Title: Lesson 3: Introduction to ILWIS 386
Course: Free and open source tools for GI-Science - GDAL, QGIS and ILWIS 386 > Section: Course Content

First you will go through a Tutorial with a number of exercises. During these exercises you will get familiar with the ILWIS GIS software, and perform some basic tasks. First you will download and install ILWIS, and some data files for this exercise. Then you will get familiar with the ILWIS Main Window and the ILWIS Map Window, and then use the ILWIS command-line to perform some operations.

This is followed by additional exercises focusing on Ethiopia. The exercises document will introduce you some of the new functionality implemented in ILWIS 386 but also on the existing routines in order to conduct various GIS processing capabilities offered by the software. A number of issues will be discussed like data import, scaling, creating sub-maps and clipping raster maps using a (country) mask, re-projecting and resampling of raster data, computing statistics, creating output maps for reporting purposes, conducting analysis using elevation models like slope maps and derive contributing areas, work with time series data and conduct calculations on time series, creating animations and display of synchronized animations, perform calculations from the command line, as well as from a script.

Introduction

This document will introduce you some of the new functionality implemented in ILWIS 386 but also on the existing routines in order to conduct various GIS processing capabilities offered by the software. A number of issues will be discussed like data import, scaling, creating sub-maps and clipping raster maps using a (country) mask, re-projecting and resampling of raster data, computing statistics, creating output maps for reporting purposes, conducting analysis using elevation models like slope maps and derive contributing areas, work with time series data and conduct calculations on time series, creating animations and display of synchronized animations, perform calculations from the command line, as well as from a script.

Overall learning objectives

After review of the document and conducting the exercises described you will be able to:

- Use basic GIS functionality provided by ILWIS 386
- Understand linkage between raster maps and tables, re-projection / resampling of maps, combine information from various maps
- Retrieve information and create appropriate visualization
- Convert data from point or polygon to raster format
- Import of data from different sources
- Perform a multitude of computations to create value added information

Prerequisites

These manuals reflects the capability of ILWIS 386. To download the latest software version, please check the following address: https://filetransfer.itc.nl/pub/52n/ILWIS386/Software/. Download the file "ILWIS386setup.exe". How to install ILWIS 386 is described in the Tutorial. Eventual bug list with issues addressed in this version can be reviewed as well, see the file "ILWIS386setup.txt"

Task 1: Introduction Tutorial

To acquire some basic background using ILWIS386, an “Introduction tutorial” to the new functionality of ILWIS 386 is provided.

- Read the document “Lesson3_ILWIS386_BasicTutorial.pdf”
- The tutorial data are available from: https://filetransfer.itc.nl/pub/52n/ILWIS386/Data/, download the  file “ILWIS386_Tutorial_data.zip”. You can download the file ILWIS386_Tutorial_data.zip from here (as well as from the overall link provided under using the Resilio download option

Task 2: GeoSpatial exercises using ILWIS 386

The exercises to be conducted over here assume that you have some basic background using ILWIS386, as provided through the “Introduction tutorial”. The exercises document "ILWIS-386 Exercises" is containing the exercise description and guidelines. The sample data required can also be obtained from https://filetransfer.itc.nl/pub/52n/ILWIS386/Data/

Before you start copy the exercise data (“ILWIS386_exercise_data.zip”), which are also made available at https://filetransfer.itc.nl/pub/52n/ILWIS386/Data/ to your local hard-disk, unzip the file. Copy the folder ‘ILWIS386_exercise_data’ to the root of your hard-disk. Start ILWIS, navigate to the exercise data folder and close ILWIS. Start ILWIS and it should automatically start in the appropriate folder.

Instructions provided within the manual should be carefully studied. Certain data created in one of the exercises will be used at a later stage, therefore the structure of the guide should be followed from the start. Within ILWIS, using the help functionality a lot of additional information is provided. In case of questions, don’t hesitate to consult this utility.

Going through the exercises has assisted you in getting familiar with some of the capabilities offered by the ILWIS 386 software. Many of the GIS and RS capabilities are not addressed within these short exercises.

Assignment:

The assignment for this lesson is described in the  document “Lesson3_ILWIS_Assignment.pdf”. This document is also added to the main exercises document, see chapter 4: Additional exercise - Calculation of the Start of Season. The data required are contained in the sub directory of your exercise data folder "/additional_exercise". This assignment consists of creating a script and calculating the Start of Season. Prepare a short report and show the script, as well as the resulting map obtained. This document should be uploaded in the LMS.

Additional resources:

Quite an archive exists with older version documentation, exercises together with sample data. In general only the ILWIS user interface has changed and additional functionality has been added. Links to older documentation and user information is provided at:

- https://www.itc.nl/ilwis/users-guide/
- https://52north.org/software/software-projects/ilwis/ilwis-3/user-guide/
- https://www.itc.nl/about-itc/organization/scientific-departments/water-resources/geonetcast/application-manual/