[R-sig-Geo] Open source GIS and R

[Rainer M Krug]

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On 17/09/10 13:13, Manuel Spínola wrote:
>  Dear list members,
> 
> I am an ecologist interested in spatial and landscape ecology and a user
> of ArcView 3.3 with little experience in ArcGis but I would like to
> migrate to an open source GIS with an interface with R.

Good decision - I did that some time ago, and never looked back.

> I know that there are several options: QGIS, SAGA, GRASS, Illwis.

GRASS: very usable GIS, now a nice GUI, brilliant cli support, stable,
recommendable. Disadvantage: uses "database" for map storage and that
takes some time to get you head around, but it is definitely worth it.

QGIS: nice userinterface, easy to use, has a plugin to use GRASS for
analysis, very nice for quick visualisation of data of different sources
(shape files, grass, ... can easily combined in one map). Disadvantages:
not many, but lmited analysis support without GRASS - second step after
QGIS is migration to GRASS.

SAGA: sounds like an interesting system, nice analysis capabilities;
GUI: haven't used it. Disadvantages: in contrast to GRASS and QGIS,
backwardcompatibility is not guaranteed (not even between 2.0.4 and
2.0.5 - that can cause (solvable_ problems. Nevertheless, I am
investigating the possibility to switch from GRASS to SAGA for usage
from R at the moment.

Illwis: never heard of it and never used it

So: all of them are a good choice, and it depends on what you want to do:

- - simple and fast visualisation of spatial data: QGIS
- - interfacing with R: GRASS or SAGA
- - powerful stand-alone GIS: GRASS (to a lesser degree GRASS through QGIS
lugin)

Hope this helps,

Rainer

> 
> What will be the best option of these or other alternatives?
> 
> Best,
> 
> Manuel
> 


- -- 
Rainer M. Krug, PhD (Conservation Ecology, SUN), MSc (Conservation
Biology, UCT), Dipl. Phys. (Germany)

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