Geographic information system software


A GIS software program is a computer program to support the use of a geographic information system, providing the ability to create, store, manage, query, analyze, and visualize geographic data, that is, data representing phenomena for which location is important. The GIS software industry encompasses a broad range of commercial and open-source products that provide some or all of these capabilities within various information technology architectures.

History

The earliest geographic information systems, such as the Canadian Geographic Information System started in 1963, were bespoke programs developed specifically for a single installation, based on custom-designed data models. During the 1950s and 1960s, academic researchers during the quantitative revolution of geography began writing computer programs to perform spatial analysis, especially at the University of Washington and the University of Michigan, but these were also custom programs that were rarely available to other potential users.
Perhaps the first general-purpose software that provided a range of GIS functionality was the Synagraphic Mapping Package, developed by Howard T. Fisher and others at the nascent Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis starting in 1965. While not a true full-range GIS program, it included some basic mapping and analysis functions, and was freely available to other users. Through the 1970s, the Harvard Lab continued to develop and publish other packages focused on automating specific operations, such as SYMVU, CALFORM, POLYVRT, WHIRLPOOL, GRID and IMGRID, and others. During the late 1970s, several of these modules were brought together into Odyssey, one of the first commercial complete GIS programs, released in 1980.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, GIS was emerging in many large government agencies that were responsible for managing land and facilities. Particularly, federal agencies of the United States government developed software that was by definition in the public domain because of the Freedom of Information Act, and was thus released to the public. Notable examples included the Map Overlay and Statistical System developed by the Fish & Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management starting in 1976; the PROJ library developed at the United States Geological Survey, one of the first programming libraries available; and GRASS GIS originally developed by the Army Corps of Engineers starting in 1982. These formed the foundation of the open source GIS software community.
The 1980s also saw the beginnings of most commercial GIS software, including Esri ARC/INFO in 1982; Intergraph IGDS in 1985, and the Mapping Display and Analysis System, the first GIS product for MS-DOS personal computers, which later became MapInfo. These would proliferate in the 1990s with the advent of more powerful personal computers, Microsoft Windows, and the 1990 U.S. census, which raised awareness of the usefulness of geographic data to businesses and other new users.
Several trends emerged in the late 1990s that have significantly changed the GIS software ecosystem leading to the present, by moving in directions beyond the traditional full-featured desktop GIS application. The emergence of object-oriented programming languages facilitated the release of component libraries and application programming interfaces, both commercial and open-source, which encapsulated specific GIS functions, allowing programmers to build spatial capabilities into their own programs. Second, the development of spatial extensions to object-relational database management systems created new opportunities for data storage for traditional GIS, but also enabled spatial capabilities to be integrated into enterprise information systems, including business processes such as human resources. Third, as the World Wide Web emerged, web mapping quickly became one of its most popular applications; this led to the development of Server-based GIS software that could perform the same functions as a traditional GIS, but at a location remote from a client who only needed a web browser installed. All of these have combined to enable emerging trends in GIS software, such as the use of cloud computing, software as a service, and smartphones to broaden the availability of spatial data, processing, and visualization.

Types of software

The software component of a traditional geographic information system is expected to provide a wide range of functions for handling spatial data:
The modern GIS software ecosystem includes a variety of products that may include more or less of these capabilities, collect them in a single program, or distribute them over the Internet. These products can be grouped into the following broad classes:
;Desktop GIS application
;Server GIS application
;Geospatial library
;Spatial database
The current software industry consists of many competing products of each of these types, in both open-source and commercial forms. Many of these are listed below; for a direct comparison of the characteristics of some of them, see Comparison of geographic information systems software.

Open source software

The development of open source GIS software has—in terms of software history—a long tradition with the appearance of a first system in 1978. Numerous systems are available which cover all sectors of geospatial data handling.

Desktop GIS

The following open-source desktop GIS projects are reviewed in Steiniger and Bocher :
  • GRASS GIS - Geospatial data management, vector and raster manipulation - developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
  • gvSIG - Mapping and geoprocessing with a 3D rendering plugin
  • ILWIS - Integrates image, vector and thematic data.
  • JUMP GIS / OpenJUMP - The desktop GISs OpenJUMP, SkyJUMP, deeJUMP and Kosmo all emerged from JUMP.
  • MapWindow GIS - Free desktop application with plugins and a programmer library
  • QGIS - Powerful cartographic and geospatial data processing tools with extensive plug-in support
  • SAGA GIS - Tools for environmental modeling, terrain analysis, and 3D mapping
  • uDig - API and source code available.
Besides these, there are other open source GIS tools:
  • Generic Mapping Tools - A collection of command-line tools for manipulating geographic and Cartesian data sets and producing PostScript illustrations.
  • FalconView - A mapping system created by the Georgia Tech Research Institute for Windows. A free, open source version is available.
  • Kalypso - Uses Java and GML3. Focuses mainly on numerical simulations in water management.
  • TerraView - Handles vector and raster data stored in a relational or geo-relational database, i.e. a frontend for TerraLib.
  • Whitebox GAT - Cross-platform, free and open-source GIS software.

    Other geospatial tools

Apart from desktop GIS, many other types of GIS software exist.

Web map servers

  • GeoServer - Written in Java and relies on GeoTools. Allows users to share and edit geospatial data.
  • MapGuide Open Source - Runs on Linux or Windows, supports Apache and IIS web servers, and has APIs for application development.
  • Mapnik - C++/Python library for rendering - used by OpenStreetMap.
  • MapServer - Written in C. Developed by the University of Minnesota.

    Spatial database management systems

  • PostGIS - Spatial extensions for the open source PostgreSQL database, allowing geospatial queries.
  • ArangoDB - Builtin features available for Spatial data management, allowing geospatial queries.
  • SpatiaLite - Spatial extensions for the open source SQLite database, allowing geospatial queries.
  • TerraLib - Provides advanced functions for GIS analysis.
  • OrientDB - Builtin features available for Spatial data management, allowing geospatial queries.

    Software development frameworks and libraries (for web applications)

  • GeoBase - Geospatial mapping software available as a software development kit.
  • OpenLayers - Open source AJAX library for accessing geographic data layers of all kinds, originally developed and sponsored by MetaCarta.
  • Leafletjs - Open source JavaScript Library for Mobile-Friendly Interactive Maps
  • xeokit - Open-source JavaScript SDK for high-performance 3D visualization of BIM and engineering models in web browsers with support for formats like IFC, CityJSON, and LAS/LAZ, with global coordinates and double-precision rendering suitable for GIS applications.

    Software development frameworks and libraries (non-web)

  • GeoTools - Open source GIS toolkit written in Java, using Open Geospatial Consortium specifications.
  • GDAL / OGR
  • Orfeo toolbox

    Cataloging application for spatially referenced resources

  • GeoNetwork opensource - A catalog application to manage spatially referenced resources
  • pycsw - pycsw is an OGC CSW server implementation written in Python

    Other tools

Commercial or proprietary GIS software

Desktop GIS

Note: Almost all of the companies below offer Desktop GIS and WebMap Server products. Some such as Manifold Systems and Esri offer Spatial DBMS products as well.

Companies with high market share