Let's say you made some changes to your geospatial data and wish you could go back and fix it or revert the changes to a specific time. Perhaps you want a smooth way to collaborate effortlessly with colleagues on maps and spatial data. While "version control" is an exciting possibility for developers, these are challenges faced by geospatial data analysts and users. But what if there is a free solution waiting to be discovered? I may have found the solution!

While working on some web development projects and becoming accustomed to using Git version control and GitHub, I started thinking about how I could apply the same version control principles to geospatial data. Is there a tool that would allow me to track changes and revert to previous versions of my geospatial data? This was the question that lingered in my mind. This led me to search for a version management system specifically designed for geospatial data.

What is Kart?

Kart is an open-source software project for data version control for geospatial data. The purpose of Kart is to make it easy to store your spatial data so that you can make changes to it, see those changes and push and pull those changes to other people so they can have it on their data as well. - Hamish.
Kart is an open-source software project for data version control for geospatial data, and the purpose of Kart was to make it easy to store spatial data in a way that you can make changes to it, see those changes and push and pull those changes to other people so they can have it on their data as well.

Some of the benefits of Kart

  • See exactly what edits were made and when. version control,
  • Quickly revert to a previous version of your data.
  • Allows branching and merging of data versions.
  • Collaboration with colleagues and seamlessly push and pull changes.
  • Open-source software, which means it allows for extensibility and future development.
  • Interoperable with other GIS software and data formats for seamless data exchange.