Software Options

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)