TheGeographer,Volume58'No'1,January20ll(ISSN:0072-0909)

and itsApplications:ACornparative GIS Softwares Web-Based

Study

ThbrezSiddiqui** and Md. SaquibAlam*** MohammadUbaidullahBokhari*,Shams

,{bstract
(GIS) are becoming informationsystems Geographical of Dueto the improvedperformance computersystems, n o r e u s u a l . A s t h e t i m e p a s s e s w e b - b a s e d G l s a r e b e c o m i n g m o r e . a n d m o r e i r n p o r t a n tworld e o f t hweb S s o f t w a r e ' s . S o m wide e G l world is availableon the internet' fiee of costalso.Most informationavailablein-the ue available information' It is securealso we only (www) is a usefultool tbr gatheringand manipulatingthe useful data and will be hidden from the others' ln this paper,we *rarethat informationwhich we want to shareand the remaining of a completeandcomplexrealGIS softwaretools that are usedin the development the ue elaborating web-based of characteristics theseweb-based we designand implementation describe in life GIS application the analysis, o+i^n cn{irrrqre's

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software's' apprication orGIS dirrerenttvpe based deverop

Application' Software, GIS, Worldwide web,Information' web-based computersystem, of GIS isthemerging terms, GlS. ln thesimplest develop technology' statisticalanalysis,and database cartogrgphy, newapplications contextandthe GIS aie helpingto creates revolutionary has Mostof all information a geographic in improvement the With is placedon map'GIS is a computer andpossibilities. thecontinuous that information exists to to to capture, stqre.to integrate' futureofGIS looksbrighternow thanever the design system technology based a n a l y s ea n d t o d i s p l a y t h e d a t a f r o m g e o g r a p h i c before. Moreover a GIS provide tools to develop persfective. information system(GIS) is a system and ultimatelyprovidessolution A geographic modelscreatescenario to capture,store, manipulate,analyze,manage designed that exists' socioeconomics for variousenvironmental data' referenced all andpresent typesofgeographically we useGIS, but mostare based Therearemany reasons analysis set based of toolsfor thestudy, GIS is a computer on a societal push, our need to more effectively and and of maps/attributes eventsthrough pull' our and visualization and use efficiently our resources, a technological ofdata on the basisof ofvarious sources tools to previously unsolved the integration interestin applying new set GIS providesthe necessary of geography' u.o**on problems. GIS as a technologyis basedon geographic for gaining appropriateinsightsinto the tools required information science,and is supportedby the disciplines sociery our environment, that and space science' places processes arrives of geography,surveying, engineeiing, and economy. .ornputtt icience, cartography,statistics,and a number to aboutplaces give of others. of layers information GIS combines o u n d e r s t a n d i n g f t h a t p l a c e ' T h e l a y e r so f better for Software GIS is uniquein their ability to manipulate e'g' on informationare combineddepends purposes attributedata' A numberof and associated coordinates the best location for a new store, analyzing finding are tools and packages availableto help us to software lntroduction
Aligarh Muslim University, of Scholar,Department Computericience,Aligarh Pt"fatt.t ."d **Research ffi*.t. India Taharpur'-AliEarh' *** Lecturer, DharamJyoti Mahavidyalaya' l com I saquib08@rediffmai & {'* *( E-ruit, * *kru*tab@reiiffmail.com

TheGeographer viewingsimilarcrimesin a city te damages, anvironment detecta patternandso on. GIS Objec'tivesof . .

102

VoL 58,No. I, January20II GIS for applying it to.real world problems. to usersmay be technicalspecialists desigrt andmaintainthe systemand thosewho useit to performtheir daily work.

To provide efftcient ways for distributing and handlingdata. making of efficiency decision Tomaximizethe and planning.

e) Mdhod and rules Methods are the set of procedures activitiesin plansand business to implement GIS. MajorGlSApplications and GIS hasmanyapplications oncansay"whenthere of is a map,therecanbe application GIS'r. : GIS maybe usedin the following areas a) Archaeology - Remote Sensing - PublicUtility Management - Precision Agricullure - Emergency Managernent - Navigation b) Cartography - NaturalResource Management - Photogrammetric I

. , To removeofredundant to database minimize duplication. r Complex . ahalysis/queries involving infonnation. . . To provide the capability for integrating sources' from manY information To updatedataquickly and bheaply.

ComponentsofGls rnainly five key Informatioir Systern.has Goographical components. a) ComputerHardwareModute unit is the main H/W Central prooessihg to ofGIS. This is connected a disk ooftponent drive storagemit that provides spacefor storing data and Programs.

- f,pvironmental Contamination

b) ComputerSoftrvareModule -AerialVideo The GiS softwareincludesthe programsand Good c) Geography the userinterfaceto drive thehardware. GIS software requires user friendliness' 'Land Surveying .firnctionalities,' compatibilities,updatability, - UrbanPlanning documentation,cost effectiveness. c) Ih - Landscape Architecture - Localized Engines. Search Data. The data can be collectedin house, Functions compiled to custom specificationsand GIS Software from a commercial or requirements, purchased GIS softwareprovidesthe tools to manage,analyze, dataprovider. dataand spatial displayanddisseminate andeffectively Pegple provides specific' the GIS software spatialinformation. has limited toolsto viewandeditdata,manipulate them, ganerate to Without people,GIS technology plans andextract informationwe require,andto produce and thd value.The peoplemanage develop

'Geographer raterials to communicatethe information we have :loped. rctionscommonly provided by GIS software: DataEntry - Manual coordinatecapture - Attributes capture - Digital coordinatecapture - Data import Editing - Manualpoint, line and areafeature editing) - Manual attributesediting - Automatederror detectionand editing Data Management - Copy, subset,merge data - Versioning - Data registrationand projection - Summarization, datareduction - Documentation Analysis - Spatialquery - Affribute query - Interpolation - Connectivity - Proximityand adjacency - Buffering - Terrainanalysis - Boundary dissolve - Spatialdataoverlay - Moving window analyses

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- Map algebra e) Output

Vol. 58,No. l, January 20ll

- Map designand layout - Hardcopymap printing - Digital graphicproduction - Export formatgeneration - Metadataoutput - D i g i t a lm a ps e r v i n g GIS Web-based Web-based GIS is becomingmore and more important as time passes. The World-Wide-Web(WWW) is a useful tool for the gathering and manipulation.Most i n f o r m a t i o nt h a t i s a v a i l a b l e i n t h e w o r l d i s n o w overthe Internet. Thereis no needto buy any available softwarepackages manipulatingthe data expensive for for needed GIS. GIS, software Web-based applications available are with the adventof Javabasedprogramming.Somerequired no special softwarebut some of programsrequiredto buy and othersare requireto plug-insto usecapabilities of the web browsers.Becauseof theseadvancements, peoplearegettinginformation easily. Another useful facet of using web-based GIS is that the people giving the informationare completelyin chargeof the amountof information madeavailableto the public. lf there were privacy issuessurrounding to certainbit of information.don't make it accessible others. Internet connectionsgetting faster and faster, the amountof information that can be transfenedover the Internet is staggering.Web-basedGIS software'sare given below. I. Map Server geographic Map Serveris an OpenSource datarendering enginewritten in C. lt was originally developed the by University of Minnesota(UMN) For Net project in cooperationwith NASA, and the MinnesotaDepartment

T h e G e o g r a p h e r l 0 4 V o t ' 5 8 ' N o ' l ' J a n u a r y 2 0 l l (MNDNR). BeyondbrowsingGIS of NaturalResources data,Map server allows you create"geographicimage For that is, mapsthat can direct usersto content. maps,,, example,the Minnesota DNR Recreationcompass ."io't' with morethan 10,000web pages, users provides The sameap-plication andmapsvia a singleapplication. ,.map engine; fo, other portions of the site, as 4 serves providingspatialcontextwhereneeded. Later it was hostedby the Terra SIP project,a NASA or the projectbetween UMN anda consorttum sponsored interests' land management Characteristics ' Scale dependent feature drawing and EnvironrnentarStudies, Disaster Risk Analysis and Hydrological Studies' Production GIS' Gls Project GIS/UserAnalysis'GIS DataAudits and Managernent, and the GIS Training/Lecturing' Data Management' Sitesarethe to Supply of Slittea GIS Personnel Client GIS of mainfocusareas GIsNET' Technical skills'include spatial and spatialandrasterdataprocessing manipulation' modellingl including hydrological modelling' data p r o i e c t i o n s ,s p a t i a l d a t a q u a l i t y c o n t r o l a n d d a t a digitizing, of uerification.srructuring spatialdatabases, and dah-capturing, image-georeferencing. of The prefered softwar.e GISNET is the ESRI products, namelyARCGIS includingSpatialAnalyst,3D Analyst, mapping Develophigh-performance andNetworkAnalyst'

execution apprication

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n a f i e e 6 0 - d a y t r i a lo w a n d s e e j u s t h o w f a s t c l S ' N E T c a n to software marketlGIS.NETis getyour location-based including:Full supportfor Pocket loadedwith features' pC, Windows, Smartphone and Windows Mobile! Full conversions' cooldinate fol support EPSG-based Plat Form: windorvs' III' PlanetGIS GtS to learnand useand was PlanetGIS is the easiest a to designecl enableanyoneto startand manage GIS datacapture' fron.r projict from the groundup' All stages map data manipulation through thematic mapping to

lin ncludin ab F e a t u r el a b e l.rrbg ir.v!".e"'og l--'- e l c o l l i s i o n mediation templatedriven output Fully customizable, TrueTYPe fonts Map elementautomation(scalebar' reference map,and legend) Thematicmapping using logical- or regular classes. expression-based

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ImportzEryrort

Map bv formats Data suppoted Server

.

since1994' use extensive by GIS practitioners RasterandvectordataformatsTlFF/GeoTlFF, EPPL7,andmany othersviacDAL' Characteristics OS X, Solaris Linux' Mac Platform: Windows, . Fast, compact and friendly, cost effective, II. GISNET Server aim in GISNET wasestablished July 2003 with its main has The company Industry. in beingconsulting the GIS variousGIS andhascompleted since operation been-in projects under the guidance of Founding Member, ' PreneshaPillay Characteristics GlsNEToffersavarietyofeffectiveGlssolutionsacross various disciplines; Mining and Exploration' . ' Productive databases PlanetGIS can connectto file-based (My ODBC) andSQL servers (DBase, Access, SQL' Firebird'SQ Lite' oracle' SQL' Postgre lnterbase). Informix,Sybase, SQLserver, It is available in many editions (basic, web server) enterprise, professional, Manageabilityof extremely large vector and r a s t e rd a t a s e t s .

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The Geographer Import/ExPott by Dataformatssupported PlanetGIS i Vectordata formats ESRI Arc View shapefiles ('SHP)' Map Info Info MID/MIF, Auto Desk DXF' ESRI Arc Map Exporl files (.E00),Micro StationDGN' files ('FEA)' Guide SDL and Re GIS Feature PlanetGIS can also export GIS datato all of theseformatsexcept'E00 and 'DGN' ii Rasterimageformats

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V o \ . , 5 8N o . l , J a n u a r y2 0 l l , that you always know whereyour fleet is and provides ro.qteguidance to guaranteethat your fleet gets to where it needsto go' . Geo Systems: Information GIS-Geographical collection Alta Map is an integrated Micro's of software products, including a mapping that is right for server, buildinga GIS solution for your business. Multithreadsuppoft r Automatic esource ooling P with HTTP Fast in processcommunications server. Lower cost of ownershipthrough centrally G managed IS aPPlications'

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into and ImportJPEG TIFF/GeoTIFF images a formatandwill indexedimage naiivesuper-fast if utilizeWortdfiles available'MrSID andECW will be displayeddirectly'PlanetGIS images andGeo TIFF files' JPE'G canalsocreate andthereare Platforms: Windows200}lXP l2O03lYista' 'Mac, 'NET andportable to plansto porl Planet Linux, platforms. IV. Alta MaP Server

Import/ExPott Data formats supportedby Alta Map Server . TAB, MIF, Oracle Shape' Vectordatasources datamodel(optional)' relational

. BMB JPEGGlF, BIL, LAN' datasources Raster GIS tool' It is usedfor Alta Map Serveris a Web-based TIFF, MTSID,Expotl to PNG,JPEGand GIF andprovidespowerful mapson the Internet's publishing (oPtional). v i s u a t l t a t i o n ,s p a t i a l a n a l y s i s a n d g e o p r o c e s s i n g give you the functionality Alta Map servercan features. (LBS) Service Based a web Platform: Alta Map Location you need to deliver GIS functionalitythough browser. V. Geo Server call in With lnternet GIS we can access'employeesin Geo Serveris an open sourcesoftwareserverwritten can access Javathat allows usersto shareand edit geospatial data' management centers,mobile workers, and datafrom any it data for faster,smafier,and more efficient Designed interoperability, publishes for geographic o f s e n s i t i v e b u s i n e s s majoi spatial data source using open standards' d e c i s i o n s .E n s u r e s e c u r i t y hosted informationby self hosting mapping on self by tested,and supported a Geo Serveris developed, servers. from and organizations diversegroup of individuals Characteristic aroundthe world. . GPSNavigation Systemand Mapping Server: We can search a large databaseof business listings,either by category,by name' or both' then immediatelycall the listed phonenumber br navigateto that location' GPS Tracking and Driver Efficiency: The Mobium GPS Fleet Tracking Systemensures of implementation the Open Geo Serveris the reference (OGC) Web FeatureService Geospatial,Consortium (WFS) and Web CoverageService (WCS) standards' Web u, *.it as a high performancecertified compliant forms a core Map Service(WMS). Geo Server Web' of component the GeosPatial

The Geographer Characteristic ' configurationtool - no Easyto useweb-based needto touch long, complicatedconfig files'

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Vol. 58, Na. l, January20ll [Documentation]that details everythingin easy to understandlanguage. s C o m m e r c i a lg r a d e i n s t a l l a t i o n , u p p o r t , from available and customization improvements and non-profits, ofcompanies, an eco-system i c o n s u l t i n gn d i v i d u a l s .

Excellent[Google Earth Support]'including advancedfeatureslike superoverlays(vector and raster). 2.5D extrudes,Time, advanced template options for pop-ups and titles' and styling with SLD. Integration with [Geo Web Cache], for tile accelerated mapping (like on Open layers Maps). or Google OpenLayersasa defaultajax viewer Integrated and previewengine. Performance,on par with the fastestopen source mapping servers,and we are quite confidentthat we do fasterrenderingthan any major proprietary server.Seethe post on the geo serverblog for more info. to the Full SLD support, openstandard define map styles,includingboth userdefined(POST and GET) and used natively in styling configuration. ' can Java(J2EE)servlet-based, run in any servlet This meanswe easily support64container. ing mu and advanced lti-thread bit architectures capabilities. Easyto write new data formats with Geo Tools Data Store interfaces and helper classes, making Geo Server the standards based interface to legacy data.

Import/Expott Data formatssupportedby Geo Server . Raster vectordataformatsPostGIS,Oracle and files, Arc SDE, D82, My SQL, Shape Spatial, JPEG2000 ECW' MTSID, GeoTIFF,GTOPO30,

'

Platform Mac OS X, POSIX ' GNU/Linux,MS-Windows, Conclusion are GIS software's only one of its kinds in their ability data. attribute and coordinates associated to manipulate packages toolsand 1b developGIS a numberof software areavailable. We think that the best GIS software is the one that everybodycan use easily.Not much learningcurve in requiredfor it. If you have a little background GIS to thenthe productshouldbe usableimmediately you. Accordingto our opinion Alta Map Serverand Geo For C Serveris betterfor WebBased tS software. securiry point of view Alta Map Serveris the best.Web-based to has its own characteristic develop GIS software's we GIS applications, chooseaccordingto our needs We and requirements. shouldalso focuson the security and use secureweb-basedGIS Software'sto develop G I Sa p p l i c a t i o n s .

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References RequirementTools, andAutomated Engineering for T. Shams, (201l),Metrics Requirement Siddiqui, M.U,and Bokhari, ISBN:978-93-80544-00-7' ISSN:0973-7529, NewDelhi, proceedings 5thNationalConference,INDlA Com, ofthe

Toolsfor Secure Requirement of Study Software T. Shams, (20l0), A Comparative M.U. and Siddiqui, Bokhari, SoftwareDevelopment,ln:BVICAM's,lnternationalJournaloflT(BIJIT),ISSN:0973-5658,Vo1.2,No.2,pp'l-8 Information of InternationalJournal Geographical Science, Information Geographical M.F.(1992), Goodchild, Svstems.

The Geographer

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Vol. 58, No. l, Jqnuary20ll

Frameworkfor A R' Viqueira, (2005), Generic and ,K.,Paramd Jose,, \lhgue\,R,,\,\tocs\,N\s\ss,R.,Bt\stbqa.lose

Vol' 3428 of InformationSystem, WorkshopWeb and WirelessGeographical Apptications,in4t,'lnternational GIS LectureNotes in ComPuterScience.

& lnformation, , O., Sutton,M,A. (2009) A Gentle Introductionto GIS. Spatial Planning sutton. T., Dassau, of Department Land, Affairs, EasternCape. htm ic-information-systems*software' www.comparison-of-geograph www.mapsofindia.com http://geoserver.org I www. giso/o202-2lwh Y.htm I www.mapserver.org www.gisnet.com/ s.n http://www.planetgi etl http://altamapserver.org/ www.standingcloud.com/network/geoserver www.geomicro.com/ 1-gisfund'pdf www-laep.ced.berkeley.edu/classes/readings/"'/chapt govt.n/sites/default/files/MapServer'pdf www.geospatial. I S/why'html www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/design/.../policyG