Open-Source GIS Libraries
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Open GIS Consortium
Open GIS Consortium Open Geospatial Consortium
Open Source deegree Free Software Geography Markup Language (GML) PostGIS Quantum GIS
Open Standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
Open Standards OGC’s Open Standards for Geospatial Interoperability
Open-Source GIS Environmental Modeling Using Open Source Tools MapWindow GIS
Open-Source GIS Libraries A NDREAS N EUMANN , M ARCO H UGENTOBLER Institute of Cartography, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Synonyms GDAL; OGR; PROJ; Java Topology Suite (JTS); Java Conflation Suite (JCS); Geometric Engine Open Source (GEOS); GPSBabel ; OGIS; Gnu Public License (GPL) Definition Open source GIS libraries provide basic functionality for certain aspects and tasks of open source and commercial GIS software. Libraries are helper software which offers services to independent GIS software, thus enabling code and data to be shared in a modular way. If a software provides an additional abstraction layer, underlying libraries can be exchanged if needed, e. g., due to performance, accuracy or functionality reasons. In GIS, some basic functionality is required by many derived and specialized GIS software and tools. Rather than implementing the same functionality again and again, specialized libraries can provide the functionality, offering derived software a head start rather than having to write everything from scratch.
Typical cases where libraries are traditionally used are graphics and GIS format support and conversion, reprojection support, computational geometry operations, topology operations, and more. The goal of this entry is not to provide a complete list of available open source GIS libraries, which would be quickly outdated, but to describe the availability and functionality of some of the more popular GIS libraries. GDAL/OGR is a GIS and image format access and conversion library and a suite of utilities (GDAL is responsible for raster data and OGR for vector data access). PROJ is a reprojection library. The Java Topology Suite (JTS) and GEOS both provide geometry engines for computational geometry and topologic queries. The Java Conflation Suite (JCS) provides functionality and tools for combining, integrating and improving data from various data sources. GPSBabel enables the reading, writing and conversion of various GPS formats. Many open source GIS libraries are published under a less strict license, such as a variation of the MIT License or the LGPL, thus also allowing commercial use of the libraries without forcing a company to release its full source code of depending applications. Historical Background Naturally, since multiple projects are discussed, each project has its own history. The history of GDAL/OGR dates back to 1993, when Frank Wamerdam (the main programmer of GDAL/OGR) started to work at PCI Geomatics [7]. Wamerdam initially worked at PCI on a predecessor library of GDAL/OGR called GDB (Generic Database). In 1998 he became an independent consulter in Open Source GIS, filling the empty niche for a library to read, wr
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