source GIS / Remote sensing, both vector and raster processing. Features included digitizing, editing, analysis and display of data as well as map productions. It uses GIS techniques that integrate image processing capabilities, a tabular database and conventional GIS characteristics, currently available natively only on Microsoft Windows. For further information, see link: ^[4]

Quantum GIS

Quantum GIS (QGIS) is a free Open source software Geographic Information Systems application that provides data viewing, editing, and analysis capabilities and runs on Linux, UNIX, Mac OS X, and Windows. For further information, see link: ^[5]

gvSIG

gvSIG is a multilingual, open source, written in Java geographic information system (GIS) that can handle both vector and raster data. It features basic editing tools for the creation and maintenance of vector or raster spatial data. Currently gvSIG runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X operating systems. It supports open and proprietary geospatial data. For further information, see link: ^[6]

Case Studies

OSGeo, the Open Source Geospatial Foundation ^[7], a non-profit non-governmental organization whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data, has prepared a list of case studies of projects that include Geospatial Open Source components, including Open Source GIS software, see link ^[8]

Commercial software

ESRI ArcGIS

ArcGIS an ESRI suite of GIS software products, which operate on desktop, server, and mobile platforms, current suite, is version 9.3. Allows users to author, analyze, map, manage, share, and publish geographic information. ArcView provides a robust set of GIS capabilities suitable for many GIS applications. ArcEditor, at added cost, expands the desktop capabilities including server geodatabase editing. ArcInfo provides full, advanced analysis and data management capabilities, including geostatistical and topological analysis tools. At all levels of licensing, ArcMap, ArcCatalog and ArcToolbox are applications comprising the desktop package. For further information, see link: ^[9]

MapInfo

MapInfo Professional is a Desktop Mapping System software product produced by MapInfo Corporation. It has the ability to combine and display data from a variety of sources. The software is capable of overlaying raster and vector layers on the same map and performs spatial analysis. It is available for the Microsoft Windows. The development program is MapBasic. For further information, see link: ^[10]

IDRISI

IDRISI is an integrated GIS and remote sensing software developed by Clark Labs at Clark University for the analysis and display of digital geospatial information. IDRISI is a PC grid-based system that offers tools for analyzing earth system dynamics for effective decision making in environmental management, sustainable resource developments etc. For further information, see link: ^[11]

Smallworld GIS

Smallworld Suite is AM/FM/GIS software for outage management, engineering design, Network Inventories for telecommunications and Spatial Intelligence for business analysis. Recent developments include advanced functionality for automation of design activities; in particular modeling and tracking the entire design, which is constructed as built process. For further information, see link: ^[12]

Bentley Map V8i

Bentley Map V8i is a full-featured GIS designed to address the unique and challenging needs of organizations that map, plan, design, build, and operate the world’s infrastructure. It enhances underlying MicroStation capabilities to power precision geospatial data creation, maintenance, and analysis. For further information, see link: ^[13]

CARIS GIS Professional

CARIS Marine GIS provides a comprehensive spatial information management tool that addresses the GIS needs of a marine operational environment. CARIS provide a range of products, many with a strong marine/hydrographic survey and charting focus. For further information, see link: ^[14]

Manifold GIS

General purpose GIS, very extensive toolsets, vector focused with raster support. OGC compliant includes basic operations such as buffer and clip, but also more complex operations such as spline smoothing and Voronoi region computation and a range of surface analysis operations (e.g. map algebra, visibility analysis, interpolation ... etc). For further information, see link: ^[15]

Evaluation of open source GIS

The article, Evaluating open source GIS for libraries, provides an overview of free and open source (FOSS) geographic information system software within the broader contexts of the open source software movement and developments in GIS. The study found that each of the six individual FOSS GIS applications evaluated (GRASS, QGIS, uDig, gvSIG, OpenJUMP, and MapWindow) had their own particular strengths and weaknesses and some performed well for thematic mapping. The FOSS packages generally were weaker compared to ArcGIS in terms of support for various projection and coordinate systems, joining attribute data to GIS files, and automatic labeling, but their advantage is that they were free in terms of cost and licensing restrictions. Documentation, support, and training for ArcGIS, MapINFO, and other products still outstrips that of the FOSS alternatives. ^[16]

The paper An Overview on Current Free and Open Source Desktop GIS Developments provides an overview on free and open source desktop GIS projects and describes the different desktop GIS software projects in terms of their main characteristics. Two tables summarise functionality of the currently available software discusses the advantages and disadvantages of open source software, with an emphasis on research and teaching.^[17]

References

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Information about this article

Short title: GIS Software

Description: Description of selection of Open Source and Comercial GIS Software

Expertise level: beginner

Author: Greg Reed

Approval status: approved

Approved by: Greg Reed

Last change: 2010-5-30

Subsection of: Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Contact

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[0] GRASS GIS

[1] SAGA GIS

[2] uDIG GIS

[3] ILWIS GIS

[4] Quantum GIS

[5] vSIG

[6] OSGeo Open Source Geospatial Foundation

[7] OSGeo Case Studies

[8] ESRI ArcGIS

[9] MapInfo

[10] IDRISI

[11] Smallworld GIS

[12] Bently Map

[13] CARIS GIS

[14] Manifold GIS

[15] Evaluating open source GIS for libraries

[16] An Overview on Current Free and Open Source Desktop GIS Developments

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