The Spanish town of Figueres is relying on free and open source software to help manage its urban and natural environment. Fisersa Ecoserveis, an environmental company, is using a range of open source solutions to create, update and manage interactive geographic maps, used for monitoring and planning the city’s green spaces.
According to Andreu Bassagañas i Ribas, project manager at Fisersa Ecoserveis, the firm uses the Java application server Apache Tomcat, relational database system Postgresql, Openlayers and other Java programming tools. These are combined to run gvSIG, a geographic information system.
Bassagañas presented the company’s use of open source GIS tools, in a talk he gave at Open Expo, a conference that took place in Barcelona, on 21 January.
The agency is responsible for studying, planning and monitoring activities that impact the city’s green areas. It assists the authorities in ensuring compliance with regulations, and in making records and data publicly available.
To carry out the multitude of tasks and services, the company in 2008 started looking for a GIS solution. “We could have opted to go with a proprietary GIS solution”, the technician said. “That would have been a quick solution, but also expensive, with high costs for maintenance and the risk to get locked-in.”
Instead, the agency decided to choose open source. Also high on the wish list were options to make the information online and publicly accessible, include links to the city’s information and communication services, and the possibility to use smart phone applications. “After several weeks of consideration, analysis and proposals, we decided to go for gvSIG”, Bassagañas said.
The platform is used for many different tasks, such as keeping an inventory of all the trees in the town, including their precise geographic location. “Most of these maps can be viewed online, and the information is constantly updated”, Bassagañas said.