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Spatial Analysis Software
editSpatial Analysis Software is the subgroup of software written to enable and facilitate spatial analysis. Currently, there are several packages, both free and proprietary, which cover most of the spatial data infrastructure stack.
Packages
edit| Package | Free of charge | Operating Systems | Developer institution/person | Website | Field of interest (if any specific) | Main Features | Language | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PySAL | yes | Linux,MAC OS, Windows | GeoDa Center | pysal.org | Spatial analysis | Modules for: computational geometry, spatial weights, ESDA, inequality, mobility and spatial econometrics | Python | BSD license |
| Minerva | yes | Linux,MAC OS, Windows | Fulton High Performance Computing Initiative (ASU) | Minerva Project | High performance, 3D visualization | Ability to display large amounts of raster and vector from multiple sources | C++ | BSD license |
| GMap Creator | yes | Linux,MAC OS, Windows | CASA | CASA website for GMap Creator | Thematic mapping using Google Maps | Creates image pictures from shapefiles and creates Google Maps websites with the data linked to the shapefile | - | Freeware |
| DynTM | yes | Linux,MAC OS, Windows | Charles Schmidt | Link to the GeoDa Center's software site | Thematic choropleth mapping | Fast tile mapping of attribute data on Google Maps (see Academic paper | Python | Under development |
| Quantum GIS | yes | Linux,MAC OS, Windows | QGIS Development Team | qgis.org | Visualization and geoprocessing | Easy to use, ability to expand functionality with Python plugins | C++ | GPL |
| GRASS | yes | Linux,MAC OS, Windows | GRASS Development Team | [1] | GIS | Extensive set of GIS tools for both raster and vector data | C, C++, Python, Tcl | GPL |
| Legacy GeoDa | yes | Windows | GeoDa Center | website | Geovisualization, ESDA, Spatial Regression | Interactive exploratory analysis, dynamic linking and brushing for cross-section data, basic spatial regression capabilities | C | Freeware |
| Open GeoDa | yes | Linux,MAC OS, Windows | GeoDa Center | website | Interactive exploratory analysis, dynamic linking and brushing for cross-section data, basic spatial regression capabilities | Cross-platform version of Legacy GeoDa | C | Freeware (planned to be open-sourced) |
| STARS | yes | Linux,MAC OS, Windows | GeoDa Center | Website at REGAL | ESTDA (Exploratory Space-Time Data Analysis) | Interactive linking, brushing and travelling for space-time data | Python | GPL |
| GeoDaNet | yes | MAC OS, Windows | Andrew Winslow | Presentation | Point patterns in networks | Network distances, basic network statistics, global and local K-functions in networks. | Python | Under development |
| SANET | yes | Windows | Atsu Okabe | Website | Analysis of events that occur on networks or alongside networks | Includes 14 tools for point patterns in networks (list) | - | Freeware (terms) |
| Crime Stat | yes | Windows | Ned Levine and Associates | Website | Crime incidents, point patterns | Basic descriptive statistics, spatial clustering, kernel density interpolation | - | Freeware |
| SaTScan | yes | Windows,Linux | Martin Kulldorff and Information Management Services Inc. | satscan.org | Epidemiology | Spatial, temporal and Space-Time Scan Statistics | - | Freeware |
| Croizat | yes | Linux,MAC OS, Windows | Mauro J. Cavalcanti | Website at SourceForge | Panbiogeography | Ability to integrate and analyzie spatial data on species or other taxa and to explore geographical patterns in diversity under a panbiogeographic and graph-theoretic approach | Python | GPL |
| Hawths Tools | yes (Requires ArcGIS, which is not free) | Windows | Hawthorne Beyer | Website | Ecology | Analysis, sampling, animal movements, kernel, raster, table, vector editing, specialist and other tools. | - | Freeware |
| GeoDa Space | yes | MAC OS, Windows | GeoDa Center | Luc Anselin's presentation | Spatial regression, spatial modelling | Spatial lag and error models (independent and joint), spatial HAC estimation, endogenous variables and robust standard error | Python | Under development |
| R-spdep | yes | Linux,MAC OS, Windows | Roger Bivand (maintainer) | CRAN site for spdep | Spatial dependence | Weighting schemes, statistics and models | R | GPL-2 |
| R-splm | yes | Linux,MAC OS, Windows | Gianfranco Piras, Giovanni Millo | R-forge: splm | Spatial regression | ML and GM estimation and diagnostics for spatial panel models | R | GPL-2 |
| R-sphet | yes | Linux,MAC OS, Windows | Gianfranco Piras | R-forge: sphet | Spatial regression | Spatial models by GM using HAC estimators of the VC matrix | R | GPL-2 |
See also
edit- Comparison of GIS software
- Geographic information System
- Spatial analysis
- Spatial network analysis software
Related reading
editExternal Resources
editFurther resources may be found in the following links: