Free software: A review, in the context of disaster management <s> Desktop and mobile GIS software <s> MapWindow is an open source geographic information ::: system (GIS) and an application programming ::: interface (API) distributed under the Mozilla Public ::: License (MPL), built upon the Microsoft Dot Net ::: Framework 2.0. The project is maintained by an ::: active group of international developers who regularly ::: release updates and bug fixes through the ::: MapWindow.org web site.1 ::: In 2005, the United States Environmental Protection ::: Agency adopted MapWindow as the core ::: GIS platform for its BASINS watershed analysis and ::: modeling software which is used by environmental ::: professionals at all levels of U.S. government and internationally. ::: This was followed by adoption at the ::: United Nations University and many other governmental, ::: non-profit, and commercial entities throughout ::: the world. Indeed, from November 2006 through ::: July 2007 the software was downloaded over 60,000 ::: times and has over 7,000 members on the opt-in mailing ::: list. There are also currently 630 subscribers to ::: source code commit notification mailing lists, and 43 ::: regular source code committers. ::: The MapWindow components and end user application ::: support manipulation, analysis and viewing ::: of geospatial data in many standard GIS data formats. ::: Hence, MapWindow is a mapping tool, a GIS ::: modeling system, and a GIS API, in a redistributable ::: open source form that is appealing for its simplicity ::: of use and for running on Microsoft Windows. This ::: paper presents the project history, current status, key ::: elements and future plans. <s> BIB001 </s> Free software: A review, in the context of disaster management <s> Desktop and mobile GIS software <s> This paper describes gvSIG project, from its beginning until the current status. This open source project, started as a first approach to become the open source geographic information system of the administration in Valencia region and has become a reference project within the GIS world from the proprietary level applications until open source projects. gvSIG has cross many country borders and chase to reach the status of an “all-in” application, with an integrated behaviour unifying CAD and GIS worlds, vector and raster, integrating local data work with Spatial data infrastructure information and services, two dimensions world with 3D and 4D, building a tool used by GIS users at all levels. ::: ::: ::: ::: Key words: SDI, OGC, open source, interoperability, desktop clients <s> BIB002 </s> Free software: A review, in the context of disaster management <s> Desktop and mobile GIS software <s> Over the past few years the world of free and open source geospatial software has experienced some major changes. For instance, the website FreeGIS.org currently lists 330 GIS‐related projects. Besides the advent of new software projects and the growth of established projects, a new organisation known as the OSGeo Foundation has been established to offer a point of contact. This paper will give an overview on existing free and open source desktop GIS projects. To further the understanding of the open source software development, we give a brief explanation of associated terms and introduce the two most established software license types: the General Public License (GPL) and the Lesser General Public License (LGPL). After laying out the organisational structures, we describe the different desktop GIS software projects in terms of their main characteristics. Two main tables summarise information on the projects and functionality of the currently available software versions. Finally, the advantages and disad... <s> BIB003 </s> Free software: A review, in the context of disaster management <s> Desktop and mobile GIS software <s> Abstract The European Commission is developing, under the responsibility of the Joint Research Centre and in close collaboration with international and national partners, the Water Knowledge Management Platform. This platform will integrate a dynamic management of different support tools and guidelines for the water management sector in developing countries. The support tools will be based on open source desktop GIS technologies in order to provide the final users in developing countries with a sustainable technology from both financial and technological points of view. In this study, a comprehensive list of several hundred open sources GIS software packages are put together by an extensive search and then screened to obtain a list of 31 packages for further consideration. Various criteria were developed to exclude 17 packages and the remaining 14 went through a series of installation and performance tests; firstly on a PC (Pentium (R), E5200 @ 2.50 GHZ, 1.98 Gb of RAM, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Version 2002, Service Pack2). Several packages were dropped due to the general suitabilities and functionalities. Four packages (QGIS, gvSIG, MapWindow and openJUMP) performed well in map rendering of large file sizes (up to 125 Mb) and were further tested on a Pentium III computer. The QGIS package outperformed others in very poor computing conditions. The gvSIG and openJUMP packages performed reasonably well but their startup times were long, while MapWindow struggled. QGIS, gvSIG, openJUMP and MapWindow were recommended for the EU Water Knowledge Management Platform (WKMP). <s> BIB004 </s> Free software: A review, in the context of disaster management <s> Desktop and mobile GIS software <s> Over the last decade an increasing number of free and open source software projects have been founded that concentrate on developing several types of software for geographic data collection, storage, analysis and visualization. We first identify the drivers of such software projects and identify different types of geographic information software, e.g. desktop GIS, remote sensing software, server GIS etc. We then list the major projects for each software category. Afterwards we discuss the points that should be considered if free and open source software is to be selected for use in business and research, such as software functionality, license types and their restrictions, developer and user community characteristics, etc. Finally possible future developments are addressed. <s> BIB005
The majority of geoinformatic analysis is still performed on workstations with desktop software, despite the increasing opportunities provided by parallel and cloud-computing. With disaster response, typical Desktop GIS software tasks include the display, query, update, and analysis of locational data and their linked information BIB003 ESRI, 2012) . Software libraries, such as GDAL (for raster data) and OGR (for vector data), are the backbone of many Desktop GIS software. Most recent GIS software has some form of geospatial database and web functionality. BIB005 identified eight "mature Desktop GIS projects" with functionality comparable to proprietary software and an active international user community: (i) GRASS GIS  ; (ii) Quantum GIS  ; (iii) ILWIS  ; (iv) uDig  ; (v)SAGA  ; (vi) OpenJump  ); (vii) MapWindow BIB001 ; (viii) gvSig BIB002 . Each of the software projects in Figure. 2 can visualize raster and vector data, perform basic geoinformatic operations and most offer plug-in software to extend functionality; they differ in their processing capabilities and support. The GIS user community has shifted its preferred choice of software, fromILWIS and MapWindow, to QGIS, which is now considered to be more user-friendly and versatile than most other FOSS4geoinfo software (e.g., BIB004 . Although the number of mobile phones has increased, along with the corresponding network-coverage and network-speed, few disaster management applications run on mobile platforms, such as mobile phones or tablets. There are many navigation software apps for mobile devices, but most cannot export data. Two exceptions, which allow the export of GPS data, are TangoGPS (http://www.tangogps.org/) and FoxtrotGPS (http://www.foxtrotgps.org/). Data collected by mobile devices might also require processing on workstations with Desktop GIS. Usability of mobile platforms is further limited by the often small display screens, limiting operational activity. Amongst the geoinformatic software available for mobile devices the Android platform dominates, with the availability of gvSIG Mobile and QGIS. Notable mobile phone apps with disaster management uses are: Geopaparazzi, an Android app for engineering geology surveys: it can store georeferenced notes and images, log GPS tracks, create a map for navigation and export data; GeoNotes, an iOS app that works as a notebook tool, automatically associating a data log with its GPS location and showing user-selected "hot spots"; EpiCollect and its derivative, Magpi: Android apps for epidemiological surveys. Some commercial app-builders provide free basic functionality, but there is also an effective free alternative, with the MIT app inventor. The mobile device apps scene changes rapidly and to assist project continuity a critical mass of users and developers is needed.