FOSS4G Software List

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This is an overview of major free GIS software projects. It is a personal selection aiming at listing only those projects that seem to have a stable user community or have potential to establish a wider user base. The content of this page is part of a manuscript that we submit end of January 2012: S. Steiniger and A.J.S. Hunter: "The 2012 Free and Open Source GIS Software Map – A Guide to facilitate Research, Development and Adoption".

The categories of software used are based on that presented in Steiniger and Weibel (2010): "GIS software" [1].

To test some of the software below we recommend the OSGeo Live DVD (http://live.osgeo.org) (? or GISVM - http://gisvm.com ?)

For updates send an email to sstein=.at.=geo.uzh.ch, last update on 13. Jan. 2012

A selection of FOS GIS Software Projects 2011

Desktop GIS

major:

• GRASS - http://grass.osgeo.org
• OpenJUMP - http://www.openjump.org
• Quantum GIS - http://www.qgis.org
• ILWIS Open - http://www.ilwis.org (see also the page of [https//52north.org/communities/ilwis/ 52 North] for latest releases)
• uDig - http://udig.refractions.net
• SAGA - http://www.saga-gis.org
• vgSIG - http://www.gvsig.org , and for the community edition http://www.gvsigce.org
• MapWindow - http://www.mapwindow.org

others:

• KOSMO - http://www.opengis.es
• Puzzle GIS - http://puzzle-gis.codehaus.org
• iGeoDesktop - http://www.deegree.org
• Orbis GIS - http://www.orbisgis.org
• Whitebox - http://www.uoguelph.ca/~hydrogeo/Whitebox
• Kalypso - http://kalypso.bjoernsen.de
• GearScape - http://gearscape.fergonco.es/
• Spring GIS - (not yet open source) http://www.dpi.inpe.br/spring/

Spatial Data Base Managment Systems

major:

• PostGIS for PostgreSQL - http://postgis.refractions.net
• MySQL - http://forge.mysql.com/wiki/GIS_Functions
• SpatiaLite for SQLite - http://gaia-gis.it/spatialite/

others:

• JASPA for PostgreSQL and(!) H2 - http://jaspa.upv.es/blog/)
• Hatbox for H2 - http://hatbox.sourceforge.net
• Hibernate Spatial for Hibernate - http://hibernatespatial.org
• INGRES - http://community.ingres.com/wiki/IngresGeospatial

NoSQL (see http://nosql-database.org/):

• GeoCouch for CouchDB - http://github.com/couchbase/geocouch
• MongoDB - http://www.mongodb.or

Server GIS (OGC WPS)

• 52 North WPS - http://52north.org/communities/geoprocessing/
• deegree WPS - http://wiki.deegree.org/deegreeWiki/deegree3/ProcessingService
• PyWPS - http://pywps.wald.intevation.org
• Zoo - http://www.zoo-project.org
• GeoServer - http://www.geoserver.or
• WebGEN - http://aci.ign.fr/web_service.php

Mobile GIS

• gvSIG Mobile - http://gvsig.org/web/projects/gvsig-mobile
• Geopaparazzi - see Android Market and http://code.google.com/p/geopaparazzi/

viewers for smart phones:

• gvSIG Mini - http://market.android.com/details?id=es.prodevelop.gvsig.mini&hl=en
• tangoGPS - http://www.tangogps.org
• FoxtrotGPS - http://www.foxtrotgps.org

Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis Software

• OpenGeoDa - http://geodacenter.asu.edu
• STARS - http://geodacenter.asu.edu
• PySAL - http://geodacenter.asu.edu
• R - http://www.r-project.org
• GeoVista Studio - http://geovistastudio.psu.edu

Remote Sensing Software

• OSSIM - http://www.ossim.org
• InterImage - http://www.lvc.ele.puc-rio.br/projects/interimage/
• Opticks - http://www.opticks.org
• GDL (free IDL) - http://gnudatalanguage.sourceforge.net/
• ILWIS - http://52north.org/communities/ilwis/

Software Libraries and Extensions

Data input/output and conversion libraries

• GDAL & OGR - http://www.gdal.org
• FDO - http://fdo.osgeo.org
• GDMS - http://trac.orbisgis.org/t/wiki/devs/GDMS
• GeoTools - http://www.geotools.org
• SharpMap - http://codeplex.com/SharpMap/
• LibLAS - for Lidar data, http://www.liblas.org
• JEQL - an ETL tool, http://tsusiatsoftware.net/jeql/main.html
• GeoKettle - an ETL tool, http://www.geokettle.org

Geometry libraries

• JTS Topology Suite and its ports
  • JTS (JAVA) - http://tsusiatsoftware.net
  • GEOS (C++) - http://geos.refractions.net
  • NetTopologySuite (.NET) - http://code.google.com/p/nettopologysuite/
• CGAL - http://www.cgal.org
• CGL / Boost - http://geometrylibrary.geodan.nl

Projection libraries

• Proj.4 (C/C++) - http://trac.osgeo.org/proj/
• Proj4J (Java) - http://trac.osgeo.org/proj4j/
• deegree 3 - http://wiki.deegree.org/deegreeWiki/deegree3/CRSSubsystemDevelopment
• Proj.Net - http://codeplex.com/ProjNET/
• Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) - also for beautiful maps, http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu

Geographic data processing and analysis libraries

• Sextante - known to work with gvSIG, OpenJUMP, GRASS and ArcGIS, http://www.sextantegis.com - and since Summer 2012 available as plugin for Quantum GIS
• ImageJ - http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/
• Orfeo Toolbox - http://www.orfeo-toolbox.org
• TerraLib - a spatial DBMS and more, http://www.terralib.org
• R - http://www.r-project.org
• PAL - cartographic label placement, http://pal.heig-vd.ch
• for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image tools see Simonetto and Follin (2012). Note, I can send a copy of the manuscript.

Other useful libraries

• JAVA Matrix Package (JAVA) - http://math.nist.gov/javanumerics/jama/
• JMathTools (Java) - http://jmathtools.berlios.de
• JGraphT (Java) - http://jgrapht.sourceforge.net
• JFreeChart (Java) - http://www.jfree.org
• GNU Scientific Library (C/C++) - http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/
• Boost (C/C++) - http://www.boost.org

General Frameworks for own GIS Development

• GeoTools for Java - http://www.geotools.org
• OpenMap for Java - http://openmap.bbn.com
• OpenJUMP GIS for Java & Jython (Python) - http://www.openjump.org
• SharpMap for .NET - http://codeplex.com/SharpMap
• DotSpatial for C++/.NET - by the MapWindow GIS developers, http://dotspatial.codeplex.com
• QGIS for C++ & Python - http://www.gqis.org
• Fiona for Python development - http://pypi.python.org/pypi/Fiona/

Web Map Server (OGC WMS, WFS etc.)

see also the OSGeo server benchmarking docs: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Benchmarking_2011

major:

• MapServer - http://www.mapserver.org
• GeoServer - http://www.geoserver.org
• deegree - http://wiki.deegree.org
• MapGuide OpenSource - http://mapguide.osgeo.org

other:

• Mapnik - more or less a renderer, http://www.mapnik.org
• TinyOWS - http://www.tinyows.org
• QGIS mapserver - http://karlinapp.ethz.ch/qgis_wms

Rest-based:

• GeoServer - http://www.geoserver.org
• FeatureServer - http://www.drupal.org/project/fserver
• GeoRest - http://code.google.com/p/georest

MetaData and Registry

• GeoNetwork - http://geonetwork-opensource.org
• deegree - http://wiki.deegree.org
• MDweb - http://www.mdweb-project.org

editor:

• CADMEdit - http://catmdedit.sourceforge.net

Web Map Application Development Frameworks

Map Viewer

major:

• OpenLayers - http://www.openlayers.org
• Leaflet - http://leaflet.cloudmade.com (by the OpenStreetMap founders)
• OpenScales - http://www.openscales.org
• ModestMaps - http://modestmaps.com (used by MapBox)

others:

• SLMapViewer - SilverLight map viewer for MapServer, http://slmapviewer.codeplex.com/
• OpenZoom - image viewer for very large images, http://www.openzoom.org/

General Map Application Development Frameworks

• MapFish - includes OpenLayers and GeoExt, http://www.mapfish.org
• GeoMoose - http://www.geomoose.org
• GeoMajas - http://www.geomajas.org
• MapBender - http://www.mapbender.org
• MapStraction - allows switching between mapping frameworks (e.g. Google, OpenStreetMap, Yahoo, Bing etc.), http://www.mapstraction.com
• GeoExt - http://www.geoext.org
• SharpMap for .NET - http://codeplex.com/SharpMap
• i3Geo - http://gvsig.org/web/projects/i3Geo

Tiling

• TileMill - http://mapbox.com/tilemill/
• TileCache - http://www.tilecache.org