gissoftware

Software options for GIS

ESRI Donation to Berkeley Natural History Museum Consortium

With the lion's share of the commercial market for GIS software, ESRI produces the ARCGIS suite of applications (ArcView, ArcMap, ArcCatalog, etc). MVZ researchers and students now can benefit from the Conservation Program's generous donation of software for GIS work, cartography, spatial analysis. Lots of useful scripts and extensions exist from the huge users base. Desktop installations with campus network access are available. Contact Michelle Koo.

ESRI offers an extensive support site where you can find technical details and scripts written by users.

More resources to learn and use ArcGIS and ArcView on the Tutorial Page.

Free GIS Software

DIVA-GIS PC mainly (now a MAC compiler exists)-- Free GIS application specializing in analysing species distribution and climate data; includes tools for modeling distributions (Bioclim, Domain) and evaluating models. Thanks Robert!

LandSerf Unix, Linux, PC & MAC -- A Java-based program so runs in any environment that supports Java (e.g. Linux, Unix, too). Fully functional GIS application with a new version coming soon that will allow macro programming and map algebra.

GRASS GIS Unix, PC & MAC -- Stands for Geographic Resources Analysis Support System, an open-source application that is constantly being improved (since 1982). They even have a Wikipedia entry. Natively Unix, so PC users must first install Unix compatibility software (easy); next version is supposed to work directly in Win (easier)! Powerful.

Quantum GIS Unix, Linux, PC & MAC -- If the learning curve for GRASS is a little too much, try QGIS, also open source, supports GRASS plugins and has a growing users base. It is fast becoming my recommendation for Mac users as an all-around GIS program.

Google Earth Linux, PC & MAC -- What it lacks in spatial analysis chops, it makes up for great visualization tools and easy to use format.

ArcExplorer PC & MAC -- Lightweight Java, ArcView-like program for data visualization, spatial and attributes queries, and map making. Check for the version that works best for you.

uDIG Linux, PC & MAC -- User-friendly Desktop Internet-based GIS program; open-source and somewhat ESRI-like GUI.

SimpleDEMViewer MAC -- As it says, simple DEM viewer where you can show routes, elevation profiles and areas in simple, easy formats and many different projections; very pretty.

GIS Tools and Other Cool Stuff

Hawths Tools -- Lots of useful tools for ecologists in this ArcGIS 9.x extension

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Contact: GIS-WEB contact (replace AT with sign)

Last Updated: 30 March 2010.