AN ANALYTICAL APPROACH TO GIS ANALYSIS AND MAP MAKING USING OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
Tarick Hosein1, Bheshem Ramlal2*, Lisa Kirton-Reed3 and Adrian Trotman4
1,2Faculty of Engineering, The University of the West Indies, Trinidad
3,4Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology, Barbados
1Email: tarick.hosein@sta.uwi.edu
2Email: bheshem.ramlal@sta.uwi.edu
3Email: lkreed@cimh.edu.bb
4Email: atrotman@cimh.edu.bb
Abstract:
Over the last two decades, advancements in analytical cartography have reduced the need for professional geomatics experts when creating maps. GIS software have greatly simplified the map creation process, allowing non-experts to make maps using many built-in tools. However, this has resulted in a lack of quality control and assessment when data is manipulated and processed towards developing maps. This also raises questions with regards to reliability, validity and objectivity of data, results and maps. In contrast, this paper presents a methodology for automating both the GIS analysis and Map Making processes using analytical cartography in a non-standard GIS environment. The work was done primarily in the R environment, open source software and programming, to replicate processes that were normally done using expensive proprietary software and many person hours. Applied in a case study to improve the workflow efficiency in precipitation index modelling, the developed system was found to improve on overall time by tenfold, the formats and number of products generated were more than doubled, the replicability of map layouts was greatly improved, and the published formats increased.
Keywords: Cartography, GIS, Automation, R
https://doi.org/10.47412/JKKP1396
