SIG & Territoires is the portal for GIS professionals. It offers information on the latest GIS technologies, training and resources for professionals in the sector. GIS & Territoires is the ideal starting point for professionals wishing to find out more about GIS and how to use it to improve their activities.

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  [EN]QGIS 4.0 Released: Discover the New Features
  The new major version of QGIS has been released. QGIS 4.0 marks an important milestone in the evolution of the open-source GIS software, bringing a modernized interface, numerous performance improvements and the migration to Qt 6.…
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  [EN]Potential applications of quantum computing in GIS
  Article 2/3 Once the foundations have been laid, the central question remains: what could quantum computing actually be used for in GIS?Rather than speculating in abstract terms, this article explores the domains where the challenges faced…
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  [EN]Quantum computing and GIS: what are the prospects for spatial analysis?
  Quantum computing and GIS: hype or a genuine path for spatial analysis? Quantum computing regularly makes headlines in technology news, often accompanied by spectacular promises. But what does this new computing paradigm really mean for a…
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  [EN]Exploring ENC Data Before Import: The NOAA Catalogue at the Service of S57Manager
  Working with ENC (S-57) data presents a very specific challenge: their richness and complexity make any “blind” approach inefficient. Even before discussing data import or structuring in QGIS, a fundamental question arises: which charts should be…
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  [EN]Import NOAA ENC nautical charts directly into QGIS with S57Manager
  ENC (Electronic Navigational Charts) are now the standard for digital marine cartography. With the latest update to the S57Manager plugin, QGIS now features a module dedicated to the official NOAA ENC catalog, allowing users to easily…
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  [EN]S57Manager: Working with ENC S-57 data in QGIS using GeoPackage
  A lightweight, autonomous and portable solution for marine data Introduction While PostGIS is ideal for structured, collaborative and multi-project professional environments, it is not always necessary — nor desirable — for all use cases. For: the…
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  S57Manager: Manage S-57 ENC data in QGIS with PostGIS
  Import, structuring and use of official nautical charts in a robust spatial database S57Manager is a QGIS plugin that enables the structured import, validation and visualization of ENC (S-57) nautical charts using PostGIS or GeoPackage. Introduction…
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  Why ENCs (S-57) are complex data
  Understanding electronic nautical charts before using them in a GIS Introduction ENC – Electronic Navigational Charts are now the global standard for professional maritime navigation. Produced by national hydrographic services, they comply with strict standards defined…
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  Improving aerial image resolution with ESRGAN: when AI brings old photos back to life
  Aerial images are a gold mine: old surveys, forest inventories, coastal monitoring, digitized cadastral maps, etc. But they often suffer from a major problem: low resolution. Blurring, pixelation, crushed textures, loss of detail… these are all…

Why do we prefer Open Source software?

Geomatics is a discipline at the crossroads of geography and computer science, which involves using software tools to collect, store, analyze and represent spatial data. In this field, the use of open source software offers many advantages.

First of all, what is open source software? It’s software whose source code is publicly available and can therefore be modified and distributed by anyone. It also means that the software is often free, in the sense that it can be used without license fees. The open source movement was born in the 1990s with the emergence of Linux, an open source operating system based on the Unix kernel. Since then, many other open source software products have emerged, covering a wide range of fields, including geomatics. Licenses play an essential role in the operation of open source software. The GPL. General Public License is one of the most common in the open source world. It guarantees fundamental freedoms for users, including the freedom to use, modify and redistribute the software. Many libraries, frameworks and open source tools used in geomatics are distributed under the GPL license.

One of the major advantages of open source geomatics software is its flexibility. Developers have access to the software’s source code, enabling them to adapt it to their specific needs. For example, if you’re using open source geospatial data visualization software and want to add a specific feature, you can modify the source code to implement it.

Another important feature of open source software is the community of developers that surrounds it. These communities are made up of volunteer programmers who actively contribute to the development and improvement of open source software. They share their knowledge, resolve bugs and provide support to users. This ensures the software’s longevity and scalability, as new versions and features are continually developed.

Among the most popular open source geomatics software are GIS-based geographic information systems such as QGIS, which offer a user-friendly graphical interface and powerful spatial analysis functions. There are also libraries such as GDAL and proj, which can be used to manipulate geospatial data in a wide range of formats. As far as geospatial databases are concerned, PostgreSQL with the PostGIS extension is a popular open source solution. It enables efficient storage and processing of spatial data. In addition, open source tools such as Geoserver or MapServer can be used to publish this data on the web. In the field of cartography, the free and open source Mapnik software offers a powerful solution for custom map creation and tile generation. In addition to geomatics-specific software, more general open source solutions such as Python, R and Java can also be used to analyze and manipulate geospatial data.

In conclusion, using open source software in geomatics offers many advantages. They are flexible, scalable and benefit from an active community of developers. What’s more, they offer genuine interoperability with other software and can be used in a variety of environments, including Windows, MacOS and Linux. However, it should be remembered that the use of open source software does not mean that all software used in a geomatics project must be open source. It is common practice to integrate proprietary software into an open source environment, using open protocols and data formats to ensure greater interoperability.

In short, the open source world offers a multitude of solutions for geomatics, allowing users to access, modify and redistribute software source code according to their specific needs. This fosters freedom, innovation and collaboration within the community of open source geomatics software users and developers.