Software
We provide access to and instruction in up-to-date geospatial software tools. If you have any questions, contact us at cga@wm.edu
ArcGIS Online
If you're looking to get started with ArcGIS Online and Esri Story Maps, follow the steps below to setup your account.
Go to ArcGIS online and click "sign in"
Select "Your ArcGIS organization's URL"
Type "wm-gis".maps.arcgis.com
Select "College of William & Mary"
Enter your W&M user id and password (same as logging into banner)
You are ready to get started!
We are happy to make Esri's GIS software available to William & Mary students, faculty, and staff for use on their personal computers. The software can only be run on Windows computers or Macs running Windows. Follow the link below for instructions on how to download and install ArcGIS Pro.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11xDIXwXCeOZzjpOMurAmhYVZK3P_XEwIUrW4bT083ek/edit?usp=sharing
As of June 30, 2022 Esri is no longer issuing student licenses of ArcGIS Desktop products. Esri is discontinuing support of the ArcMap product and we suggest you transition to ArcGIS Pro (see download instructions above).
Your GIS data will continue to work in ArcGIS Pro. Esri has a free training about transitioning from ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro found at: https://learn.arcgis.com/en/projects/migrate-from-arcmap-to-arcgis-pro/
QGIS is an open-source geographic information systems (GIS) program and, over the years, has evolved to being a strong competitor as a personal GIS platform. QGIS has a decent user interface and it can be used to script and automate analyses.
The CGA recommends downloading the Long-Term Release (LTR) for stability. Resources to learn QGIS can be found here
Additional Tools and Software
A part of the Esri Geospatial Cloud, ArcGIS Online (AGOL) is a complete mapping and analysis solution that you can access directly through your browser (see Supported Browsers.
The cartopy package is a great tool for creating maps using Python.
Self-proclaimed world's first-ever modern collaborative mapping tool.
A free and open source software tool that provides a user-friendly graphical user interface for exploratory spatial data analysis developed by Dr. Luc Anselin and his team.
GeoDa runs on Windows, MacOSX and Linux (Ubuntu).
A modified version of map sources from Egil Kvaleberg's gis extension.
It is designed to do simple HTML replacements of a template on Wikipedia and serve it to the client.
It is used by Wikipedia to provide links to various mapping services, when a user clicks on a link with geographical coordinates.
For example, click here to GeoHack the Swem Library.
Simply type in your locality description and get back georeferenced results.
Software that renders a 3D representation of Earth based on satellite imagery based on the superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial photography, and GIS data onto a 3D globe, allowing users to see cities and landscapes from various angles.
The Jupyter Notebook is an incredibly powerful tool for interactively developing and presenting data-centric projects.
Take a look at these notebook with a focus on Earth science and geospatial data.
A collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world.
Digital information provided in a format suitable for direct input to software that can analyze its meaning in the scientific, engineering, or business context.
History of Open Source GIS: An Interactive Infographic
GIS (Geographic Information Systems) technology is a powerful way to understand our world. Thanks to the open source community, the public today has access to excellent analysis tools, and many of them are free!