IJAGR Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief: Donald Patrick Albert, Sam Houston State U., USA Associate Editors: Jonathan Comer, Oklahoma State U., USA Thomas Crawford, East Carolina U., USA G. Rebecca Dobbs, U. of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, USA Sonya Glavac, U. of New England, Australia Carol Hanchette, U. of Louisville, USA Tony Hernandez, Ryerson U., Canada Jay Lee, Kent State U., USA Shuaib Lwasa, Makerere U., Uganda John Strait, Sam Houston State U., USA Fahui Wang, Louisiana State U., USA David Wong, George Mason U., USA IGI Editorial: Heather A. Probst, Senior Editorial Director Jamie M. Wilson, Director of Journal Publications Chris Hrobak, Journal Production Manager Christen Croley, Journal Production Assistant International Editorial Review Board: Bhuiyan M. Alam, The U. of Toledo, USA David Martin, U. of Southhampton, UK Badri Basnet, The U. of Southern Queensland, Australia Luke Marzen, Auburn U., USA Rick Bunch, U. of North Carolina - Greensboro, USA Darrel McDonald, Stephen F. Austin State U., USA Ed Cloutis, U. of Winnipeg, Canada Ian Meiklejohn, Rhodes U., South Africa Kelley Crews, U. of Texas at Austin, USA Joseph Messina, Michigan State U., USA Michael DeMers, New Mexico State U., USA William A. Morris, McMaster U., Canada Steven Fleming, United States Military Academy, USA Petri Pellikka, U. of Helsinki, Finland Doug Gamble, U. of IGINorth Carolina GLOBAL - Wilmington, USA François PROOF Pinet, Cemagref - Clermont Ferrand, France Gang Gong, Sam Houston State U., USA Wei Song, U. of Louisville, USA Carlos Granell, European Commission, Italy Brad Watkins, U. of Central Oklahoma, USA William Graves, U. of North Carolina - Charlotte, USA Dion Wiseman, Brandon U., Canada Bin Jiang, U. of Gävle, Sweden Zengwang Xu, Brown U., USA C. Peter Keller, U. of Victoria, Canada Xinyue Ye, Bowling Green State U., USA C. Gichana Manyara, Radford U., USA IGIP IGI PublIshInG www.igi-global.com CALL FOR ARTICLES International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research An official publication of the Information Resources Management Association The Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research (IJAGR) invites authors to submit manuscripts for consideration in this scholarly journal. mission The International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research (IJAGR) publishes research that exemplifies the usage of geographic information science and technol- ogy (GIS&T) to explore and resolve geographical issues from various application domains within the social and/or physical sciences. IJAGR is designed to provide planners and policy analysts, practitioners, academicians, and others using GIS&T useful studies that might support decision-making activities. Topics of inTeresT: • Biogeography • Business and marketing geography • Climatology • Economic geography • Geography of crime • Geomorphology • Historical geographyIGI GLOBAL PROOFISSN 1947-9654 • Medical geography eISSN 1947-9662 Published quarterly • Military geography • Natural hazards • Political geography • Population geography • Soil geography • Tourism geography • Transportation geography • Other geographic subfields All submissions should be e-mailed to: Donald P. Albert, Editor-in-Chief [email protected] Ideas for Special Theme Issues may be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief. Please recommend this publication to your librarian. For a convenient easy-to-use library recommendation form, please visit: http://www.igi-global.com/ijagr. InternatIonal Journal of applIed GeospatIal research April-June 2012, Vol. 3, No. 2 Table of Contents Editorial Preface i Free and Open Source Software: Development and Utilization Donald P. Albert, Sam Houston State University, USA Research Articles 1 To Emphasize Openness Ken Hartness, Sam Houston State University, USA 6 Open Source Based Deployment of Environmental Data into Geospatial Information Infrastructures José Gil, Institute of New Imaging Technologies, Universitat Jaume I, Spain Laura Díaz, Institute of New Imaging Technologies, Universitat Jaume I, Spain Carlos Granell, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Italy Joaquín Huerta, Institute of New Imaging Technologies, Universitat Jaume I, Spain 24 A Review of Geospatial Information Technology for Natural Disaster Management in Developing Countries Sam Herold, University of Ottawa, Canada Michael C. Sawada, University of Ottawa, Canada Reports IGI GLOBAL PROOF 63 Embracing Geographic Analysis Beyond Geography: Harvard’s Center for Geographic Analysis Enters 5th Year Weihe (Wendy) Guan, Harvard University, USA Peter K. Bol, Harvard University, USA 72 A Reflection on the PhD Program in Spatially Integrated Social Science at the University of Toledo Bhuiyan Monwar Alam,, The University of Toledo, USA Jeanette Eckert, The University of Toledo, USA Peter S. Lindquist, The University of Toledo, USA i Editorial PrEfacE Free and Open Source Software: Development and Utilization Donald P. Albert, Sam Houston State University, USA This issue of the International Journal of Ap- by Wendy Guan and Peter Bol. The CGA devel- plied Geospatial Research is dedicated to free oped WorldMap, a geoportal which conforms and open software (FOSS) including its develop- to Open Geospatial Consortium standards, and ment and utilization. Ken Hartness begins with therefore fits well into the scope of this IJAGR an historical overview and current assessment FOSS theme. of open sourceIGI software withGLOBAL a piece titled “To PROOF Emphasize Openness.” Next José Gil, Laura Díaz, Carlos Granell1 and Joaquín Huerta from Donald P. Albert the Institute of New Imaging Technologies at Editor-in-Chief the Universitat Jaume I (Spain) discuss the de- IJAGR ployment of environmental data into geospatial information structures. Sam Herold and Michael Sawada offer an extensive review of free and ENDNOTE open source software (FOSS) for geospatial information technology (GIT). Their review of FOSS is framed within context of natural 1 Dr. Carlos Granell is currently affiliated with disaster management in developing countries. the European Commission, Joint Research Completing this issue is a status report on Har- Centre, Institute for Environment and vard’s Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA) Sustainability, Spatial Data Infrastructures Unit, Ispra, Italy. Donald Patrick Albert is a professor of geography in the Department of Geography and Geol- ogy at Sam Houston State University (Texas, USA). He earned geography degrees from Salem State College (BS), Appalachian State University (MA), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (PhD). International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research, 3(2), 1-5, April-June 2012 1 To Emphasize Openness Ken Hartness, Sam Houston State University, USA ABSTRACT Although open source software has existed, in a sense, throughout the history of computing, it has only more recently become recognized as a valid means of producing professional-quality software. Although primarily conceived as a zero-cost alternative to commercial software, open source software also supports customiza- tion and verification as a result of the software being available to all users in human-readable form. The availability of free software supports both researchers with limited budgets and those who seek to confirm the findings of researchers or use similar methods in related research. Keywords: Commercial Software, Free Software Foundation, Open Science, Open Source, Openness TO EMPHASIZEIGI OPENNESS GLOBALlike IBM, PROOF are now embracing the open source design methodology and releasing professional- In the golden age of commercial software, it quality software as “open source.” Schools and is not unusual to pay between a hundred and individuals on tight budgets are able to legally a thousand dollars for popular software. More copy productive software tools at no charge. specialized software can be quite a bit more. Although the phrase “open source” is often These prices do not entitle the customer to used as synonymous with the word “free,” the customization of the product to their needs and phrase, itself, actually conveys the idea that any current operating procedures. Custom software user of a program should be able to examine developed just for one customer is even more the inner workings of the software and modify expensive. On the other hand, computer owners it to better suit the user’s needs. This quality of can download a version of the Linux operating openness is valuable to auditors and scientists system, legally, for no charge. OpenOffice.org who seek to validate the results produced by a is a suite of tools similar to those in commer- piece of software. Organizations and individuals cially available office packages, including a needing customized software can use related word processor and spreadsheet tool. While the open source software as a starting point instead concept of open source software is not new, the of paying programmers to create the software more recent success and dependability of open from scratch. Although the phrase “open source” source products has forced companies to take only requires that the software be available in a them seriously. Companies that previously were form that can be read, customized, and extended jealously protective of their software secrets, by computer programmers, globally open soft- ware is often available free of charge or for a nominal fee to cover creation and distribution DOI: 10.4018/jagr.2012040101 of a DVD-ROM. Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission