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Introduction to GIS and formats
GIS
In order to work effectively with large quantities of data the use of geographic information systems (GIS) is necessary.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are a computer programs that organize, display, and analyze spatially distributed data. At its simplest, GIS is "mapping", providing a geographic arrangement of extremely diverse information. GIS has been applied in geology, biology, psychology, anthropology etc., and has been around in Crop Forecasting for a long time.
General purpose GIS programs are designed to capture and analyze any kind of geographical data. The most common commercial GIS software packages worldwide are:
However the open-source community has created a wide range of free tools (to be downloaded from the internet). A nice start page can be found here: http://www.mapcruzin.com/free_gis.htm