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Whitebox Geospatial Analysis Tools
Entry ID: Whitebox

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Summary

Abstract: The Whitebox Geospatial Analysis Tools (GAT) project is an exciting open-source GIS project. Whitbox is as much a philosophical approach to geomatics as it is a GIS/Remote Sensing package. This philosophy of transparency, from which Whitebox derives its name, has led to the development of some rather unique and innovative features in the software. To learn more about this philosophy of transparent ... GIS/RS, please follow this link.

Whitebox GAT has its origins embedded in an older freeware GIS/RS software, the Terrain Analysis System (TAS). Whitebox offers some real improvements over this older software. This includes the following:

1. Whitebox is open-source and transparent software. The concept of software transparency that has guided the development of Whitebox is a very novel contribution and improvement over traditional open-source development strategies that we hope will encourage an active development community. Imagine using a GIS for a specific application or teaching. You may use a certain tool and wonder, 'how exactly does this work?' You might first try the help documentation, but it may not be detailed enough (i.e. down to the level of the implemented algorithm) to give you the information you desire. Now image that you could press a single button that is on the tool's dialog box and it would bring you to the very page in the enormous library of the GIS packages code that is the tool's algorithm. That's exactly what transparent software is all about.

2. Whitebox possesses a new process for accessing spatial data that allows for the processing of much larger (massive) spatial datasets.

3. Whitbox is extendible. Users are able to create and embed custom tools that take advantage of the Whitebox user-interface and functionality to the same degree of integration as built-in functions. It is possible to write plugins using either the Java programming langauge or to write scripts using either jython (Python for Java), JavaScript, or Groovy.

4. Whitebox has very good documentation. Each tool has rich documentation built into the tool dialog box and the software has an excellent help program. The help for each tool also documents who wrote the help and the tool algorithm and when. This is also part of Whitebox's transparent philosophy. The user has a right to know who created the tool.

5. Whitebox is easy to use, despite being a powerful software package for performing advanced geospatial analysis operations. This fact, combined with the rich help documentation and the ability to easily drill down into the workings of each tool's algorithm, makes Whitebox ideal for education as well as research.

Description: Download the Whitebox Geospatial Analysis Tools.

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Service Citation

Originators: John Lindsay
Title: Whitebox Geospatial Analysis Tools
Provider: University of Guelph Department of Geography
URL: http://www.uoguelph.ca/~hydrogeo/Whitebox/index.html

Service Keywords

DATA ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION >GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS >DESKTOP GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Science Keywords

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING >INFRARED WAVELENGTHS >INFRARED IMAGERY

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING >MICROWAVE >MICROWAVE IMAGERY

ISO Topic Category

IMAGERY/BASE MAPS/EARTH COVER
BIOTA

Access Constraints None

Use Constraints Whitebox GAT is distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 3. The action of downloading this software carries with it an implicit agreement to abide by the terms of the license.

Ancillary Keywords

GIS
Geographic Information Systems

Service Provider

UOGUELPH/GEOGRAPHY/HYDROGEO

Service Organization URL: http://www.uoguelph.ca/~hydrogeo/

Service Provider Personnel
Name: JOHN LINDSAY Phone: 519 824-4120 Email: jlindsay at uoguelph.ca Contact Address: Department of Geography University of Guelph City: Guelph Province or State: Ontario Postal Code: N1G 2W1 Country: Canada

Distribution Media

Distribution_Media: Online
Fees: No fees

Personnel

JOHN LINDSAY
Role: TECHNICAL CONTACT
Phone: 519 824-4120
Email: jlindsay at uoguelph.ca
Contact Address:
Department of Geography
University of Guelph
City: Guelph
Province or State: Ontario
Postal Code: N1G 2W1
Country: Canada

TYLER B. STEVENS
Role: SERF AUTHOR
Phone: (301) 614-6898
Fax: 301-614-5268
Email: Tyler.B.Stevens at nasa.gov
Contact Address:
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Global Change Master Directory
City: Greenbelt
Province or State: MD
Postal Code: 20771
Country: USA

Creation and Review Dates

SERF Creation Date: 2012-08-17
SERF Last Revision Date: 2012-08-20

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