TerraLib: An Open Source GIS Library for Large-Scale Environmental and Socio-Economic Applications

This chapter describes TerraLib, an open source GIS software library. The design goal for TerraLib is to support large-scale applications using socio-economic and environmental data. TerraLib supports coding of geographical applications using spatial databases, and stores data in different database management systems including MySQL and PostgreSQL. Its vector data model is upwards compliant with Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards. It handles spatio-temporal data types (events, moving objects, cell spaces, modifiable objects) and allows spatial, temporal, and attribute queries on the database. TerraLib supports dynamic modeling in generalized cell spaces, has a direct runtime link with the R programming language for statistical analysis, and handles large image data sets. The library is developed in C++, and has programming interfaces in Java and Visual Basic. Using TerraLib, the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) developed the TerraView open source GIS, which provides functions for data conversion, display, exploratory spatial data analysis, and spatial and non-spatial queries. Another noteworthy application is TerraAmazon, Brazil’s national database for monitoring deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, which manages more than 2 million complex polygons and 60 gigabytes of remote sensing images.