Hello, I am student of physical land resources:soil science. I want to develop my career in the field of GIS and Remote sensing application on soil science, agriculture, land and water management and hopefully environmental assessment.
I am now trying to learn theories behind GIS and Remote sensing, However I need to learn the software and tools. I am asking to the respected scientist communities please to suggest me name of most useful software. I have found QGIS is a free one and is a very powerful one unless it has some lacking other than ArcGIS.
I also found ERDAS IMAGINE and ENVI are both paid one, but some people say ENVI is far better than ERDAS.
Dear Hossain
You are right about the software. QGIS and ArcGIS is nearly the same in learning but QGIS is free. Both ERDAS IMAGINE and ENVI are good but i prefer ENVI. You can also try other free software such as CartoDB and some sites that produce the require data map.
QGIS & ENVI would be the best choice for learning.
Best Regards.
Pirouz
Everything depends on how do you use it. ERSI ArcGIS, ENVI, ERDAS IMAGINE are paid software but they have some built-in features. On the other hand QGIS is a free open-source software which is also effective. You'll find so many plugins for QGIS in the forum. In case of each software, they have different user interface, data/file extension support and they differ in ease of image analysis. You may find ERDAS IMAGINE handy on some analysis and ENVI on some other. But the result of an image analysis is pretty much same.
I encourage you to start with QGIS since it's open-source and have a large community forum to help you. But learning other software with it, will keep you ahead.
Best of luck.
All depends on how you plan to use it. It's easier to build your own models in ERDAS. ENVI on the other hand has an extensive library for the different remote sensing products available. ERDAS used to have a very much discounted, fully functional student version.
For GIS, QGIS seems to be the best open-source in terms of basic analysis. MapWindows, on the other hand has excellent rendering capabilities. They both support the ESRI shape file format, so you can do your analysis in QGIS, and compose your maps in MapWindows. Being open-source, their capabilities are not as extensive as ArcGIS. But you don't have to pay with an arm and a leg while learning your craft.
Yes, ENVI is easy to use. and have better capability to deal with SAR data. Its latest version also have tool to incorporate GIS data.QGIS is useful for GIS application , and is open source software. However ArcGIS, a good GIS software is commercial software.
I believe that the analysis you do is correct, and in your case I would opt for the same options. ArcGis is certainly a great tool for this work but given its cost in most cases with a good use of QGIS and creativity you can achieve the same goals. Regarding ENVI it is a very complete and appropriate application. Successes
QGIS is one of the most versatile desktop solutions available to the public. I find its integration with traditional formats from ESRI and connectivity to other OpenSource tools such as PostgreSQL make it the best platform for analysis, mapping and web mapping. ENVI is a powerful tool but the GRASS modules available through QGIS are equally robust.
I'd say that you shouldn't opt for only one software, as all of them have got cons & pros.
You can learn GRASS GIS, it is more powerful comparing to QGIS. Erdas Imagine has a lot of functionality, however, it is commercial software (not for free). Check up if your institution has a license and installed version. If so, consider Erdas as well - it is very useful specially for satellite images processing.
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