Geographic data plays an important role in many fields, therefore there are numerous softwares options for working with geographic data. In this course we will explore three commonly used sofwares: QGIS, R, and Python
QGIS
Pros
Point-and-Click
Widely used
Large variety of features
Numerous references to help
Integration of Python adds flexibility
Free
Cons
Your work is not reproducible
R
Pros
Work is reproducible
R Community is large so there is a lot of online help available
R is useful for the statistical analysis of geo-spatial data
Cons
Requires basic knowledge of how to code in R
R was not developed specifically for geographic data
Python
Pros
Work is reproducible
Well suited for large data
Becoming increasingly popular in academia (especially in computational social science)
Cons
Requires advanced coding knowledge.
Less online resources than other two softwares (there is still a good amount available)