IDRISI is a geographic information system (GIS) with a strong focus on data analysis and image processing tools. It was developed at Clark University under the direction of Ron Eastman, beginning in 1987, and is now supported by Clark Labs, a nonprofit research and development laboratory within the Graduate School of Geography. Since it emerged from a research institute as a noncommercial product, it is in widespread use in the geographic information research community and in the international development community.

IDRISI is named after Abu Abd Allah Muhammed al-Idrisi (1100–1166), a geographer and botanist who explored Spain, Northern Africa, and Western Asia. Initially, IDRISI was typical of systems intended for expert academic users. On one hand, it provided a number of sophisticated tools that were not ...