Advances in Geographic Information Science Series Editors: Shivanand Balram, Canada Suzana Dragicevic, Canada G. Brent Hall · Michael G. Leahy (Eds.) Open Source Approaches in Spatial Data Handling 123 G. Brent Hall University of Otago School of Surveying Dunedin New Zealand
[email protected] ISBN: 978-3-540-74830-4 Michael G. Leahy Wilfrid Laurier University Waterloo, Ontario Canada N21 3C5
[email protected] e-ISBN: 978-3-540-74831-1 Advances in Geographic Information Science ISSN: 1867-2434 Library of Congress Control Number: 2008932589 c 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: deblik, Berlin Printed on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com Preface During the last several years there has been a significant coalescence of interest in Open Source Geospatial (OSG) or, as it is also known and referred to in this book, Free and Open Source for Geospatial (FOSS4G) software technology. This interest has served to fan embers from pre-existing FOSS4G efforts, that were focused on both standalone desktop geographic information systems (GIS), such as GRASS, libraries of geospatial utilities, such as GDAL, and Web-based mapping applications, such as MapServer. The impetus for the coalescence of disparate and independent project-based efforts was the formal incorporation on February 27th , 2006 of a non-profit organization known as the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). Full details concerning the foundation, including its mission statement, goals, evolving governance structure, approved projects, Board of Directors, journal, and much other useful information are available through the Foundation’s website (http://www.osgeo.org). This book is not about OSGeo, yet it is difficult to produce a text on FOSS4G approaches to spatial data handling without, in some way or another, encountering the activities and personalities of OSGeo. Of the current books published on this topic the majority are written by authors with very close connections to OSGeo. For example, Tyler Mitchell who is the Executive Director of the Foundation, is author of one of the first books on FOSS4G