GIS Group Facilities
Our main GIS software is the IDRISI Taiga system, a raster-based GIS ideally suited to advanced modelling and which is under continuous development at Clark University, in the USA, and has UNDP and UNEP GRID support. We also occasionally use ARC-View and we are experimenting with Manifold at present, especially for its Internet Map Server capabilities. Manual digitising is becoming less necessary as digital data products diversify. IDRISI allows digitising from GPS in the field using satellite imagery as backdrop - excellent for surveying and verification work.
Garmin GPS units are used in the field, either alone or in conjunction with laptops, for data collection and verification against satellite images of the area. We also use a Sony Coolpix GPS-enabled camera for ground truthing, in conjunction with with a laptop. This is well supported by the IDRISI software from Clark University.
Our DELL Precision Workstations range from 3Gb Pentium IV to twin 3Gb Xeon dual core or six-core, each with minimum 4Gb RAM, substantial local HDD, fast graphics adapters and twin 24" LCD monitors. GIS lab filestore is provided through our main 16Tb group NAS with a further 4Tb NAS for our archived projects.
Our standard operating system is Windows 7 Professional, with occasional use being made of UBUNTU Linux v10.
Superb connectivity is maintained through the Stirling University network, with the GISAP labs running at 1Gb/s. High quality colour printing is to a Epson Acculaser c1900.
To discuss potential projects, or collaborations, please fill out our contact form