Open Source GIS Tools at Tableau

Hello

• Name: Matt Kenny
• GIS Data Engineer At Tableau Software

Open Source at Tableau

GIS at Tableau

• A global basemap of the world.

  • Three Map Styles
  • User-toggleable Layers
  • Features Translated into Eight Languages

• A global geocoding database.

What tools do we use?

Data

• OpenStreetMap Project

Web Mapping

• MapServer - Powers our Map Service

Data Processing

• PostGIS - Spatial Database/Processing Environment
• Quantum GIS - Visualization Tool

Python Spatial Libraries

• Fiona - Read Shapefiles; convert to python objects
• Shapely - Perform geoprocessing operations (buffer, clips, itersections, simplification).

Why do we use these tools?

• We make our own internal tools.

• Our processes need to be cross-platform
  • Engineers use Linux, Mac, Windows workstations.
• Our processes need to be modular
  • Data formats can change, don't want to re-write tooling every time.
• Processes need to be automatable
  • Reducing amount of manual processing == Less chance of operator error
  • Process large volumes of data