System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses (SAGA) v. 2.1.4

• Published in: Geoscientific Model Development Vol. 8; no. 7; pp. 1991 - 2007
• Main Authors: Conrad, O, Bechtel, B, Bock, M, Dietrich, H, Fischer, E, Gerlitz, L, Wehberg, J, Wichmann, V, Böhner, J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Katlenburg-Lindau Copernicus GmbH 07.07.2015; Copernicus Publications
• Subjects: Algorithms; Analysis; Application programming interface; Applications programming; Architecture; Automation; Climatic analysis; Climatology; Computer architecture; Data analysis; Freeware; Geographic information systems; Geographical information systems; Geomorphology; Graphical user interface; Information systems; Interfaces; Libraries; Library management; Metadata; Meteorology; Modelling; Open source software; Operating systems; Public domain; R&D; Remote sensing; Research & development; Satellite navigation systems; Soil; Soil analysis; Soil sciences; Technology application; Terrain analysis; User interface
• ISSN: 1991-9603; 1991-959X; 1991-962X; 1991-9603; 1991-962X
• DOI: 10.5194/gmd-8-1991-2015

The System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses (SAGA) is an open source geographic information system (GIS), mainly licensed under the GNU General Public License. Since its first release in 2004, SAGA has rapidly developed from a specialized tool for digital terrain analysis to a comprehensive and globally established GIS platform for scientific analysis and modeling. SAGA is coded in C++ in an object oriented design and runs under several operating systems including Windows and Linux. Key functional features of the modular software architecture comprise an application programming interface for the development and implementation of new geoscientific methods, a user friendly graphical user interface with many visualization options, a command line interpreter, and interfaces to interpreted languages like R and Python. The current version 2.1.4 offers more than 600 tools, which are implemented in dynamically loadable libraries or shared objects and represent the broad scopes of SAGA in numerous fields of geoscientific endeavor and beyond. In this paper, we inform about the system's architecture, functionality, and its current state of development and implementation. Furthermore, we highlight the wide spectrum of scientific applications of SAGA in a review of published studies, with special emphasis on the core application areas digital terrain analysis, geomorphology, soil science, climatology and meteorology, as well as remote sensing.