Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.
Introduction
Geospatial software programme or geographic information system (GIS) software have increasingly become more important for users in terms of data analysis and finding a solution for problems (Pettit, 2006). This software may be used for architecture, geography, land survey, urban planning, landscape and many other fields. GIS software is available for professional and non-professional, expert or beginner, educational facilities and government organization or personal business (Waddell, 2010). Furthermore, it is available as a free to download or chargeable software, and each GIS programme has special features and different tools.
This report seeks to identify a GIS programme for non-professional users such as a university student who deals with information and data that needs to be analysed to solve problem or to make a decision. The report presents several programmes that have different features for analysis tools and give advice to help users choose the right programme for their needs.
Research aim
During the development and improvement of GIS programme in last decade, it became difficult to find the right programme, which has the tools for beginner user needs (Kaplan, 2005). Also, some of these programmes are not free and cost a lot, which students cannot afford, and have analysis tools that not useful for students. For that, the aim of this research is to find out which one of the geospatial software programmes provide simple tool features for analysing database for non-professional users such as university students who deal with urban planning information to reach the final result without using complex analysing tools.
Methodology
A descriptive approach was used to gather information pertaining to different GIS programmes available in the market. This involved a literature review of different GIS programmes that have the same reason to use as well as collecting final results from different companies that have experience and development in this kind of programme. The researcher also analysed the programmes in terms of users suitability, i.e., which of them is more used by professional and non-professional, and different users and organisation. The search revealed these programmes as most recently used software: UrbanSim software, ENVI software, ArcView software, CityCAD software, and MapWindow software. A description of analysis tool features for each program was also undertaken. The analysis tools allow user to create modification into the data that users have to find a solution to or answer a question. The following is a descriptive overview of GIS programmes including their analysis tools.
GIS software programmes
UrbanSim: Is a software program that analyse land uses, transportation, and environmental planning (UrbanSim, 2009). UrbanSim is a tool to analyse the market needs for lands infrastructure to reach the public investment and choices (UrbanSim, 2009).
UrbanSim analysis tools deal with locations and development of household, business and developments. The software also allows users to incorporate policies explicitly and to evaluate their effects as well as analyse the economic and demographic changes with location choice for an agent (UrbanSim, 2009). Furthermore, it deals with the process from the point a developer or land owner makes a choice about where to develop and for what type of real estate until the final stages of the development. It also controls regional economic forecasts, travel access, and scenario policy assumptions regarding development constraints arising from land use plans and environmental constraints (UrbanSim, 2009). Further, UrbanSim analysis tools analyse creation or loss of households and jobs by type, the movement of households or jobs within the region the location choices of households and jobs from the available vacant real estate, the location, type, and quantity of new construction and redevelopment by developers, and the price of land at each location (UrbanSim, 2009).
ENVI software: This software deals with imagery to find a solution for processing and analyzing geospatial images used by different types of users like researchers, GIS professionals, scientists and image analysts around the world (ITT, 2011).
ENVI analysing tools allow users to deal with images from different sources to find information for government and researcher pursues. The tools allow user to analyzing important geospatial information for GIS applications including (ITT, 2010):
- Detecting change over time
- Finding features of interest or anomalies
- Identifying and classifying features or land cover
- Categorizing terrain
- Correcting for atmospheric conditions
- Detecting and mapping lines of communication
- Analyzing Leader data
ArcView software: Provide the technology to research, develop, implement and monitor the progress of planners. It provides the tools that planners, surveyors, and engineers need to design a map for neighbourhood and cities. Basically, it is the facility for decision making process (Esri, 2011).
ArcView analysis tools provide different and unique type of analysing process for basic information such as visualisation. However, analysing tools provide several features, which allow user to: authorise mapping using different samples to save times for creating a map style; use building tools to solve a complex problem such as measure distances and areas; find features in the map; select data by location or attribute, unselect all, switch the selection, access layer properties from the Identified dialog box. In general, it has simple features for editing and data integration (Esri, 2011).
CityCAD software: is a programme that uses BIM (Building Information Modelling) principles to the urban design scale and a prototype software product codenamed Master planner. It can also analyse a wide range of environmental and quality of life indicators and can estimate the carbon footprint of a development based on different density (Holistic City, 2010).
CityCAD analysis tools feature has a new way to analyse date with 3D modelling. So, the tool allows for dealing and defining problems in the early stage of the concept during testing and identifying risk and opportunities. The new tool is a parametric tool meaning that if you change the design, then all design-related information is automatically updated. CityCAD does all these number-crunching automatically
Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.