Abstract
The implementation of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) for governments and companies is a task that has gained ample attention in recent years. Different categories of spatial software such as desktop GIS, server GIS, web map servers, spatial database management systems, web map development toolkits, etc., are required to realize the software components of an SDI. We catalogue a (selected) variety of free and open source projects that develop and maintain spatial software that fit within these categories. Our analysis reveals that for all categories of software used in SDIs a free software product is available. This enables adopters to implement an SDI on a limited financial budget, and allows the distribution of a proven SDI architecture without legal constraints. Our software evaluation shows that free and open source solutions support a wide range of industry standards that ease interoperability between SDI components.
Keywords
- Spatial Data Infrastructure
- Geography Markup Language
- Spatial Software
- Keyhole Markup Language
- Style Layer Descriptor
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Steiniger, S., Hunter, A.J.S. (2012). Free and Open Source GIS Software for Building a Spatial Data Infrastructure. In: Bocher, E., Neteler, M. (eds) Geospatial Free and Open Source Software in the 21st Century. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10595-1_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10595-1_15
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