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Open Source GIS: A Review

Conference Paper · October 2015

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Satya PRAKASH Maurya Anurag Ohri

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 ISBN: 978-81-931-2500-7
Proceedings of National Conference on
Open Source GIS: Opportunities and Challenges
Department of Civil Engineering, IIT (BHU), Varanasi
October 9-10, 2015

Open Source GIS: A Review

Satya Prakash Maurya*, Anurag Ohri, Sachin Mishra
Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi (India)
*Corresponding author E-mail: [Link]@[Link]

Abstract
Open source software is computer software that can be freely used, changed, and distribute
by anyone. Open source software is made by many people or organizations and distributed
under licenses that comply with the Open Source Definition. Recently open source software start
playing vital role in industry, academics and research. In last few decades, field of GIS has witnessed
a very high growth rate and is encompassed with various proprietary and open source GIS software.
In this paper we will explore open source GIS software and present an analysis of open source
software against the proprietary software available for GIS. Strengths, weaknesses and future scope
of open source GIS software will be discussed in detail. In the last, salient comparison between two
most popular proprietary and open source GIS software namely ArcGIS and QGIS will be done.

Keywords: Open Source GIS, ArcGIS, QGIS.

.

1. Introduction

The growth of open-source software has received substantial attention in last few years. The adoption
of open-source software systems in developing nations, as a means of reducing licensing costs and of
promoting indigenous technological development by having access to the source code of these
systems(Camara and Onsrud, 2004). Free and open source software for geospatial applications
(FOSS4G) is the annual recurring global event hosted by OSGeo since its inception in 2006 which
encourage to open source software and its development.
It is general perception that the only distinction between open source and proprietary software is that
one is free and the other is not which is not true at all. They each are based on differing philosophies,
methodologies and business models. Open source software is, almost by definition, more flexible but
requires more effort to use, whereas the opposite is true for proprietary software in general. All open
source software is required to be “licensed”. The procedure of implementing “free software licenses”
is necessary to protect their users’ legal rights and to ensure the freedoms of the software. With open
source software the user can access the source code and redistribute it.

2. Criteria for Open Source Software

There is misconception among users and developers about the actual meaning of Open source
software. An open source doesn't just mean access to the source code. Moreno (2015)deliberate the
criteria for open-source software which are as follows.
 Free Redistribution
The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a
component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different
sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.
 Source Code
The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as
compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must
be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable

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reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source code
must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately
obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a
preprocessor or translator are not allowed.
 Derived Works
The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be
distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.
 Integrity of the Author's Source Code
The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the
license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the purpose of
modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of
software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a
different name or version number from the original software.
 No Discrimination against Persons or Groups
The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
 No Discrimination against Fields of Endeavor
The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of
endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from
being used for genetic research.
 Distribution of License
The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed
without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
 License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's being part of a particular
software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed
within the terms of the program's license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed
should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software
distribution.
 License Must Not Restrict Other Software
The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the
licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed
on the same medium must be open-source software.
 License Must Be Technology-Neutral
No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of
interface.

2. Open Source Software

GIS applications have been observed significant increment in terms of desktop application, mobile
applications and web applications. These applications are developed using various GIS software and
open source software played important role in it. Open source software is available free and required
to be “licensed”. The procedure of implementing “free software licenses” is necessary to protect their
users’ legal rights and to ensure the freedoms of the software. There are several organizations that can
provide free software license templates, such as General Public License (GPL), Lesser General Public
License (LGPL) and Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) (Tsou and Smith, 2011).STEFAN
STEINIGER and ERWAN BOCHER (2009)listed several open source GIS software which is
presented here in the extended form in Table 1 with details.

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Table1: Details about different Open Source Software

Software/Release Developed by Useful for application Development Software
year Platform/ License
Language
support
GRASS, 1982 Research Analysis and scientific C, Shell, GPL
institutes, visualization, cartography, Tcl/Tk,
universities, modeling and simulation Python
companies,
volunteers
worldwide
ILWIS, 1985 Universities, (Raster) Analysis MS Visual C GPL
companies,
FalconView, 1994 Georgia Tech Map display, Overlay JAVA LGPL
Research analysis
Institute
MapWindow,1998 Universities, Providing core GIS and MS Visual Mozilla
companies, GUI functions, [Link] Public
volunteers developing (C+ +, C#, License
worldwide decision support systems [Link])
TerraView, 2001 Brazilian Vector and Raster C++, R GPL
National analysis, Statistical
Institute for analysis
SpaceResearch
(INPE)
SAGA, 2001 Universities Analysis, modeling, C+ + (MS LGPL
scientific visualisation Visual C+ +) (API),
GPL
Geoserver, 2001 Open Planning WFS,WMS,WCS,WPS JAVA GPL
Project
(TOPP),NY
JUMP/Open Company, Viewing, Editing, JAVA
Jump,2002 government Analysis
QGIS, 2002 Universities, Viewing, Editing, C+ +, Qt4, GPL
companies, Analysis, Grass-GUI, Python
volunteers SAGA-GUI,
worldwide
DivaGIS, 2003 Biodiversity Analysis Delphi/Kylix, GPL
Java
gvSIG, 2003 Companies, Viewing, Editing, JAVA GPL
universities, Analysis (Mobile
government Applications)
JGrass, 2004 Companies Interface and GUI for C, Python GPL
GRASS, raster analysis,
3D visualization,
hydrologic analysis
uDig, 2004 Companies, Viewing, Editing, JAVA Core
government Analysis (Eclipse Eclipse
RCP) RCP is
EPL
deeJump,2004 Company OGC Standards ------ ------

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 Maurya et al., OSGIS-2015, 150-155

SkyJump,2004 Company Military facility ------- GPL

management
Kosmo, 2005 Companies Viewing, Editing, JAVA GPL
(project- Analysis
driven,
utilities),
government
Mapserver,2005 University of Webserver C GPL
Minnesota
Geonetwork, 2007 Companies, OGC Web catalog JAVA GPL
government services
Capeware, 2007 Government 3D virtual terrain C++ GPL
mapping
Kalypso, 2007 Companies, inundation and flood risk Fortran, Java LGPL
universities mapping
Whitebox, 2009 University of Geospatial Analysis Groovy, GPL
Guelph JavaScript,
and Python.

3. Strengths and Weaknesses of Open Source GIS software

Open source have several facilities for their users and the developers:
Easy to start with: If you're starting a small company, a private venture, or even a project within a
large company, you'll appreciate the ability to be able to freely experiment with technologies without
paying any royalties.
Community support: Perhaps the greatest FOSS advantage. There's virtually no question regarding a
popular open source project that hasn’t got a profound answer in the web. For the undocumented
questions, you'll probably get an answer within 24 hours in a professional forum.
Scalability:If you are using OpenSource software, you can switch over to a more powerful server or
add a second server behind a load balancer. If you are paying licenses based on the number of cores or
the number of users hitting the app, you are looking at a significant increase in license costs.
Trying before implementing: If you want to convert a software component to another infrastructure,
technology or environment you can have a free sandbox to play with before converting and you can
always go back. This allows priceless experience with cutting-edge technologies without the financial
risks involved with trying new pricy products.
Easy to port: When your data is kept in open formats, translating from one data type to another is
straight forward, and there is probably a piece of software that does exactly that. Figuring out closed
format is a truly embarrassing experience.
Maximal Control: Open source software allows extensive configurability, which means that you can
fine-tune the product to your exact needs. For niche demands, hiring a software developer to change
the product will be considerably cheaper than paying a software company for changing the product
(and they probably Just Don't Do this kind of things).
Attracts better developers. Open Source software developers seem to better perform, be more
independent, productive and curious than developers under proprietary software infrastructure.

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Great web tools: There's a plethora of web-oriented open source tools: mapping, tiles, databases,
webservers, web framework and web authoring tools. Building your first GIS website will be very
easy.

4. Comparison of Open Source Softwarewith proprietary software.

There are many open source GIS software are available but QGIS is most popular among them.
ArcGIS is most popular proprietary software in the field of GIS so at few places we try to compare it
with QGIS.
Too Many Projects:There are many open source projects for every niche, and you'll have to spend
some time picking the best one, because other will be abandoned.
Graphical User Interface:This is probably because software developers are familiar with command-
line tools, and there are not enough open source GUI designers. The resulting GUI (e.g., GRASS GIS)
is often slow, ugly, and have counterintuitive interface. ArcGIS have excellent GUI in compare to any
open source software.
User platform:Most of the users, and many developers, will consider this as an [Link]
Open Source software tools have gone a long way in the past years, but the best-of-breed software is
almost always in the Linux world. Whereas ArcGIS is MS-Windows based software.
Documentation:Documentation is superb in ArcGIS. QGIS has lots of documentation; well written.
There are numerous tutorials you can download and try for yourself. There are excellent introduction
videos. QGIS does not lack documentation at all.
Support: If you're going to pay for it, you'll probably get good telephone support from the vendor.
Whereas in open source probably no tech support or SLA, unless you pay a consultant.
Cost:With proprietary software, when you need an extra software component that would fit to your
existing infrastructure, it's probably going to cost you a lot more.
Effort:Open source software is, almost by definition, more flexible but requires more effort to use,
whereas the opposite is true for proprietary software in general.
Performance:QGIS is somehow faster than ArcGIS for most operations considering QGIS' newer
architecture and code base it's not difficult to understand why it is faster.(it's often difficult to improve
performance of a large codebase application without using new technologies). QGIS is much faster
working with PostGIS than ArcGIS, unless you opt-out and store your data in PostgreSQL using
ESRI’s own spatial format.
Availability of tools: QGIS does have less available operations and algorithms than ArcGIS, mainly
if you consider advanced ArcGIS Extensions like 3D Analyst, Geostatistical and Network i.e. QGIS
just support Dijkstra’s algorithm for solving network problems while ArcGIS extends it and solve
more network problems.
License: This is a huge advantage that open source software can be licensed and can be distributed
whereas proprietary software can’t be distributed.
Completeness: ArcGIS is a set of products that obviously work very well together. QGIS was born to
work with PostGIS. There is also a set of products similar to ESRI 's that pack QGIS as the desktop
component.
Operating system dependency: Although Open Source software tools have gone a long way with
Windows in the past years, but the best-of-breed software is almost always in the Linux world.
Migliaccio et al. (2007) experimentally prove it for the case study of CO emission under
INTERMEDE BBSO project, it is observed that results generated with GRASS under Linux
environment were better. Thus, there is reinforcement of the belief that free/open source GIS

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software is most effective and displays the maximum of its capabilities when running in a UNIX
or Linux environment.

5. Conclusion

The idea that proprietary and open source solutions are polar opposites is certainly not
[Link] many of the characteristics of open source versus proprietary software packages
clearly set them far apart, they also share several features [Link] vendors have built
proprietary solutions that they have later released as open source. Similarly, there are distributors
of license-free, open source packages who also offer a for-profit, licensed and proprietary version
built upon the original open source platform. It is really difficult to decide without qualifications
which model is the best software development model for your organization to adopt: open source
or proprietary.

References
Moreno, R. (2015), NCAR Geospatial Talks Series,Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial
Applications (FOSS4G).
Ming, H.T. and Smith, J.(2011),Free and Open Source Software for GIS education, White paper,
National Geospatial Technology Center of Excellence.
Stefan, S. and Erwan, B. (2008), An Overview on Current Free and Open Sourcedesktop GIS
developments,International Journal of Geographical Information Science,Vol. 23, pp.
1345–1370.
Gilberto, C. and Harlan, O. (2004), Open-Source Geographic Information Systems Software: Myths
and Realities, Open Access and the Public Domain in Digital Data and Information for
Science, pp 127-133.
[Link]
open-source.
Migliaccio, F., Carrion, D. and Zambrano, C. (2010), A comparison between free/open-source and
proprietary geospatial software tools, based on a case study, FOSS4G.

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