3
$\begingroup$

I am looking for a tool to sketch changes to Earth. It should start with a geoid or an Earth model, rise/lower/flood selected areas. "Heal" boardersk: if an island is added in an ocean height shouldn't abruptly change from 0 $m$ to $-$1000 $m$. It should also measure distances between points, allow labeling and export maps of selected images as raster graphics (jpg image).

So far I could do two things:

  1. Start with Google Earth, prepare necessary shapes using flooding, paste results as layers in Gimp/Photoshop [fast and ugly]
  2. Import data in Matlab, define rules for modified regions, export [manual rule definitions is slow, no way to smart select, drag and drop regions]

What is the standard approach to do this? For instance, how people display flood plains, draft a channel or a new island project?


Windows/Mac/Linux/doesn't_matter? Windows preferred, Linux is OK. GUI or also command line? GUI, or GUI+CLI batching. CLI only is undesired. Go you want to use a GIS? I didn't know about GIS. Looking into in.

$\endgroup$
3
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ Could you specify: Windows/Mac/Linux/doesn't_matter; GUI or also command line? Are you familiar with command line tools and netCDF files? You want some generic solution and don't want to use a GIS? If the usage of a GIS is fine, I would suggest to ask the question at GIS.SE. $\endgroup$ Dec 6, 2017 at 9:01
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ What I would do (since I don't have GIS experience): (a) download a land elevation data set as netCDF file (e.g. a global product like GMTED2010) and (b) plot only data with an elevation above X m elevation (X m is my water level rise). However, this approach is not necessarily correct because humans build stuff like dikes ... . For the plotting I would use a tool/language of my choice: GMT or R. Processing of the netCDF file could be done via cdo. $\endgroup$ Dec 6, 2017 at 9:10
  • $\begingroup$ My suggestion includes a lot of hand work! Therefore, I post it only as a comment and not as an answer. Adding islands etc. I would do in R oder Python. $\endgroup$ Dec 6, 2017 at 9:18

1 Answer 1

1
$\begingroup$

The most common software for creating and modifying maps is ArcGIS (commercial but you can get free trial for a month) or QGIS (open source).

$\endgroup$
2
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Could you specify how it works in ArcGIS (particularly, if and which toolboxes are needed) or QGIS? $\endgroup$ Dec 6, 2017 at 9:11
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Thanks. I was afraid of "we don't recommend software" responses. $\endgroup$
    – Stepan
    Dec 14, 2017 at 15:21

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.