Nothing Down: How to start your GIS

project with little or no cost

Ruslan Rainis (Prof)

Opensource GIS Research Group

School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia

Minden 11800, Penang, Malaysia

Email: rruslan@usm.my

Geoinformation Science in Transforming Education and Research for Sustainable Tomorrow and ‘the

Bottom Billions’

Background

• Well-known that GIS is useful to many

organizations for various routine, tactical &

strategic decision making process.

• But still many organizations do not yet

implement/use GIS for various reasons.

• One major reason – cost

– Can we start GIS project with little or no cost?

GIS 101

COMPONENTS OF GIS

• Not just a technology - an integration of five basic components

Software

provides functions and tools to store, analyze, and display geographic information.

Data

integration of spatial data and tabular data

(attributes)

Methods

A successful GIS operates according to a well-designed

implementation plan and business rules

People

GIS specialists vs end users

Hardware

computer system on which a GIS

operates

Source: ESRI

GIS COMPONENT (1)

• hardware

– computers to run software

– other related software

• software

– computer program to process data

• custom-written software

• generic programs are more popular

• data

– processed for information retrieval

– most costly compared with hardware and software

– longer life span

– at times, have legal value

GIS COMPONENT (2)

• People/Institution

– individual and organisation that uses or

implements GIS

– critical components - decides the success of

implementation

• need for GIS professional to analyze,

research, design complex GIS systems

• difficult to change humans to adapt with new

technology

– always overlooked

Query

Analyze

Store Display

Capture

Output

GIS Software functions

GIS SOFTWARE SUBSYSTEM (1)

• data acquisition

– define, entry and preliminary processing data

– digitizer, scanner, survey equipment, etc.

• data management

– control existence, update, recall and deletion of

data

– database management system

GIS SOFTWARE SUBSYSTEM(2)

• analysis of data

– generation of information from data archives

– spatial analysis software

– value of GIS depends on the analytic functions it

provides

• information output

– generated information conveyed to the users

– information managed by computers can be

plotted, printed or exported into other systems.

A Quick look at the cost of GIS

implementation

Some strategies how to implement

gis with little or no cost

• Use freely or opensource softwares – many available of many kinds

• Use insider talents not money – use talents of existing staff

• Exchange data with other organisations

• Barter trade – offset cost of data capture with other equivalent values– E.g. give resell right to data (at agreed time period)

• Rent instead of purchase

• Provide incentive to staffs – extra leave or sponsor to family day

Some strategies how to implement

gis with little or no cost…2

• Sell ads space in newsletter to generate

income to cover cost of GIS implementation –

newsletter related to GIS.

• Setup membership site – let say sharing

experience & giving support using opensource

GIS

– Just imagine if you charge RM20/month & have 500

members, total income RM10,000 per month (make

money while you sleep).

How to implement gis with little

or no cost

What is Open Source and How

Does it Work

Freely available software and source code with limited licensing

restrictions on distribution

Collaborative, community-based software development process

Proactively engages software users with software developers

The Internet provides the backbone for a virtual software

development team

Tpyes of OpenSource GIS

• Software Development

– Desk-top

– Web-based (mapserver)

– Libraries

• Development team

– Individual-based

– Collaborative networks

– Corporation based

Why Opensource GIS?

• The Future of GIS – GIS for ALL & Spatially-

Enabled Society

Why Increasing Interests in OS GIS

(Benefits of the Open Source Model)

Lower Software Cost - No licensing fees Resources are allocated to building applications and enhancing software, not

licensing multiple machines

• Independence from proprietary technology

• Security – risks especially sensitive applications such as e-government, e-procurement

• Enables development of highly customized applications based on organisation’s needs – greater control Development priorities are driven by end-user needs

Issues can be resolved in-house

Vibrant user community – include corporate support

Standards support – Open GIS Consortium

Software quality - improved

Examples of OS GIS

Examples of OS GIS

• Google Map

• Quantum GIS

• Open Jump

• DIVA GIS

• MapWindow

• gvSIG

• SPRING

GoogleMap

Quantum GIS

OpenJUMP GIS

DIVA-GIS

MapWindow

MapWindow

MapWindow

SPRING

Thank you for listeningExample Projects

GIS for Lembah Bujang

Archeological study

• Use GoogleMap & MapServer – for easy access

– Locational data using GPS.

GIS for Secondary

School

• Use MapServer (web-based) & Open Jump

(desktop)

– Case study Form 1 Geography Subject

The uses of OpenJUMP in teaching geography subject to Form 1 students.

Web-based tourist

information system

• Use MapServer – to find shortest distance from

origin to various tourist destinations

Sistem Bantuan Pengurusan

KETENGAH-GIS

( SBPK-GIS )

http://gis.ketengah.gov.my

Courtesy of Spatialworks Sdn Bhd

An online web-GIS application for data sharing

among division in KETENGAH.

Functionalities:

• System Administration and User administration module

• Online map navigational Module

• Online dynamic Map Feature Search module

• Online attribute editing module

• Online dynamic map composition and printing module

• Online document/photo upload to feature

• User access and security control

• System log

SBPK-GIS KETENGAH

Online SBPK-GIS: http://gis.ketengah.gov.my

Toggle Button

Zooming tools

Pan

Information

Select Rectangle

Upload

Query

Ruler

Eraser

Print

System Admin.

ONLINE

Map

Viewing

Data

layer list

Online SBPK-GIS

97 layers of topo data

48 layers of as-built plan data

271 layers of scanned images

30 layers of other data layers

Total: 446 data layers in SBPK-GIS

Online Irrigation Schemes

Information System

( OISIS )

Development of Pilot GIS for the KETARA and Trans Perak Irrigation Scheme

http://bpsp.moa.my/website/

http://spatialworks.mine.nu/website/

Courtesy of Spatialworks Sdn Bhd

Scheduling

Monitoring

Benchmarking

GIS

Maintenance

Administrator

• to support irrigation

scheduling

• to support irrigation

infrastructures

management and

maintenance

• to measure the

effectiveness of

irrigation against

paddy productivity

• to support system

administration function

that include assigning user ids, passwords,

and their access level

• spatial database

management of

irrigation infrastructures

• to support water supply

monitoring at intake

points and water level

in the paddy field

OISIS System Modules

http://spatialworks.mine.nu/dbkk/

Contoh Sistem Pangkalan Data GIS Berpusat - Sistem Maklumat Pemetaan & Geospatial (SiMPeG), DBKK

Open Source GIS Application for DBKK

Open Source GIS Application for DBKK

Shortest Path Routing Application using Open Source

http://spatialworks.mine.nu/fastroute/

EIA-GIS Web GIS Application (DOE)

Open Source GIS Application for JKNNS

Vehicle Tracking System

• Task

– Find a suitable site for a new university aquaculture

lab using the following selection criteria:

• Preferred land use is brushland (i.e. locode = 300 in

landuse.shp)

• Choose soil types suitable for development (i.e. suit >=

2 in soils.shp)

• Site must be within 300 meters of sewer lines

– Calculate the total area of the suitable site(s).

Comparison of several

opensource gis softwares

No Indicators OpenJump gvSIG QGIS 1.4.0 QGIS 1.5.0 GIS A

1 Time (minute:second) to 'Create 300mbuffer of sewers.shp'

00:02 00:03 00:01 00:01 00:02

2 Time (minute:second) to 'Unionsoils.shp and landuse.shp'

00:05 00:06 00:05 00:05 00:03

3 Time (minute:second) to 'Intersectresult of step 1 (buffer) and step 2(union)'

00:06 00:03 00:03 00:02 00:03

4 Time (minute:second) to 'Dissolve finalselected polygon'

00:01 00:03 00:02 00:01 00:02

5 Number of steps required to completethe task

8 10 9 9 8

6 Total time (minute:second) to completethe task

04:09 07:31 05:15 04:04 03:47

7 Total of suitable area (m2) 48158.3 47205.8 47618.2 47618.2 48171.0

Comparison of geoprocessing operations in open source GIS and

Commercial GIS (GIS A).

The Future for Open Source

Technologies

More accessible Internet

Adoption of open standards

Tighter integration among open source technologies

More demanding applications

Rapidly maturing and growing user and developer communities

Summary & Conclusion

• It is possible to start GIS project with little or no cost if there is willingness to try & change in mindset.

• One possible approach is to use Opensource GIS software to minimize software licensing cost.

• Most OS GIS softwares provide at least the basic GIS functions – data capture, management, manipulation, analysis & display – sufficient to start using GIS – especially for data input.

Summary & Conclusion

• Increasing availability of Open source GIS will

enable new users to start using GIS for free or

low-cost – suitable for developing countries

– In long-run all interested parties will have access to

GIS and able to optimise the use of digital data –

create spatially-enabled society.

Geoinformation Science in Transforming Education and Research for Sustainable Tomorrow and ‘the

Bottom Billions’

Acknowledgment:

This research partly benefitted from Science Fund

research grant for “The design and development of

Open Source Web-based GIS for promoting spatial

thingking/skills in secondary school education”

sponsored by MOSTI.

Open Source GIS Training

Series

To learn more about Open Source GIS:

• GIS for All – Training on Open Source GIS, 5-7 August at USM – cost only RM600.

• Report – Opensource GIS Softwares: A Comparative Study (RM50) email: rruslan@usm.my

Geoinformation Science in Transforming Education and Research for Sustainable Tomorrow and ‘the

Bottom Billions’

Announcement

• New Malaysia GIS Users Community

Forum setup in May 2010.

• Free and independent

• All are invited to join.

• Maintained & supported by Prof. Ruslan

& Opensource GIS Research Group,

USM.

http://gismalaysia.org/forum

Thank you for listeningThank you for your attention