John Lindsay, the main developer of the little known but extremely powerful GIS program Whitebox Geospatial Analysis Tools, describes his software at GISRUK 2014 in Glasgow.

1. The Whitebox Geospatial Analysis
Tools Project
and Open-Access GIS
John Lindsay, Ph.D.
University of Guelph
GISRUK, Glasgow
April 16-18, 2014
1

2. What is Whitebox GAT?
2

3. http://www.uoguelph.ca/~hydrogeo/Whitebox/
• Origins in the Terrain Analysis System (TAS)
• Whitebox GAT project started in 2009
• Free and open-source GIS and remote sensing
software package
• Google code repository
• Multi-platform software
• Translated into 11 languages
3

4. Whitebox
• Currently contains 372 tools for processing DEMs,
raster images, vector data, and LiDAR.
• New tools can be added as plugins developed using
any JVM programming language (Java, Groovy,
Python).
• Useful as a powerful geoprocessing engine
4

5. Basic GIS and Vector Data Analysis
5

6. Terrain Analysis Toolbox
• Tools for extracting information
from DEMs.
• Surface derivatives (slope, aspect,
curvature)
• Hillshading and visibility analysis
• Relative landscape position
• Landform classification
• Topographic index, sediment
transport index, etc.
6

7. LiDAR represents the state of the science for
topographic and canopy mapping.
7
LiDAR Toolbox

8. LiDAR Toolbox
• Whitebox contains tools to
– interpolate LAS files,
– mosaic tiles,
– fill in missing data gaps,
– remove off-terrain objects
– model vegetation canopy
8

9. 9

10. Removing Off-terrain Objects
10
Original last-return LiDAR DEM Bare-Earth DEM created using
‘remove off-terrain objects’ tool

11. Processing Massive DEM Datasets
11
This file was mosaiced from 4200 LiDAR
tiles
It consists of 4.25 billion grid cells and a
file of 15.8GB

12. Hydrology Toolbox
Flow accumulation image derived from a DEM
• Flow-path enforcement
• Flow algorithms
• D8, FD8, D∞, MD∞
• flow direction
• flow accumulation
• Flow-path length
• Watershed delineation
• Sub-basin delineation
• Hillslope mapping
12

13. 13
Surface Flow-path Enforcement
Depression Filling
Depression Breaching
Road blocks flow in DEM
X
X
Filling Breaching

14. Stream Network Analysis Toolbox
• DEM-based automated stream
mapping
– Algorithms based on either valley
recognition methods (i.e. DEM
shape) or channel initiation
methods (i.e. contributing area
thresholding)
• Link length and slope
• Stream ordering
• Long profiles
• Link classification
14

15. Remote Sensing Applications
• Numerous spatial filters
• Contrast stretching
• Change detection algorithms
• PCA and inverse PCA
• Image classification, feature-space plotting
• Photogrammetry
15

16. Whitebox as an ‘Open-Access GIS’
• The potential benefits of O-S GIS include wider community
involvement, deeper user knowledge, and rapid innovation
in the field.
• The intention of O-S GIS is good but we could realize even
more benefits if we altered the implementation.
• The potential benefit of OSS is often defeated by the
barriers that are in place as a result of the implementation
of the O-S model.
• Open-Access GIS: software should be designed in a way
that reduces the barriers that often discourage or disallow
end-users from examining the algorithm design and
implementation associated with specific geospatial tools.
16

17. Whitebox as an ‘Open-Access GIS’
17

18. Whitebox as an ‘Open-Access GIS’
18

19. Whitebox as an ‘Open-Access GIS’
19

20. Whitebox Usage
20
• Downloaded 1573 times in last 17 weeks.
• Downloads originated in 91 countries

21. Concluding remarks
• Whitebox provides extensive tools for
extracting information from spatial data sets.
• The open-source(access) nature and ease of
use of Whitebox provides an ideal
environment for education and research.
21

22. Acknowledgements
• It’s been a wonderful honour to speak with
you today.
• Funding for this work has been provided by:
22