Introduction

What is SAGA ?

• SAGA is the abbreviation for System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses
• SAGA is a Geographic Information System (GIS) software
• SAGA has been designed for an easy and effective implementation of spatial algorithms
• SAGA offers a comprehensive, growing set of geoscientific methods
• SAGA provides an easily approachable user interface with many visualisation options
• SAGA runs under Windows and Linux operating systems
• SAGA is a Free Open Source Software (FOSS)

License issues

SAGA is a Free Open Source Software (FOSS), which generally means that you have the freedom

• to run the program, for any purpose,
• to study how the program works and to modify it,
• to redistribute copies,
• to improve the program, and release the improvements to the public.

Except for the SAGA Application Programming Interface (API) most SAGA source codes have been licenced under the GNU General Public Licence or GPL. The GPL requires derived works to be available under the same or a comparable licence, with other words derived works have to become Open Source as well. For a few reasons the SAGA creators decided to use a less restrictive licence for the SAGA API. The API uses the GNU Lesser General Public Licence or LGPL, which permits use of this library in proprietary programs, i.e. SAGA modules, which always base on the API, have not automatically to be published as Open Source too.

Who created SAGA ?

The SAGA development started with the beginning of the 3rd millenium and has been initiated by a small team of researchers from the Dept. of Physical Geography, Göttingen. In 2007 the center of the SAGA development moved towards Hamburg, where a few of us are employed now at the Dept. of Physical Geography, Hamburg. Find out more in the Development section of this web site.

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