ILWIS

ILWIS (Integrated Land and Water Information System) is a GIS / Remote sensing software for both vector and raster processing. ILWIS features include digitizing, editing, analysis and display of data as well as production of quality maps.

ILWIS was initially developed and distributed by ITC Enschede (International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation) in the Netherlands for use by its researchers and students, but since 1 July, 2007 it has been distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License and is thus free software. The current version is ILWIS 3.5 Open. Similar to the GRASS GIS in many respects - but more user-friendly -, ILWIS is currently only available natively only on Microsoft Windows. However, a Linux WINE manual has been made available.

History
In late 1984, ITC was awarded a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which led to the development of a Geographic Information System (GIS) which could be used as a tool for land use planning and watershed management studies. By the end of 1988 the DOS version 1.0 of the Integrated Land and Water Information System (ILWIS) was released. Two years later, ILWIS was made commercial with ITC establishing a worldwide distributors network. ILWIS 2.0 for Windows was released at the end of 1996, and ILWIS 3.0 by mid 2001. On 1 January 2004, ILWIS 3.2 was released as a shareware (one month trial offer).Since July 1 2007, ILWIS has been distributed as an open source software under GPL license.

Release history
This table is based on the release notes of ILWIS.

Roadmap
ILWIS building currently relies on the Microsoft Visual 2008 compile environment which will be switched over to the GCC compiler. After successful completion of the migration to GCC, the plan is to break down ILWIS Open into individual components. To reuse and deploy ILWIS’ GIS and image processing functionality also in spatial data infrastructures (SDI), its functions will be offered in an open framework as distributed services, in two ways: The framework supports the search and access of services through a service registry and can be used together with client tools like uDig.
 * 1) As java service proxies accessible to programmers and
 * 2) As OGC - based services accessible to client applications.

Features
ILWIS uses GIS techniques that integrate image processing capabilities, a tabular database and conventional GIS characteristics. The major features include:


 * Integrated raster and vector design
 * On-screen and tablet digitizing
 * Comprehensive set of image processing tools
 * Orthophoto, image georeferencing, transformation and mosaicing
 * Advanced modeling and spatial data analysis
 * 3D visualization with interactive editing for optimal view findings
 * Rich projection and coordinate system library
 * Geostatistical analyses, with Kriging for improved interpolation
 * Import and export using the GDAL library
 * Advanced data management
 * WYSIWYG Layout editor to position annotation and multiple map views on scale
 * Advanced Data Storage
 * Stereoscopy tools - To create a stereo pair from two aerial photographs
 * Transparency to display raster and polygon maps
 * Pyramid layers for fast display of large raster maps
 * ADO/ODBC to access databases
 * Hydrologic Flow Operations
 * GARtrip import - Map Import allows the import of GARtrip Text files with GPS data
 * Spatial Multiple Criteria Evaluation (SMCE)
 * DEM operations
 * Variable Threshold Computation, to help preparing a threshold map for drainage network extraction
 * Horton Statistics, to calculate the number of streams, the average stream length, the average area of catchments for Strahler stream orders
 * Georeference editors

Applied geomorphology and Natural hazards

 * Hazard, vulnerability and risk analysis
 * Flood hazard analysis
 * Modelling cyclone hazards
 * Modelling erosion
 * Statistical landslide hazard analysis
 * Deterministic landslide hazard zonation
 * Seismic landslide hazard zonation
 * Coal fire hazard management
 * Accident risk analysis on roads

Engineering geology

 * Creating an engineering geological data base

Surface hydrology

 * Watershed area management studies
 * Irrigation water requirement
 * Irrigation area characteristics
 * Determination of peak runoff
 * Morgan approach for erosion modelling

Hydro geology

 * Artificial recharge studies
 * Assessing aquifer vulnerability to pollution

Geology

 * Remote sensing and GIS techniques applied to geological survey
 * Geological data integration

Neighborhood modelling

 * Modelling with neighbourhood operators
 * Extracting topographic and terrain variables for distributed models

Data combination

 * Tools for map analysis applied to the selection of a waste disposal site

Soil pollution management

 * Environmental chemistry of contaminated soils

Urban surveys

 * Updating a land use map with oblique air photos
 * Analysis of urban change and spatial pattern
 * Analysis of suitability for urban expansion

Land use planning

 * Analysing the fuelwood demand
 * Vegetation cover studies
 * Land resource management
 * Regional economic planning

Soil surveys

 * Soil micromorphology analysis
 * erosion modelling

Global radiation studies

 * Solar radiation mapping

Application in Cartography

 * Cartography
 * Layer tinting and shading

Other Applications

 * Biodiversity studies

Criticisms
ILWIS Open Source, is very user-friendly, and it has very powerful GIS analysis modules, but it currently lacks the Importing modules through proprietary PCI's GeoGateway, which has been removed in version 3.4 open and later. The available GDAL library is not so well integrated.