GIS software system includes operating system platform and GIS software. The operating system used by GIS is generally Unix, Windows or Windows NT. In terms of operating system, GIS software with Unix as the mainstream platform in the past has been replaced or expanded by Windows NT platform in recent years. At present, almost all GIS software supports Windows or Windows NT. Judging from the development trend, this will still be a mainstream in the future. In addition, GIS has developed into a powerful spatial data comprehensive processing technology system combining multimedia network, virtual reality technology and data visualization.

When choosing GIS software, we mainly consider the following aspects: ① speed. High-speed data access and processing capabilities make the user's waiting time not too long. ② storage. Efficient compression coding storage mode ensures that a large amount of geographic information data can be stored under the condition of limited storage equipment capacity. ③ Function. Perfect geographic information system functions can meet various functional requirements for users to establish application systems. ④ Applicability. A more relaxed software and hardware operating environment supports users' multiple choices of equipment. ⑤ Ease of use. Good system interface and user interface are convenient for developers and users to further develop and use. ⑥ openness. The ability to exchange data with other external systems enables the system to use the data and software and hardware functions of other systems through data exchange.

Because of the large amount of data and various types of data, the comprehensive survey information system of land and resources by remote sensing not only has massive remote sensing information, but also needs to integrate a large number of vector data, not only spatial data, but also contains a large number of non-spatial data; The information sources are also extremely complex, involving many topics such as land use and coverage, mineral resources, geological disasters, soil erosion, crustal stability evaluation, coastal zone and island resources, and there are overlapping and partial overlapping contents among the topics; System data not only has multi-dimensional spatial properties, but also can intercept information on different time scales, which has time properties; The ultimate goal of the system is to better provide decision support for the sustainable use of land and resources. Therefore, the choice of application software will directly affect the corresponding function development, information coding, data processing and data exchange of the system, and then affect the vitality of the system. Therefore, according to the existing commercial remote sensing image processing software and GIS software, we mainly use ERDAS Image 8.4 and ARC/INFO 8.0 for Windows NT as platform software.