A geographic information system (GIS) is a system for storing, managing, analyzing, and displaying geospatial data.
Geographic information science (GIScience) is the science underlying geographic concepts, applications, and systems.
Since the 1970s, GIS has been important tools in natural resource management, land use planning, urban planning, transportation, market area analysis, health care, and public services. It has also played a significant role in routine operations of government agencies at all levels, and more recent integration of GIS with the Internet, a global positioning system (GPS), wireless technologies, and web services have resulted in location-based services, web mapping, and volunteered geographic information.
GPS is a satellite-based radio-navigation system owned by the US government and operated by the US Air Force. It is a global navigation satellite system that provides geolocation and time information to GPS receivers anywhere on or near the earth, as long as there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. Established by the US Department of Defense in 1973, the use of GPS was limited to the military until the 1980s. Today, of course, it has become almost a necessity to transportation.
Because GPS is provided by the US government, which can selectively deny access to the system, several other countries have developed, or are in the process of developing other global or regional satellite navigation system.
While most of us are GIS users, GIS professionals must be familiar with the technology, along with the basic concepts that drive the technology.
The focus of this category is on geographic information systems and, more specifically, on the software that powers various GIS applications. Using GIS software, maps and other geographic data can be displayed on any computer screen, and the data can be stored, retrieved, and edited. It can be analyzed, determining geographic features, measuring distances, and comparing patterns.
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Environmental Systems Research Institute
Based in California, ESRI is an international supplier of GIS software, web GIS, and geo-database management applications. Available for Windows and Windows Server systems, its ArcGIS system includes ArcReader and ArcGIS Desktop. Options include ArcGIS Pro as well as ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS Online, and ArcGIS for Developers. A full list of its software is shown on its site, with descriptions, training programs, documentation, and an informational blog.
https://www.esri.com/
Incorporated in Delaware in 1999, Geobytes is a global company offering geolocation and anti-spam software. Its business model is primarily funded by subscriptions to its geolocation services, although it offers a subset of these services for free from its site. While there are limits on the lookups that may be conducted per hour, additional lookups may be purchased. Its spam management tools are also available for licensing to email providers and software vendors.
https://geobytes.com/
Created in 1998, GPSMan is a graphical manager of GPS data, making possible the preparation, inspection, and edition of GPS data in a friendly environment. Supporting communication and real-time logging with Garmin, Lawrence, and Magellan receivers, the application accepts real-time logging data in NMEA 0183 from any GPS receiver. It can also be used in command mode, without the graphical interface. Distributed under the GNU General Public License, it may be freely downloaded.
http://gpsman.sourceforge.net/
The Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS GIS) is a geographic information system software package used for geospatial data management and analysis, image processing, the production of graphics and maps, spatial and temporal modeling, and visualizing. Maintained by the GRASS Development Team, it is available under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Downloads, documentation, screenshots, and development news are available.
https://grass.osgeo.org/
SAGA was designed to provide an effective and learnable platform for geoscientists to implement various geoscientific methods through its application programming interface (API) and graphical user interface (GUI). Shipping with a set of free modules, most of them released under a General Public License, the application includes a command-line interpreter as an alternative user interface for executing SAGA modules. Downloads, documentation, and user forum are included.
http://www.saga-gis.org/
GIS software offers all of the capabilities to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, and present spatial and geographic data. Simple GIS Software offers its Simple GIS Client, a full-featured GIS mapping software for Windows, with available plugins, along with Simple GIS Server, for sharing data across a LAN, a WAN, or the Internet to GIS mapping software. Its Simple Map Viewer application is a free software application for viewing and querying portable map documents.
https://www.simplegissoftware.com/
