EDITORIAL: FREE AND OPEN GIS SAGA-GIS
Free Open and Source Software (FOSS) has sometimes been accused of being viral, lanced in helpless campaigns by few software companies making users wary of choosing free licensed products. The truth is, however, not that the software products are viral but that a worldwide increasing number of programmers, software developers, and, last but not least, scientists are obviously infected by this exciting FOSS virus. The generic and attractive idea beyond proper and clearly defined rights and duties of free software licensed products is the advantage of utilizing and communicating the development communitys knowledge base. Doing this, the design of community based software goes back to the core of what science is for, the extension and spreading of knowledge, probably best covered by the German word for science: Wissenschaft (i.e. making or creating knowledge). Although the track record of open source software roots in the hacker culture of U.S. computer science laboratories of the early 1970ies, FOSS rapidly evolved and today is a well established component of scientific IT-environments, seldom stand alone but almost everywhere merged with proprietary software. Particularly in those disciplines, which face the challenging task to handle and analyse huge amounts of spatial data, the development and increasing availability of powerful Free and Open GIS fostered and affected many fields of geoscientific endeavour and education. The System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses (SAGA) is a still young but fast growing child of the Free GIS family. SAGA was created and developed by my working-group Geosystem Analysis, a close-knit group of scientists from the Gttingen University and scilands GmbH Gttingen. Its current state of implementation is due to the creativeness and engagement of the core set of developers; namely Rdiger Kthe, Andre Ringeler, Christian Caro and, in particular Olaf Conrad, who shouldered the main and most significant programming work. However, SAGA would not have reached this level of sophistication without that multitude of methodical innovations cooperatively worked out by the working-group as a whole in context with national and international environment related research projects. Today, SAGA increasingly benefits from the ideas and notable contributions of SAGA users and developers all over the world. Although this aspect is unfortunately not sufficiently represented in this issue due to the short time span for article submission, the collection of 10 articles yields a fair amount of insight in the application scopes and opportunities of SAGA. Today we are happy and indeed a little proud to invite GIS-scientists to join us in going further steps ahead. Welcome to SAGA Gttingen, June 2006 Jrgen Bhner
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EDITORIAL: FREE AND OPEN GIS IN RESEARCH
The spatial and temporal variability of most environmental processes means that understanding and managing these processes should be done using spatial and temporal or GIS tools. Modelling and display techniques are two of the key tools that we will use in developing this understanding and subsequent management. It follows that we need good 3-D display features and GIS based models. Some models have been developed this way, but many more need to be developed and adapted so as to be dynamically responsive to changes in conditions and adapted to local conditions and management needs. One of the more important aspects of scientific research is the capacity to build, experiment with and then adapt the tools that a scientist uses as his understanding evolves as part of his research effort. The black box approach of much of the proprietary software is inimical to this process; FOSS, by contrast supports this very important aspect of scientific research. In parallel with these developments is the increasing community awareness of environmental issues. These two trends will merge in the development of community based GIS that are dynamic, benefit from local data and information and that are responsive to user needs. This trend of increasing integration of GIS into each communitys dynamic decision processes means that GIS needs to be able to exploit the skill and experience of the expanding population of users in a cheap and effective manner. Free and Open GIS has the best capacity to achieve these goals in the most cost effective manner. Tjele, June 2006 Keith Raymond McCloy
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EDITORIAL: FREE AND OPEN GIS IN EDUCATION
GIS and GIScience education is not about building software skills, but we recognize that software-based exercises and applications support learning. Practicals promote a deeper understanding of concepts and methods as well as the application logic of GIS across different domains. From this general perspective, is there any reason why free and open source software might play a specific role in education, is there any difference from commercial, proprietary software? Does the alternative business model behind FOSS impact its use in education? While we should fully acknowledge that many software vendors go to great lengths to support education, there are limits to the availability of free student licenses accessible to learners over extended periods of time. In order to build software skills supporting GIS education, students needs the opportunity to practice on their personal workstations. Free software is one important building block in acquiring this skill set, specifically keeping in mind that a strong case can be made for the exposure to multiple software architectures in order to speak GIS instead of unknowingly becoming conversant in just a single vendor's architecture logic and language. In addition to free availability, access to open source promotes a deeper understanding and much sought-after technical skills by offering the opportunity to freely customize and develop add-ons to established frameworks, contributing to communities of practice. The chance to freely implement new functionality on the foundation of and with help from others often enables research-led learning leading to important new insights. Like so often, there is no advantage in adopting a black vs. white view of software worlds. Academic education certainly benefits from multiple options and diversity, and students learn from exposure to alternative methods, tools and philosophies. This is why I frequently direct students throughout the worldwide UNIGIS distance learning network to SAGA. Salzburg, June 2006 Josef Strobl
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TABLE OF CONTENT
BOCK, M., CYFFKA, B., HAAS, F. & STAMMEL, B.: Remediation of the Danube floodplain between Neuburg and Ingolstadt (Bavaria/Germany) GIS supported modelling of ecological flooding .................... 1 BHNER, J. & SELIGE, T.: Spatial prediction of soil attributes using terrain analysis and climate regionalisation.............................................................................................. 13 BHNER, J., SELIGE, T & RINGELER, A.: Image segmentation using representativeness analysis and region growing ........... 29 CONRAD, O.: SAGA program structure and current state of implementation.............................. 39 HALL, G., CRATCHLEY, R. & JOHNSON, S.: The use of SAGA-GIS in an integrated meteorological/hydrological model for the Mawddach river catchment, North Wales ..................................................... 53 HECKMANN, T. & BECHT, M.: Statistical disposition modelling of mass movements .............................................. 61 KERKHOF, H. & BECHT, M.: Natural hazard research in the Bavarian Alps - a case study of Mittenwald (Germany) ................................................................................................................ 75 KTHE, R. & BOCK, M.: Development and use in practice of SAGA modules for high quality analysis of geodata ................................................................................................... 85 SELIGE, T., BHNER, J. & RINGELER, R.: Processing of SRTM X-SAR Data to correct interferometric elevation models for land surface process applications............................................................ 97 WICHMANN, V. & BECHT, M.: Rockfall modelling: methods and model application in an alpine basin (Reintal, Germany) ................................................................................................. 105 APPENDIX ................................................................................................................ 117
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