GIS Software

The ecosystem of GIS software is quite large and complex, with new software being developed everyday. This page focuses on applications that integrate multiple pieces of GIS software to create a single desktop or server application. Resources for other GIS software, including spatial databases can be found here, while resources for geospatial libraries/packages can be found with their associated programming languages.

ArcGIS Pro

Developed by Esri, ArcGIS Pro succeeded ArcMap and as the foundation to Esri’s extraordinarily popular ecosystem of GIS software. It is by far the most popular and commonly used commercial GIS desktop application.

All UBC Students can access ArcGIS Pro through the UBC Library labs documented in their GIS research guide. Students, who are enrolled in a geography course that requires access to ArcGIS Pro, will also have access to the Geography Computer Labs. Additionally, students may purchase a discounted one-year license for using ArcGIS Pro on their personal computers from the UBC GIS Software page.

UBC Geography maintains a department license for all ArcGIS software, which is available to all faculty, staff, and researchers.

ArcGIS Pro is developed exclusively around Windows, so running it on a Mac or Linux device requires either the ability to dual boot into a Windows operating system or access to Windows from a virtual environment. Esri provides these instructions for Mac users.

QGIS

QGIS is a free and open-source GIS desktop application with broad support for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. Its development is supported by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo), which also supports other popular geospatial software, like GDAL, GEOS, GrassGIS, PostGIS, and many others. You can download and install QGIS from their download page or, if you are a UBC Vancouver student, you can access it from one of the labs listed in UBC Library’s GIS Research Guide.

The UBC Library Research Commons frequently provides introductory workshops on QGIS for students, faculty, and staff. You can review previous workshop materials below and find upcoming workshops on their calendar.

GeoServer

GIS servers, like ArcGIS Server, QGIS Server, and GeoServer, enable users to publish and share their maps and geospatial data through web-hosted services. Similar to QGIS, GeoServer has been supported as an OSGeo project. It supports the following standard protocols: Web Feature Service (WFS), Web Map Service (WMS), and Web Coverage Service (WCS) alongside Web Processing Service (WPS) and Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) via added extensions. It also provides the back-end for the geospatial content management system, GeoNode.

While GeoServer can be hosted on a virtual machine through the Alliance Cloud, we strongly recommend that you review and consider deploying cloud-optimized geospatial formats with object storage as an alternative if your use case allows it.