ILWIS
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Developer(s) | 52°North ILWIS Community |
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Stable release | 3.8.6
/ 22 January 2020 |
Repository | |
Written in | C++ |
Operating system | Windows |
Type | Geographic information system |
License | GPL-2.0-only |
Website | 52north |
Integrated Land and Water Information System (ILWIS) is a
History
In late 1984, ITC was awarded a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which led to developing 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, a 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 the GPL-2.0-only license.[3]
Release history
This table is based on [1].
Old Version | Current Version | Future Version |
Branch | Version | Release date | Significant changes |
---|---|---|---|
3.1 | 3.1 | April 2002 | |
Patch 3.11 | September 2002 | Direct import of radiometric corrections. This functionality is integrated in the Import Map Wizard.
| |
Stereopair from DTM - Stereo pair from DTM operation creates a stereo pair from a single raster map and a Digital Terrain Model (DTM). These stereo pairs have the same usability as the Epipolar Stereo Pair.
| |||
Patch 3.12a | August 2003 | ID Grid map - creates a polygon map given a coordinate system and an attribute table. The polygon map consists of rectangular grid cells with a unique ID and can be linked to a table with attribute data when sample data is available. | |
Spherical Distance option was added to the operations Spatial Correlation, Cross Moving Average , Moving Surface, Kriging and CoKriging. This option calculates distances over the sphere instead of in a plane.
| |||
Export to ArcPad .PRJ - ILWIS coordinate systems can be exported to an ArcPad .prj file. | |||
3.2 | 3.2 | January, 2004 | Spatial Multiple Criteria Evaluation (SMCE) |
Hydrologic Flow Operations | |||
Find Datum Parameters Wizard | |||
GARtrip import | |||
Patch 3.21 | August, 2004 | Extensions in Spatial Multiple Criteria Evaluation - slicing, histograms, aggregated values, and an improvement in class map standardization. | |
Improvement in calling external error handling , and inclusion in a script as part of a batch process.
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Support for coordinates for images from the MeteoSat-8 satellite. | |||
3.3 | 3.3 | September 2005 | The SMCE application extended with overlay of reference maps, combination of spatial and non-spatial MCE, and interactive function graphs for standardization. |
Applications for DEM catchment extraction, horton statistics etc.
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sub-pixel precision and 3D coordinate transformations using 7 or 10 datum parameters.
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Import and export using the GDAL library. | |||
Projections for geostationary satellites .
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Calculation and statistical functions for map lists. | |||
3.4 | 3.4 Open | July 1, 2007 | GPL version from 52°North with proprietary components removed. |
3.5 | 3.5 | December 12, 2008 | Introduction of plug-in system for applications. Started with the Geonetcast toolbox. |
3.6 | 3.6 | April 21, 2009 | Refactoring of the whole vector system of Ilwis and with that a 25 new applications mainly, but not exclusively, about set operations on vector types. First implementation of the second generation Geonetcast toolbox. |
3.7 | 3.7 | March 25, 2010 | Added number of new applications. |
3.7.1 | September 15, 2010 | A number of bug fixes to ILWIS 3.7. | |
3.7.2 | 24 May 2011 | A number of bug (from 3.7.1) fixes. | |
3.8 | 3.8 | April 7, 2012 | Massive rewrite of the whole visualization of maps. This rewrite expanded the tools for visual analysis substantially and improved the overall performance of the drawing process. |
3.8.1 | September 19, 2012 | A number of bug fixes. | |
3.8.2 | January 16, 2013 | A number of bug (from 3.8.1) fixes as well as a few new features. | |
3.8.3 | April 15, 2014 | This release contains several bug (from 3.8.2) fixes as well as a few new features. | |
3.8.4 | May 23, 2014 | Several bug fixes, improvements and a few new features. | |
3.8.5 | September 3, 2015 | Several bug fixes, improvements and a few new features. | |
3.8.6 | January 22, 2020 | Several bug fixes, improvements and a few new features. |

Features
ILWIS uses GIS techniques that integrate image processing capabilities, a tabular database and conventional GIS characteristics.[4] The major features include:
- Integrated raster and vector design[5]
- On-screen digitizing
- Comprehensive set of image processingand remote sensing tools like extensive set of filters, resampling, aggregation, classifications. etc...
- Orthophoto, image georeferencing, transformation and mosaicing
- Advanced modeling and spatial data analysis
- 3D visualization[6] with interactive zooming, rotation and panning. "Height" information can be added from multiple types of sources and isn't limited to DEM information.
- Animations of spatial temporal data stacks with the possibility of synchronization between different animations.
- Rich map projection and geographic coordinate system library. Optionally custom coordinate systems and on the fly modifications can be added.
- Geostatistical analyses, with Kriging for improved interpolation[7]
- Import and export using the GDAL/OGRlibrary
- Advanced data management
- Stereoscopy tools - To create a stereo pair from two aerial photographs
- Transparencies at many levels (whole maps, selections, individual elements or properties) to combine different data sources in a comprehensive way.
- Various interactive diagramming options: Profile, Cross section visualization, Hovmoller diagrams
- Interactive value dependent presentation of maps (stretching, representation)
- Hydrologic Flow Operations
- Surface energy balance operations through the SEBS module
- GARtrip import - Map Import allows the import of GARtrip Text files with GPS data
- Spatial Multiple Criteria Evaluation (SMCE)
- Space time Cube. Interactive visualization of multiple attribute spatial temporal data.
- DEM operations including iso line generation[8]
- Variable Threshold Computation, to help preparing a threshold map for drainage network extraction
- Horton Statistics,Strahler stream orders
- Georeferenceeditors
Roadmap
The next major version of Ilwis will be based on the Ilwis NG framework (in development). This framework aims at being a connection hub between various heterogeneous data and processing sources (local-remote). Integrating them in a consistent way and presenting them in a unified to the end users (at both programming and user interface level). The framework will be cross platform (ILWIS is now limited to Windows only) and will be deployable on mobile devices.
See also
- List of GIS software
References
- ^ "ITC's GIS software ILWIS migrates to open source". 2007-01-30. Archived from the original on 2007-06-21. Retrieved 2007-06-26.
- ^ "ILWIS 3.4 Open". 52°North. 2007-03-27. Archived from the original on 2007-07-07. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
- ^ "FOSS4G 2007 : ILWIS and 52°North: From closed source to open source and interoperable image services". Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-07-02.
- ^
Spiteri (1997). Remote Sensing 96 Integrated Applications (1 ed.). Taylor & Francis. p. 380. ISBN 90-5410-855-X.
- ^
Wim Koolhoven and Jelle Wind (1996). "Domains in ILWIS: system knowledge about meaning of data". Proceedings of the Second Joint European Conference & Exhibition on Geographical Information, Barcelona, Spain. I. IOS Press: 77–80. OCLC 164762055.
- ^ A Partovi (2003). Suitability Study Of ASTER Data Geometry To Digitize Contour Lines In ILWIS (PDF). Master's degree thesis.
- ^ J Hendrikse (2000). "Geostatistics in ILWIS". International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
- ISSN 0256-1840.
- ^ Quan, N. H. "Rainfall-runoff Modeling in the Ungauged Can Le Catchment, Saigon River Basin" (PDF).
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