I'm looking for the best in class software solutions with which you can do the following:
a) define a map with territorial units (e.g. district, region, country, etc.),
b) import GPS coordinates and another associated variable (e.g. self-reported well-being),
c) calculate the average per territorial unit of these associated variable values,
d) colour-code the average values from min to max,
e) export the map.
QGIS easily handles imported GPS points, and provides all the mapping functionality you have mentioned (plus much more) and the added benefit is that it is free and easy to download. From QGIS you can also export files to Google Earth etc if you wanted to publish maps for example.
I have developed a Google Earth based GPS real-time mapping system in Penn State, let me know, cheers!
I have previously used Vicking GPS editor and analyser for fairly basic work but for more advanced work I use GpsTools (GT) package its more advanced with a lot of features. Both work on windows and are free
http://sourceforge.net/projects/viking/
http://gpspp.sakura.ne.jp/gpstools/gt_release.htm
Trimble Juno ArcPad 7.1. enabled GPS and Garmin 76 but the first one permits in situ GIS mapping in a mobile platform as that of ArcGIS 9.3. which is also adaptable and interoperable with ArcGIS 10.1.
A Garmin GPS which allows the data to be incorporated into ArcGIS after mapping. I have rather long experience using this setup. I think it really depends on what you want to map.
It depends on the scale at which you want/need to map the information, your budget, and your long-term intentions in the application of your data. If you have a regional scale (as indicated) and small budget the yes Garmin and ArcGIS (import x,y) are your low-budget solutions given the limitations this data will provide with spatial modeling at the fine scale. Have a larger budget, want to apply the data for fine scale spatial modeling later? Then I would suggest the trimble pathfinder office/arcgis; however your device again will dictate your potential scale (ie Juno differential correction for data yesterday resulted in over 400 pts >5m afterward). I'm a fan of this latter option with the GeoXH or XT as opposed to the Juno, for accuracy reasons.
QGIS easily handles imported GPS points, and provides all the mapping functionality you have mentioned (plus much more) and the added benefit is that it is free and easy to download. From QGIS you can also export files to Google Earth etc if you wanted to publish maps for example.
Great suggestions all around. I appreciate the various comments given. Thank you!
Since the agency for which I work has a license to the software, I use various programs for developing maps or analysis products which includes ArcMap and ESRI. Concurrently I'm testing MatLab-image processing toolbox to leverage functions for raster images/spectral info management. Of greatest importance to me is the data collection prior to office data integration and management; there are specific qualities I'm trying to enhance in my workplace which relate to issues of scale at which certain phenomena are observed. Because of these scale-related issues I think its important to gain as precise and accurate information collected in the field as possible. These two qualities in data are enabled through Pathfinder Office (post-field GPS software) and TerraSync (GPS software). When properly configured, these software products enable the ability to record your PDOP (precision measure) as well as to develop data dictionaries (accuracy measure), which can be extremely useful if you have many different types of data to collect that include potentially long lists of information (ie. drop down menus for selection) or if you have a highly diverse user group in your workplace which fulfill various functions.
Let me draw your attention to the software package GMT, Generic Mapping Tools. I have been using it for some years and it gives you versatility and many plotting options. If you take a look at its description: GMT is an open source collection of about 80 command-line tools for manipulating geographic and Cartesian data sets (including filtering, trend fitting, gridding, projecting, etc.) and producing PostScript illustrations ranging from simple x–y plots via contour maps to artificially illuminated surfaces and 3D perspective views; the GMT supplements add another 40 more specialized and discipline-specific tools. GMT supports over 30 map projections and transformation.
You can downloaded from here:
http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu/projects/gmt/wiki/Download
Best luck,
Angela
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