Is open source GIS feasible in military operations? Evaluation by applying a USE case

Abstract

The study of terrain and all its related elements and facets are of crucial importance to the military, with the importance of terrain being recognised by military leaders more than two thousand years ago. Military operations can occur at any of the three levels of war: tactical, operational and strategic, and can be a combat operation or a military operation other than war (MOOTW). Information about the geography empowers a military commander to plan and execute a mission successfully. As technology developed and evolved, geographic information systems (GIS) have come to play a major role in this. Today, a military operation without the use of GIS is unthinkable. In a developing country like the South Africa, however, licenses for proprietary GIS software, vendor-exclusive training and the bureaucracy of the procurement cycle add to the time and costs of a mission. The question arises whether open source software is a feasible alternative. Since the South African National Defence Force was initially trained in the use of proprietary software and it therefore became a strong habit, the perception now exits that Free and Open Source Geographic Information Software (FOSSGIS) products are neither mature enough nor user-friendly enough to be used in military operations. This study evaluated the use of an open source desktop GIS product, QGIS, in a use case for MOOTW. QGIS, outputs were compared to those produced in ArcGIS, a proprietary desktop GIS product developed by Esri, widely used in military operations. The user-friendliness of the two products as well as pricing was also compared. Results show that the QGIS outputs provide the operational commander with equivalent information to plan and execute a mission successfully. This implies that open source GIS is suitable for military operations, especially those with limited budgets and at short notice, such as in the case of disaster relief.

Acceptance of open source geospatial software: Assessing QGIS in South Africa with the UTAUT2 model

“…A 2018 questionnaire distributed to professionals in the geospatial industry in all nine provinces of South Africa revealed that while most professionals used proprietary platforms most of the time, there is evidence of an uptake in FOSSGIS and only 14% of participants had never used FOSSGIS (Coetzee, Smit, & Rautenbach, 2018). A study on the practical feasibility of QGIS in military operations found that QGIS could perform the same functionality as a proprietary product, yet the perception among users was that QGIS was not mature enough to be used in military operations (Henrico, Coetzee, & Cooper, in press). These studies do not reveal why FOSSGIS products are adopted (or not) in South Africa, and we therefore conducted research to shed light on this.…”

Application of Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing in Military Operations: A Systematic Review

“…In a developing countries, licenses for a registered GIS software, vendor-exclusive training and the bureaucracy of the procurement cycle add to the time and costs of a mission [11]. In a study conducted to evaluate the use of an open source desktop GIS product, QGIS, for a military operation other than war [11], QGIS outputs were compared to those computed in ArcGIS, a proprietary desktop GIS product developed by ESRI, widely used in military operations. The results of the study showed that the QGIS was cost effective and data outputs provided the operational commanders with similar information to plan and execute a mission successfully.…”

Qualitative insights into the acceptance of QGIS in South Africa

“…Another study showed that users involved in military operations had the perception that QGIS was not mature enough for their purposes (Henrico et al, 2020). We wanted to find out the reasons for this and therefore conducted a study to understand the acceptance and use of QGIS in South Africa.…”

“…The results of a survey in 2015 among geospatial professionals in South Africa showed that proprietary platforms are used most of the time, but there were also signs of an increase in the use of FOSSGIS—only 14% of respondents had never used FOSSGIS (Coetzee et al, 2018). Another study showed that users involved in military operations had the perception that QGIS was not mature enough for their purposes (Henrico et al, 2020). We wanted to find out the reasons for this and therefore conducted a study to understand the acceptance and use of QGIS in South Africa.…”