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(By Sifelani Tsiko) AFRICA needs to take practical steps to adopt space technology for earth observation, telecommunications and advancing space science to promote socio-economic development on the continent, a top African Union Commission official says.

Dr Tidiane Ouattara, an African Union space science expert, told participants at the third information session of Global Monitoring for Environment and Security and Africa (GMES and Africa), which was held in Harare, Zimbabwe, recently, that countries on the continent have now recognised the usefulness of satellites for earth observation in Africa’s sustainable development.

“It is a veritable fact that space science and technology are an important enabler for the implementation of any Science and Technology Strategy. And this is true for the African Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy (STISA 2024),” he said.

“Africa has woken up to the potential and usefulness of space technology.

The manifold benefits that will accrue to Africa from a formal space sector will surely assist us to translate the vision for a united, prosperous continent in peace with itself into reality.”

Experts say earth observation satellites can collect data on areas of importance to a country’s economy and well-being such as agriculture, natural disasters, water resources, wildlife, forests and coastal marine resources.

For instance, in some countries in Africa satellites have been used to monitor the oil resources, election monitoring, providing crucial information about deforestation, wildlife poaching, monitoring floods and other natural disasters.

In another case, South Africa has harnessed earth observation satellite capability to do human settlement mapping.

This, experts say, has enabled it to monitor urbanisation by examining the growth of settlements and the transformation of housing.

It provides useful data for service delivery projects and town planning.

GMES and Africa, supported by the both the African and the European Commissions to the tune of euro 30 million, is an initiative that seeks to improve the exploitation of earth observation data, technologies and services in support of sustainable development in Africa.

A total of 28 representatives drawn from Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, AU, civil society, EU, academia, independent research institutions and the private sector attended the Harare information session to train members from the SADC grouping on the guidelines and procedures of accessing the fund to help build capacity and develop a consortia that will spearhead efforts to harness space technology for sustainable development.

“The Harare meeting is a crucial step for the SADC region and members are being trained on how to prepare proposals as a consortium to attract the funds driven by our own regional priorities,” said Rungano Karimanzira, head of projects technology transfer in Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education

“We want our experts in the region to be able to collect and analyse data on earth observation for use by policy makers in our thrust towards realising Africa’s 2063 Agenda. The training we are getting is critical for us to effectively access the funds guided by the AU Commission manuals on procurement.”

Dr Ouattara said GMES and Africa sought to create five hubs in each of the continents sub –regions in the North, Central, East, West and South.

“Zimbabwe is hosting the third information session and we have already conducted others in Kigali (Rwanda, February 2017) and another in Dakar (Senegal, February 2017),” he said.

“In April we will be in Cairo for the North African cluster and in Libreville for the Central African cluster. We want our members to fully understand how they can apply for the funds. We want to strengthen our collaboration with the EU.”

The initiatives highlighted the strategic role that earth observation can play in supporting national, regional and continental policies for sustainable socio-economic development and how cooperation between Africa and Europe in the development of GMES and Africa can be increased.

Dr Ouattara said Africa needs to speed up the setting up of an institutional architecture to ensure the coordination of GMES and Africa initiative and the Group on Earth Observation projects.

SADC Climate Service Centre Regional Coordinator, Bradwell Garanganga, said space technologies was important for providing disaster monitoring and post-disaster assessment mechanism for the region.

“This initiative will help reduce the negative impacts from climate induced hazards such as droughts, floods and wildfires. It will also contribute to better environmental and agricultural management through evidence based decision-making,” he said.

“The project is all about providing reliable information, near real time status updates and trends on various parameter required for informed decision making and to facilitate planning, policy development frameworks the highest level.

“By making use of earth observations from satellites the project will cover every corner of the region and provide environmental data several times per day on issues of priority to the region – agriculture, drought, floods and wildfires.”

He said space technologies and particularly earth observation applications, could contribute to the achievement of the strategic development goals – providing information, useful in a wide range of areas like food security, management of natural resources, desertification, climate monitoring and humanitarian aid among others.

Regionally, at the African Union level and globally at the UN level, the international community developed various action plans, which, among other things, recommended that improving access to accurate and reliable satellite information be prioritised.

Dr Ouattara said the development of space technologies fitted into Africa’s 2063 agenda, a continental vision which is: “An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena.”

Africa recently approved Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy (STISA 2024) as an important intervention for using science, technology and innovation to respond to the key priorities of the continent and realise Africa’s aspirations.

In January 2016, African Union Heads of State and Government adopted the African Space Policy supported by the African Space Strategy that envisions an African Space Programme that is user-focused, competitive, efficient and innovative.

The thematic focus areas of the African Space Strategy are namely earth observation, navigation and positioning, satellite communications, and space science and astronomy.

After adopting the African Space Policy and Strategy, the African leaders urged the African Union Commission to continue developing an implementation plan and a governance structure, as well as to ensure that the continent fully participates in space activities.

It is envisaged that training and funding support will go a long way to ensure African countries are better equipped to deal with environmental challenges such as flood, drought and related challenges.

However, experts say for these programmes to be effective, much will depend on the individual country’s capability to launch domestic satellite systems,

Closer collaboration and setting up consortiums will help the speed up the process towards a true continental space alliance, experts say.

“There is no question satellites and space exploration have socioeconomic benefits. Satellites can help find mineral resources. Satellites helped uncover an underground aquifer in Kenya’s driest region. The plethora of possible benefits is combined with other crucial hard to quantify advantages.

These projects inspire youth, increase national pride and advance education,” wrote Scott Firsing, a research fellow on international relations at South Africa’s Monash University in an online publication. _“But, space endeavours require capital. And for most African countries, capital is a limited commodity.”_-Zimpapers Syndication

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Land Viewer cloud software for remote sensing analytics is the biggest surprise I had in a long time. After trying it you won’t be needing any other satellite data processing web tool.

Founded in 2015 by Max Polyakov, EOS Inc. (EOS stands for the Earth Observing System) developed one of the best satellite data processing and analytics platforms out there. EOS’s back-end solutions are used by some of the Fortune 500 companies and the mapping industry leaders.

The platform offers the fastest engine to search and process satellite and areal imagery I’ve ever seen. On the top, it features a massive set of filters and algorithms to analyze the data at any scale. Now, all these features are available for free to the general public. The company recently launched a new, impressive web-based tool where anyone can access, analyze and download satellite images for free.

The service is called Land Viewer and offers free, on-the-fly, real-time imagery processing and analytics packed with features. It’s cool and insanely fast. It gives you access to imagery from Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 satellites with more to come soon.

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Google Earth Engine ( GEE ) is a cloud platform for processing satellite imageries.

This service includes images of Landsat 5, 7,8, Sentinel 1 and Sentinel 2. You can process them directly on Google servers and don’t need download the images. This opportunity does processing of satellite imageries faster then on a limited desktop PC. However, you should have programming skills, because this is based on JavaScript code and the Google Earth Engine API.

Examples of GEE

A great example of using this servic is Global Forest Watch. The main task of this service are interactive maps of deforestation and reforestation. I really advise you to look up on this resources if you does not heart about them already.

Project with GEE

Now, I want to describe my practical experience using GEE. This is related with my master project. Topic of the project is “Determination of burning area in Arkhangelsk region (Russia)”. The Arkhangelsk region covers half million km². Creating a cloudless composite covering the whole region is not a simple task and very time consuming if it is done manually: You will spend more time on downloading images and picking up images in the composite.

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An increasing awareness is emerging that, although extremely useful in a large pool of applications, space-based sensing, alone, is not sufficient to reach the desired accuracy, reliability, precision, and especially completeness of data requested in some cases.

In the context of risk assessment, where missing details can have a great impact on the accuracy of projected disaster scenarios, it is important to guarantee a reasonable completeness of the data kit; to meet such an ambitious goal, consistent and operational monitoring systems are needed to integrate spaceborne acquisitions at a variety of spatial and temporal resolutions. On the other hand, the development of sensor networks and mobile-based crowdsourcing appear to be offering the required technical means to generate the complementary data and support the integration of space-based and in-situ sensing.

From the above context, this Special Issue was conceived, open to the submission of both review and original research articles, related to the exploitation of spaceborne Earth observation (EO) and in-situ sensors for risk assessment from natural threats. Special attention will be devoted to the emerging paradigms in both sensing contexts, like “open data”, “big data”, “machine learning”, “crowdsourcing” and “participative sensing”. The Special Issue welcomes contributions ranging from exposure and vulnerability assessment, to geospatial methods for risk scenario analysis, to sensor networks, as well as innovative approaches using sensor fusion and deep learning. Original contributions on hazard and damage assessment are also encouraged.

Keywords

  • Spaceborne earth observation
  • In-situ sensing
  • Participative sensing
  • Crowdsourcing
  • Sensor networks
  • Risk assessment
  • Natural hazards

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section “Remote Sensors”
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2017

Special Issue Editor
Guest Editor, Prof. Dr. Fabio Dell’Acqua
Department of Electrical, Computer, Biomedical Engineering, University of Pavia, via Ferrata 1, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Interests: risk and damage assessment from radar and optical remotely sensed data; risk exposure and vulnerability evaluation by fusion of Earth Observation and crowdsourced data

PROBA-V’s Mission Exploitation Platform (MEP) complements the PROBA-V user segment by building an operational Exploitation Platform on the data and derived products to bring the users closer to the data. The MEP offers multiple online applications. One of these is the Time Series Viewer (TSV). It allows you to explore the PROBA-V Time Series for specific regions, incorporating data such as rainfall.

Pixel and polygon support in the Time Series Viewer

Since March 2017, the Time Series Viewer has allowed you to view time series for individual pixels for PROBA-V 300 m TOC NDVI and Chirps rainfall data. On-the-fly data analytics are applied to show you the exact information you need, not just the pre-computed values for pre-defined regions. The next step? Supporting user-defined polygons from the Web UI.

The pixel and polygon support can be used via our web client, but you can also use the RESTful Web service. This service now supports both, single pixels and polygons, and can be integrated into your applications. In the future more data will be added e.g. vegetation layers from the Copernicus Global Land Service.

More technical information is available at this link.

Custom designed VRE to facilitate your research

Besides the Time Series Viewer, PROBA-V MEP also offers a Virtual Research Environment (VRE). Researchers and developers from across the globe can request a VRE with access to the PROBA-V and SPOT-VEGETATION data archive. It also offers a powerful set of tools to work with the data (e.g. SNAP Toolbox, GRASS, GIS, QGIS). With the VRE it is also possible to develop and test applications (R, Python or Java).

For more information, please visit https://proba-v-mep.esa.int.
This article is extracted from VITO blog

You are invited to participate in the Regional Workshop of the GEO-CRADLE Horizon2020 project (Coordinating and integRating state-of-the-art Earth Observation Activities in the regions of North Africa, Middle East, and Balkans and Developing Links with GEO related initiatives towards GEOSS).

The event is jointly organised by the Project Coordinator National Observatory of Athens and the Project Partner Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe.

The workshop will take place on May 25th 2017, from 10:00 to 16:00 at Le Meridien Heliopolis Hotel 51 El-Orouba, Almazah, Cairo, Egypt.

This regional workshop will focus on identifying the potential local challenges and needs that can be addressed with the Earth Observation (EO), enabling more informed decision making, while seeking solutions to enhance growth and innovation in the geo-information sector. Aiming to support knowledge sharing, capacity building and an enhanced cooperation between academia and industry, the event will also provide participants with a unique cross-sector networking opportunity. In addition, panel discussions will be complemented with information on available EU funding in the EO sector.

Please register by filling in this form.
For further information about project activities, please visit the GEO-CRADLE website.

by Charlotte Bishop is Remote Sensing Projects Manager with NPA Satellite Mapping, CGG (www.cgg.com/npa). There has never been such an abundance of satellite imagery and elevation data. It can, however, pose challenges in knowing where to start in selecting the right imagery for the job. NPA Satellite Mapping’s Charlotte Bishop traces the evolution of the market and reviews the options now on offer

When NPA Satellite Mapping was founded 45 years ago it initially focused on the application of satellite imagery for geological exploration before growing to become a leading independent supplier of satellite data and derived solutions to a global client base across a range of market sectors including oil & gas, mining, engineering, environment and defence. It is therefore a fitting moment to look back and consider the numerous ‘revolutions’ that have occurred within the satellite imagery market and how these changes impact the decisions we can now make in selecting and exploiting the optimum data set.

Lift-off

Most specialists would agree that the first revolution was the launch of Landsat-1, initially known as ERTS-1, in 1972, which was the first commercially available satellite mission.

The series is now on its eighth satellite and, with plans for the launch of Landsat-9 in 2023, continues to highlight the value of its medium spatial resolution multi-spectral imagery that is now publicly available. To this day, Landsat still provides the backbone to numerous remote sensing applications thanks to its unrivalled historical archive and fixed 16-day revisit period.

The next revolution was the launch of the first operational Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite mission following the success of SEASAT in the 1970s. SAR had the advantage of providing all-weather, day/night imaging capabilities. ERS-1, operated by ESA (European Space Agency), was launched in 1991 and its data acquisition strategy resulted in a significant global archive that continues to be exploited as part of historical assessments. Long-term C-band radar continuity was subsequently provided by ERS-2 (1995), ENVISAT (2002) and, more recently, Sentinel-1A/1B (2014/2016).

Aiming higher

At this early stage, the skies were largely dominated by lower spatial resolution satellite missions but diversity was creeping in with the availability of both optical and radar systems. It wasn’t until 1999, and the launch of IKONOS-2, that the first commercial Very High Resolution (VHR) optical satellite successfully reached orbit and imaged the world at a resolution better than a 10 m pixel.

A ground-breaking satellite of its age, it acquired imagery at 80 cm (panchromatic) and 3.6 m (multispectral) spatial resolution and became a workhorse for detailed mapping for the next 16 years. IKONOS-2 marked the start of many similar missions including Quickbird-2, Worldview, Kompsat, and Pleiades, to name but a few.

Another revolution, occurring in parallel with IKONOS-2, focused on increasing the spectral resolution (more spectral bands) of satellites to widen the range of information that could be discriminated from an image. ASTER, launched by NASA in late 1999, was the first satellite with this increased spectral range. Building on the Landsat spectral resolution, it had increased capabilities in the visible, short-wave and thermal portions of the electromagnetic spectrum and is, to this day, unmatched by any other spaceborne multispectral sensor.

Not all the advances were in the optical domain. TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed, launched within days of each other in June 2007, were the first X-band SAR missions capable of acquiring high spatial resolution data. This technology not only led to daily SAR acquisition capabilities as part of the COSMO-SkyMed constellation but also the generation of the WorldDEMTM global elevation product with a 12m grid derived from TerraSAR-X and its twin, TanDEM-X.

Relaxing the rules

For optical satellites, the next challenge was to improve spatial resolution still further. Worldview-3 was the first – and currently the only – satellite capable of collecting imagery at 30-cm spatial resolution. Launched in 2015, it prompted a relaxation of US Government restrictions by giving the commercial market access to 25 cm resolution imagery (the previous limit being 50 cm). Coupled with the increased spectral capabilities of its visible and shortwave sensor, it offers the balance of highly detailed mapping and increased feature extraction capabilities.

Although not a direct technological advancement, open access data is a revolution in itself and one that has brought significant benefits. The United States Geological Survey was the first to make all of its data freely available in the late 2000s leading, in turn, to an exponential increase in the usage of its data. Subsequently, ESA, with its extensive archive of SAR data, followed suit, setting the baseline for Sentinel. This satellite constellation, with various capabilities, is now providing data quickly and robustly to support the European ‘Copernicus’ programme. Making data open access not only makes it more accessible, but also encourages research and development. This, in turn, encourages new products and services into the marketplace.

SmallSat boom

The current revolution is the boom in constellations of small satellites such as Planet’s Doves. These missions, typically flown by innovative new operators, seek to improve temporal collection to never-before-seen levels at a fraction of the cost of the larger commercial missions, while also challenging how we ingest and use that data in new and novel ways.

These historical and contemporary satellite imagery revolutions now put us in an enviable position, with many missions, offering numerous, varied capabilities. However, this diversity of options makes for a complex landscape where determining the optimal image purchasing solution can be difficult. It invariably involves a compromise between multiple factors, both technical, economic and intended use. However, some key considerations can help with the selection. These include the following:
Image timing and date

For some applications, the most recent image may be the most important requirement. In others, a time-series may be required whereby satellite constellations can be exploited for both historical and ongoing monitoring. This can be particularly important in areas that are variable due to seasonal change or undergoing extensive development. For such applications, using a single image may not provide a truly representative view or provide sufficient context for analysis.

Spatial resolution

A 30-cm image will provide an extremely high level of detail but the tradeoff is that it covers only a small area and can be a costly option. Depending on the required mapping scale, a slightly lower resolution, even down to 1.5 m, can provide sufficient detail to derive a 1:10,000 map with the advantage that it covers an area three times the size of a 30-cm image.
Sensor type

Deciding whether to use an optical or SAR sensor, or a combination of both, comes down to a number of factors. An optical sensor, which relies on the reflectance properties of surface features, only operates during the daytime and its applicability can be severely limited in some areas due to cloud cover and haze. SAR, an active sensor, is capable of imaging through clouds during both day and night. In certain situations, SAR can provide some ground penetration, which may also provide useful information on shallow subsurface features. The ‘textural’ information from SAR and the ‘spectral’ information from optical has specific value for different types of projects, and combining them can provide additional insight beyond that available from either used in isolation.

Exciting prospect

Today, we can do far more with satellite data than we ever imagined possible 45 years ago, so what tomorrow could bring is a very exciting prospect. With its extensive applied satellite remote sensing experience, long-term relationships with satellite operators, and independent supplier status, NPA Satellite Mapping offers a simple, impartial entry point into the increasingly complex world of satellite imagery. Selecting the right imagery is the critical first step to unlocking actionable information.

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Getech developed a new satellite-based gravity data product that enhances explorationists’ understanding of the East African Rift. Potential fields data have proved particularly successfully within this environment, and numerous oil companies have cited how such information had direct positive impacts on exploration campaigns.

Getech experts are creating these new datasets by converting lake-surface satellite altimeter measurements to gravity. The raw data were obtained from measurements collected by Cryosat-2 and Jason-1 satellites, which then were combined with previously acquired GEOSAT data. This unique combination of data and expertise created information of sufficient density to produce real insight for explorationists.

Getech created these advanced processing packages and linked onshore data for Lake Albert, Lake Edward, Lake Malawi, Lake Mweru, Lake Rukwa, Lake Tanganyika, Lake Turkana and Lake Victoria.

According to Simon Campbell, head of Gravity and Magnetic Solutions for Getech, “translating our processing methods developed in open oceans to inland lakes has been a significant technical leap forward. This advancement, combined with the increased data density, has resulted in us providing complete coverage and insight over these inland lakes; an environment where we have seen potential fields play a key role in exploration.”

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The 2nd International Conference on GIS and Remote Sensing will be held on July 20-21, 2017 Munich, Germany.

The theme of the GIS Congress 2017 is “Innovation of Spatial Data Infrastructure for Sustainable Development”. The conference strives to accumulate specialists and pioneers from across the globe in order to counter the economic under-evaluation Geologists may face in their practice. Several eminent researchers and speakers will present their outlook and advice, the venue of the event has been selected after much research to assure that the event is being held in one of the hotspots for the concerned field, therefore attendance is expected to be astounding, both in quality and quantity. The conference will not only feature recent findings from leading industrial and academic experts in the field of GIS & Remote Sensing, in the form of lectures and posters but provide a platform to experts as well.

More information at the Conference website

A debate that always rears its head in the world of software developers and software users is the constant comparison and contrasting of commercial and open source software. Like all things in life, they both have their advantages and disadvantages. It is up to the user to determine what suits him/her. However, it is not such an easy decision to make.

Narrowing it down, experts and individuals who use GIS software are also in this dilemma. Most open source and commercial software share so much in common that it is difficult to really differentiate them. The only crystal clear difference is the licensing fee. Beyond that, there are other points to keep in mind about commercial and open source software. This write-up intends to shed light on those points. However, if you are a newbie in the world of software development, and these terms seems alien to you, here is a quick overview.

Open-source software is computer software with its source code made available by the developer to everybody to study, change, modify, enhance and distribute. On the other hand, commercial software has source code that only the person, team, or organization that created it can edit, inspect, change and enhance it. They maintain exclusive right over it. It is also called proprietary or closed source software. A notable example is Microsoft word.

With this in mind, let us compare commercial and open source GIS software from various standpoints:

1. MARKETING STRATEGIES
The marketing strategies of open source and commercial software differ significantly. The developers of commercial software use strategies such as sales team, paid advert, marketing teams and search engines (SEO). In other words, their marketing strategies is an individual effort and team effort which are mostly paid for. On the other hand, developers of open source software rely mostly on individual efforts like viral marketing (word of mouth) and search engine (SEO). It is rarely paid for and most individuals participate on pro bono basis. We conclude that commercial GIS software has more sophisticated marketing strategies.

2. PRICING
Many commercial GIS software are quite expensive. It costs thousands of dollars on initial purchase. This does not include the yearly maintenance fee. While for open source software, it is the completely opposite. Open source software is completely free on the initial download and no licensing fee or maintenance fee. The no cost tag of open source GIS software gives it an edge over commercial GIS software in the market.

3. QUALITY OF SUPPORT
Since most commercial GIS software is owned and distributed by reputable software development companies, they do everything possible to give users the value of their money. To achieve that, the quality of their customer support is top notch. They have excellent technical support to guide users on the use of the software and also to assist in case any problem pops up. This includes sound FAQ sections, to email assistance, to over-the-phone inquiries. For open source software, the quality of support is inferior compared to commercial software. What you get is individual support in the form of blog posts, forums and youtube videos. Online support for open source GIS software is not definite and structured. The support provided is in most cases unsatisfactory and inconsistent.

4. FLEXIBILITY
Commercial GIS software possesses excellent spatial analysis tool and geoprocessing functionality. However, though it is enriched with top notch tools for analysis, it is not flexible. By flexibility, we editing and upgrading the software to suit your needs. For instance, if an analyst needs a feature that the software does not possess, he/she will have to wait until it is added by the owners of the software. This hinders creativity, flexibility and innovation. On the other hand, it is the complete opposite for open source GIS software. An analyst using open source GIS software can add features not existing in the software. He is not dependent on a third party. It gives room for creativity and flexibility.

5. USER-FRIENDLY
Commercial GIS software is equipped with diverse arrays of mapping tools for quick and efficient analysis. The analyst is also welcomed with an easy to interfaces for each tool geospatial tools. Commercial GIS software is more suitable for newbies finding their feet in geospatial analysis. For open-source GIS software, it is not so easy. Though they possess quality geospatial tools, it is difficult to for analysts to use optimally at first. Open source GIS software is more suitable for seasoned professionals in the field of geospatial analysis. It is not ideal for newbies or amateurs, or else a poor analysis will be conducted.

6. SIMPLICITY
Commercial GIS software is all about simplicity and ease of work. From network analysis, to land analysis, commercial GIS software carries out these tasks with ease. It turns an herculean task into a walk in park. For open source software, though it does not add to the complexities of the task, it does not really provide much to make analysis easier. It leaves the analyst in the cold.

7. CUSTOMER BASE
Commercial GIS software and Open source GIS software have its customer base or users. Each has its own customers. However, what differs is the modus operandi chosen to develop their customer base. For commercial software, their customer base consists of rich clients and customers with difficulties no other person can solve. For open source on the other hand, the customer base consists of genius users that can help expand the frontiers of the software functionality and users that provide monetary donations.

8. FUNDING
The source of funds for both parties is different. Most times, open source GIS software relies on donations. Donations are the major source of fund for open source software. Other sources of funds include consulting sales and Software as a service / Hosting. While commercial software also its own unique source of funds. It includes: product sales product licenses, product renewals, software as service / hosting and consulting sales. It is important to remember that commercial GIS software owners have a wider source of funds that open GIS software. It is also more consistent than open source software.

9. APP DEVELOPMENT
Though both of them are active in the development of GIS apps, open source software leads the way. Open source GIS software apps are cheap, develop by an analyst to meet their specific needs and most importantly, there is no headache of licensing fee. For commercial software, the apps developed are expensive and licensing fee is also included. Because of this, its apps are not as popular as the ones developed by its open source counterparts.

10. OTHER BENEFITS
Apart from the monetary gains both parties benefits; they also share similar non-monetary benefits. Such as fame and joy from putting a smile on others face. We can say this is one thing they share in common apart from geospatial tools. They enjoy creating and recreating GIS Software.

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