QGIS Training Manual

Release 3.4

QGIS Project

юни 27, 2019

 Съдържание

1 Course Introduction 1
1.1 Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Preparing Exercise Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2 Module: The Interface 13

2.1 Lesson: A Brief Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 Lesson: Adding your first layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3 Lesson: An Overview of the Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

3 Module: Creating a Basic Map 21

3.1 Lesson: Working with Vector Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2 Lesson: Symbology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

4 Module: Classifying Vector Data 55

4.1 Lesson: Attribute Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.2 Lesson: The Label Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.3 Lesson: Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

5 Module: Creating Maps 95

5.1 Lesson: Using Print Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.2 Assignment 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

6 Module: Creating Vector Data 107

6.1 Lesson: Creating a New Vector Dataset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
6.2 Lesson: Feature Topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
6.3 Lesson: Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
6.4 Lesson: Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

7 Module: Vector Analysis 153

7.1 Lesson: Reprojecting and Transforming Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
7.2 Lesson: Vector Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
7.3 Lesson: Network Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
7.4 Lesson: Spatial Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

8 Module: Rasters 203

8.1 Lesson: Working with Raster Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
8.2 Lesson: Changing Raster Symbology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
8.3 Lesson: Terrain Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

9 Module: Completing the Analysis 235

9.1 Lesson: Raster to Vector Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
9.2 Lesson: Combining the Analyses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

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 9.3 Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
9.4 Lesson: Supplementary Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

10 Module: Plugins 253

10.1 Lesson: Installing and Managing Plugins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
10.2 Lesson: Useful QGIS Plugins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

11 Module: Online Resources 269

11.1 Lesson: Web Mapping Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
11.2 Lesson: Web Feature Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

12 Module: QGIS Server 289

12.1 Lesson: Install QGIS Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
12.2 Lesson: Serving WMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

13 Module: GRASS 303

13.1 Lesson: GRASS Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
13.2 Lesson: GRASS Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

14 Module: Assessment 333

14.1 Create a base map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
14.2 Analyze the data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
14.3 Final Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

15 Module: Forestry Application 337

15.1 Lesson: Forestry Module Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
15.2 Lesson: Georeferencing a Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
15.3 Lesson: Digitizing Forest Stands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
15.4 Lesson: Updating Forest Stands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
15.5 Lesson: Systematic Sampling Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
15.6 Lesson: Creating Detailed Maps with the Atlas Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
15.7 Lesson: Calculating the Forest Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
15.8 Lesson: DEM from LiDAR Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
15.9 Lesson: Map Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

16 Module: Database Concepts with PostgreSQL 413

16.1 Lesson: Introduction to Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
16.2 Lesson: Implementing the Data Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
16.3 Lesson: Adding Data to the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
16.4 Lesson: Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
16.5 Lesson: Изгледи . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
16.6 Lesson: Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

17 Module: Spatial Database Concepts with PostGIS 433

17.1 Lesson: PostGIS Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
17.2 Lesson: Simple Feature Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
17.3 Lesson: Import and Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
17.4 Lesson: Spatial Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
17.5 Lesson: Geometry Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

18 The QGIS processing guide 457

18.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
18.2 An important warning before starting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
18.3 Setting-up the processing framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
18.4 Running our first algorithm. The toolbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
18.5 More algorithms and data types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
18.6 CRSs. Reprojecting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
18.7 Избиране . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
18.8 Running an external algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
18.9 The processing log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

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 18.10 The raster calculator. No-data values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
18.11 Vector calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
18.12 Defining extents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
18.13 HTML outputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
18.14 First analysis example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
18.15 Clipping and merging raster layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
18.16 Hydrological analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
18.17 Starting with the graphical modeler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
18.18 More complex models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
18.19 Numeric calculations in the modeler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
18.20 A model within a model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548
18.21 Using modeler-only tools for creating a model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
18.22 Interpolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
18.23 More interpolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562
18.24 Iterative execution of algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
18.25 More iterative execution of algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573
18.26 The batch processing interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
18.27 Models in the batch processing interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579
18.28 Pre- and post-execution script hooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
18.29 Other programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
18.30 Interpolation and contouring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582
18.31 Vector simplification and smoothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
18.32 Planning a solar farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
18.33 Use R scripts in Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
18.34 R Syntax in Processing scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594
18.35 R Syntax Summary table for Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
18.36 Predicting landslides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598

19 Module: Using Spatial Databases in QGIS 599

19.1 Lesson: Working with Databases in the QGIS Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599
19.2 Lesson: Using DB Manager to work with Spatial Databases in QGIS . . . . . . . . . . . . 602
19.3 Lesson: Working with spatialite databases in QGIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615

20 Appendix: Contributing To This Manual 619

20.1 Downloading Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619
20.2 Manual Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619
20.3 Adding a Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619
20.4 Adding a Lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620
20.5 Adding a Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
20.6 Add a Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622
20.7 Add a Further Reading Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622
20.8 Add a What’s Next Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622
20.9 Using Markup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623
20.10 Thank You! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625

21 Лист с отговори 627

21.1 Results For Adding Your First Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
21.2 Results For An Overview of the Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628
21.3 Results For Working with Vector Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628
21.4 Results For Symbology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
21.5 Outline Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634
21.6 Results For Attribute Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635
21.7 Results For The Label Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636
21.8 Results For Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640
21.9 Results For Creating a New Vector Dataset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641
21.10 Results For Vector Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
21.11 Results For Network Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651
21.12 Fastest path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651
21.13 Results For Raster Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 652

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 21.14 Results For Completing the Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
21.15 Results For WMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663
21.16 Results For GRASS Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666
21.17 Results For Database Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
21.18 Results For Spatial Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670
21.19 Results For Geometry Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671
21.20 Results For Simple Feature Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672

22 Индекси и таблици 673

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 Глава 1

Course Introduction

1.1 Foreword
1.1.1 Background

In 2008 we launched the Gentle Introduction to GIS, a completely free, open content resource for people
who want to learn about GIS without being overloaded with jargon and new terminology. It was sponsored
by the South African government and has been a phenomenal success, with people all over the world
writing to us to tell us how they are using the materials to run University Training Courses, teach
themselves GIS and so on. The Gentle Introduction is not a software tutorial, but rather aims to be a
generic text (although we used QGIS in all examples) for someone learning about GIS. There is also the
QGIS manual which provides a detailed functional overview of the QGIS application. However, it is not
structured as a tutorial, but rather as a reference guide. At Linfiniti Consulting CC. we frequently run
training courses and have realised that a third resource is needed - one that leads the reader sequentially
through learning the key aspects of QGIS in a trainer-trainee format - which prompted us to produce
this work.
This training manual is intended to provide all the materials needed to run a 5 day course on QGIS,
PostgreSQL and PostGIS. The course is structured with content to suit novice, intermediate and advanced
users alike and has many exercises complete with annotated answers throughout the text.

1.1.2 Лиценз

The Free Quantum GIS Training Manual by Linfiniti Consulting CC. is based on an earlier version from
Linfiniti and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. Permissions beyond
the scope of this license may be available at below.
We have published this QGIS training manual under a liberal license that allows you to freely copy, modify
and redistribute this work. A complete copy of the license is available at the end of this document. In
simple terms, the usage guidelines are as follows:
ˆ You may not represent this work as your own work, or remove any authorship text or credits from
this work.

1
QGIS Training Manual, Release 3.4

ˆ You may not redistribute this work under more restrictive permissions than those under which it
was provided to you.
ˆ If you add a substantive portion to the work and contribute it back to the project (at least one
complete module) you may add your name to the end of the authors list for this document (which
will appear on the front page)
ˆ If you contribute minor changes and corrections you may add yourself to the contributors list below.
ˆ If you translate this document in its entirety, you may add your name to the authors list in the
form „Translated by Joe Bloggs“.
ˆ If you sponsor a module or lesson, you may request the author to include an acknowledgement in
the beginning of each lesson contributed, e.g.:

Note: This lesson was sponsored by MegaCorp.

ˆ If you are unsure about what you may do under this license, please contact us at [email protected]
and we will advise you if what you intend doing is acceptable.
ˆ If you publish this work under a self publishing site such as https://www.lulu.com we request that
you donate the profits to the QGIS project.
ˆ You may not commercialise this work, except with the expressed permission of the authors. To be
clear, by commercialisation we mean that you may not sell for profit, create commercial derivative
works (e.g. selling content for use as articles in a magazine). The exception to this is if all the
profits are given to the QGIS project. You may (and we encourage you to do so) use this work
as a text book when conducting training courses, even if the course itself is commercial in nature.
In other words, you are welcome to make money by running a training course that uses this work
as a text book, but you may not profit off the sales of the book itself - all such profits should be
contributed back to QGIS.

1.1.3 Sponsoring Chapters

This work is by no means a complete treatise on all the things you can do with QGIS and we encourage
others to add new materials to fill any gaps. Linfiniti Consulting CC. can also create additional materials
for you as a commercial service, with the understanding that all such works produced should become
part of the core content and be published under the same license.

1.1.4 Authors

ˆ Rüdiger Thiede ([email protected]) - Rudi has written the QGIS instructional materials and parts
of the PostGIS materials.
ˆ Tim Sutton ([email protected]) - Tim has overseen and guided the project and co-authored the
PostgreSQL and PostGIS parts. Tim also authored the custom sphinx theme used for this manual.
ˆ Horst Düster ([email protected] ) - Horst co-authored the PostgreSQL and PostGIS parts
ˆ Marcelle Sutton ([email protected]) - Marcelle provided proof-reading and editorial advice
during the creation of this work.

1.1.5 Individual Contributors

Your name here!

2 Глава 1. Course Introduction

 QGIS Training Manual, Release 3.4

1.1.6 Sponsors

ˆ Cape Peninsula University of Technology

1.1.7 Data

The sample data that accompanies this resource is freely available and comes from the following sources:
ˆ Streets and Places datasets from OpenStreetMap (https://www.openstreetmap.org/)
ˆ Property boundaries (urban and rural), water bodies from NGI (http://www.ngi.gov.za/)
ˆ SRTM DEM from the CGIAR-CGI (http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/)
Download the prepared dataset from the Training data repository and unzip the file. All the necessary
data are provided in the exercise_data folder.

1.1.8 Source files and Issue reports

The source of this document is available at GitHub QGIS Documentation repository. Consult
GitHub.com for instructions on how to use the git version control system.
Despite our efforts, you could find some errors or miss some information while following this training.
Please report them at https://github.com/qgis/QGIS-Documentation/issues.

1.1.9 Latest Version

You can always obtain the latest version of this document by visiting the online version which is part of
the QGIS documentation website (https://docs.qgis.org).

Note: There are links to online and PDF versions of the Documentation and Training manuals.

Tim Sutton, May 2012

1.2 Preparing Exercise Data

Note: This process is intended for course conveners, or more experienced QGIS users who wish to create
localised sample data sets for their course. Default data sets are provided with the Training Manual, but
you may follow these instructions if you wish to replace the default data sets.

The sample data provided with the Training Manual refers to the town of Swellendam and its
surroundings. Swellendam is located about 2 hours‘ east of Cape Town in the Western Cape of South
Africa. The dataset contains feature names in both English and Afrikaans.
Anyone can use this dataset without difficulty, but you may prefer to use data from your own country
or home town. If you choose to do so, your localised data will be used in all lessons from Module 3 to
Module 7.2. Later modules use more complex data sources which may or may not be available for your
region.

Note: These instructions assume you have a good knowledge of QGIS and are not intended to be used
as teaching material.

1.2. Preparing Exercise Data 3

QGIS Training Manual, Release 3.4

1.2.1 Try Yourself Create OSM based vector Files

If you wish to replace the default data set with localised data for your course, this can easily be done
with tools built into QGIS. The region you choose to use should have a good mix of urban and rural
areas, containing roads of differing significance, area boundaries (such as nature reserves or farms) and
surface water, such as streams and rivers.
1. Open a new QGIS project
2. Select Layer → Data Source Manager to open the Data Source Manager dialog
3. In the Browser tab, expand the XYZ Tiles drop-down menu and double-click the OpenStreetMap
item.

A map of the world is now visible on the map canvas.

4. Close the Data Source Manager dialog
5. Move to the area you’d like to use as study area

Now that we have the area we’ll extract the data from, let’s enable the extraction tools.
1. Go to Plugins → Manage/Install Plugins. . .
2. In the All tab, type QuickOSM in the search box

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3. Select the QuickOSM plugin, press Install Plugin and then Close the dialog.

4. Execute the new plugin from Vector → QuickOSM → QuickOSM. . . menu

5. In the Quick query tab, select building in the Key drop-down menu
6. Leave the Value field empty, meaning that you are querying all buildings.
7. Select Canvas Extent in the next drop-down menu
8. Expand the Advanced group below and uncheck all geometry types on the right except
Multipolygons.
9. Press Run query

A new building layer is added to the Layers panel, showing buildings in the selected extent.
10. Proceed as above to extract other data:
(а) Key = landuse and Multipolygons geometry type.
(б) Key = boundary, Value = protected_area and Multipolygons geometry type.
(в) Key = natural, Value = water and Multipolygons geometry type.

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(г) Key = highway and check Lines and Multilines geometry types.
(д) Key = waterway, Value = river and check Lines and Multilines geometry types.
(е) Key = place and Points geometry type.

This process adds the layers as temporary files (indicated by the icon next to their name).

You can sample the data your region contains in order to see what kind of results your region will yield.
We now need to save the resulting data to use during your course. We’ll be using ESRI Shapefile,
GeoPackage and SpatiaLite formats depending on the data.
To convert the place temporary layer to another format:

1. Click the icon next to the place layer to open the Save Scratch Layer dialog.

Note: If you need to change any of the temporary layer’s properties (CRS, extent, fields. . . ), use
the Export → Save Features as. . . contextual menu instead, and ensure the Add saved file to map
option is checked. This adds a new layer.

2. Select the ESRI Shapefile format

3. Use the . . . button to browse to the exercise_data/shapefile/ folder and save the file as places.
shp.

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4. Press OK
In the Layers panel, the temporary place layer is replaced with the saved places shapefile layer and
the temporary icon next to it removed.
5. Double-click the layer to open its Layer Properties → Source tab and update the Layer name
property to match the file name.
6. Repeat the process for other layers, renaming them as follows:
ˆ natural_water into water
ˆ waterway_river into rivers
ˆ boundary_protected_area into protected_areas
Each resulting data set should be saved in the exercise_data/shapefile/ directory.
The next step is to create a GeoPackage file from the building layer to use during the course:

1. Click the icon next to the building layer

2. Select the GeoPackage format
3. Save the file as training_data.gpkg under the exercise_data/ folder
4. By default, the Layer name is filled as the file name. Replace it with buildings.

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5. Press OK
6. Rename the layer in its properties dialog
7. Repeat the process with the highway layer, saving it as roads in the same GeoPackage database.
The last step is to save the remaining temporary file as a SpatiaLite file.

1. Click the icon next to the landuse layer

2. Select the SpatiaLite format
3. Save the file as landuse.sqlite under the exercise_data/ folder. By default, the Layer name is
filled as the file name. Do not change it.

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4. Press OK
You should now have a map which looks something like this (the symbology will certainly be very
different, because QGIS randomly assigns colors when layers are added to the map):

The important thing is that you have 7 vector layers matching those shown above and that all those
layers have some data.

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1.2.2 Try Yourself Create SRTM DEM tiff Files

For modules Module: Creating Vector Data and Module: Rasters , you’ll also need raster images (SRTM
DEM) which cover the region you have selected for your course.
The CGIAR-CGI (http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/) provides some SRTM DEM you can download from http:
//srtm.csi.cgiar.org/SELECTION/inputCoord.asp.
You’ll need images which cover the entire region you have chosen to use. To find the extent coordinates,
in QGIS , zoom to the extent of the largest layer and pick the values in the Extents box of the
status bar. Keep the GeoTiff format. Once the form is filled, click on the Click here to Begin Search >>
button and download the file(s).
Once you have downloaded the required file(s), they should be saved in the exercise_data directory,
under raster/SRTM subfolders.

1.2.3 Try Yourself Create imagery tiff Files

In Module Module: Creating Vector Data , Follow Along: Data Sources lesson shows close-up images of
three school sports fields which students are asked to digitize. You’ll therefore need to reproduce these
images using your new SRTM DEM tiff file(s). There is no obligation to use school sports fields: any
three school land-use types can be used (e.g. different school buildings, playgrounds or car parks).
For reference, the image in the example data is:

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1.2.4 Try Yourself Replace Tokens

Having created your localised dataset, the final step is to replace the tokens in the substitutions.txt
file so that the appropriate names will appear in your localised version of the Training Manual.
The tokens you need to replace are as follows:
ˆ majorUrbanName: this defaults to „Swellendam“. Replace with the name of the major town in your
region.
ˆ schoolAreaType1: this defaults to „athletics field“. Replace with the name of the largest school
area type in your region.
ˆ largeLandUseArea: this defaults to „Bontebok National Park“. Replace with the name of a large
landuse polygon in your region.
ˆ srtmFileName: this defaults to srtm_41_19.tif. Replace this with the filename of your SRTM
DEM file.
ˆ localCRS: this defaults to WGS 84 / UTM 34S. You should replace this with the correct CRS for
your region.

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Module: The Interface

2.1 Lesson: A Brief Introduction

Welcome to our course! Over the next few days, we’ll be showing you how to use QGIS easily and
efficiently. If you’re new to GIS, we’ll tell you what you need to get started. If you’re an experienced
user, you’ll see how QGIS fulfills all the functions you expect from a GIS program, and more!
In this module we introduce the QGIS project itself, as well as explaining the user interface.
After completing this section, you will be able to correctly identify the main elements of the screen in
QGIS and know what each of them does, and load a shapefile into QGIS.

Warning: This course includes instructions on adding, deleting and altering GIS datasets. We have
provided training datasets for this purpose. Before using the techniques described here on your own
data, always ensure you have proper backups!

2.1.1 How to use this tutorial

Any text that looks like this refers to something on the screen that you can click on.
Text that looks → like → this directs you through menus.
This kind of text refers to something you can type, such as a command, path, or file name.

2.1.2 Tiered course objectives

This course caters to different user experience levels. Depending on which category you consider yourself
to be in, you can expect a different set of course outcomes. Each category contains information that is
essential for the next one, so it’s important to do all exercises that are at or below your level of experience.

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Basic
In this category, the course assumes that you have little or no prior experience with theoretical GIS
knowledge or the operation of a GIS program.
Limited theoretical background will be provided to explain the purpose of an action you will be performing
in the program, but the emphasis is on learning by doing.
When you complete the course, you will have a better concept of the possibilities of GIS, and how to
harness their power via QGIS.

Intermediate
In this category, it is assumed that you have working knowledge and experience of the everyday uses of
GIS.
Following the instructions for the beginner level will provide you with familiar ground, as well as to make
you aware of the cases where QGIS does things slightly differently from other software you may be used
to. You will also learn how to use analysis functions in QGIS.
When you complete the course, you should be comfortable with using QGIS for all of the functions you
usually need from a GIS for everyday use.

Advanced
In this category, the assumption is that you are experienced with GIS, have knowledge of and experience
with spatial databases, using data on a remote server, perhaps writing scripts for analysis purposes, etc.
Following the instructions for the other two levels will familiarize you with the approach that the QGIS
interface follows, and will ensure that you know how to access the basic functions that you need. You
will also be shown how to make use of QGIS‘ plugin system, database access system, and so on.
When you complete the course, you should be well-acquainted with the everyday operation of QGIS, as
well as its more advanced functions.

2.1.3 Why QGIS?

As information becomes increasingly spatially aware, there is no shortage of tools able to fulfill some
or all commonly used GIS functions. Why should anyone be using QGIS over some other GIS software
package?
Here are only some of the reasons:
ˆ It’s free, as in lunch. Installing and using the QGIS program costs you a grand total of zero money.
No initial fee, no recurring fee, nothing.
ˆ It’s free, as in liberty. If you need extra functionality in QGIS, you can do more than just hope
it will be included in the next release. You can sponsor the development of a feature, or add it
yourself if you are familiar with programming.
ˆ It’s constantly developing. Because anyone can add new features and improve on existing ones,
QGIS never stagnates. The development of a new tool can happen as quickly as you need it to.
ˆ Extensive help and documentation is available. If you’re stuck with anything, you can turn to the
extensive documentation, your fellow QGIS users, or even the developers.
ˆ Cross-platform. QGIS can be installed on MacOS, Windows and Linux.

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Now that you know why you want to use QGIS, we can show you how. The first lesson will guide you in
creating your first QGIS map.

2.2 Lesson: Adding your first layer

We will start the application, and create a basic map to use for examples and exercises.
The goal for this lesson: To get started with an example map.

Note: Before starting this exercise, QGIS must be installed on your computer. Also, you should have
downloaded the sample data to use.

Launch QGIS from its desktop shortcut, menu item, etc., depending on how you configured its
installation.

Note: The screenshots for this course were taken in QGIS 3.4 running on Linux. Depending on your
setup, the screens you encounter may well appear somewhat different. However, all the same buttons will
still be available, and the instructions will work on any OS. You will need QGIS 3.4 (the latest version
at time of writing) to use this course.

Let’s get started right away!

2.2.1 Follow Along: Prepare a map

1. Open QGIS. You will have a new, blank map.

2. Click the Open Data Source Manager button: . If you can’t find the icon, check that the Data
Source Manager toolbar is enabled in the View → Toolbars menu.
The Data Source Manager dialog allows you to choose the data to load depending on the data
type: the tabs in the left-hand section of the dialog list the main data types. You can also browse
the files directly from the folder of your computer with the Browser tab (see The Browser Panel
section):

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3. Click on the Vector tab, enable the File source type and press the . . . button next to Vector
Dataset(s).
4. Navigate to the file exercise_data/shapefile/protected_areas.shp (in your course directory).
5. Select the file and click Open. You will see the original dialog, but with the file path filled in.

6. Click Add here as well. The data you specified will now load.

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Congratulations! You now have a basic map. Now would be a good time to save your work.

1. Click on the Save As button:

2. Save the map under a solution folder next to exercise_data and call it basic_map.qgs.

2.2.2 Try Yourself

Repeat the steps above to add the places.shp and rivers.shp data sets from the same folder
(exercise_data/shapefile) to the map.
Check your results

2.2.3 In Conclusion

You’ve learned how to add a layer and create a basic map!

2.2.4 What’s Next?

Now you’re familiar with the basic function of the Open Data Source Manager button, but what about
all the others? How does this interface work? Before we go on, let’s first take a look at the layout of the
QGIS interface. This is the topic of the next lesson.

2.3 Lesson: An Overview of the Interface

We will explore the QGIS user interface so that you are familiar with the menus, toolbars, map canvas
and layers list that form the basic structure of the interface.
The goal for this lesson: To understand the basics of the QGIS user interface.

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2.3.1 Try Yourself: The Basics

The elements identified in the figure above are:

1. Layers List / Browser Panel
2. Ленти с инструменти
3. Map canvas
4. Status bar
5. Side Toolbar
6. Locator bar

The Layers List

In the Layers list, you can see a list, at any time, of all the layers available to you.
Expanding collapsed items (by clicking the arrow or plus symbol beside them) will provide you with
more information on the layer’s current appearance.
Hovering the layer will give you some basic information: layer name, type of geometry, coordinate
reference system and the complete path of the location on your device.
Right-clicking on a layer will give you a menu with lots of extra options. You will be using some of them
before long, so take a look around!

Note: A vector layer is a dataset, usually of a specific kind of object, such as roads, trees, etc. A vector
layer can consist of either points, lines or polygons.

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The Browser Panel

The QGIS Browser is a panel in QGIS that lets you easily navigate in your database. You can have access
to common vector files (e.g. ESRI Shapefile or MapInfo files), databases (e.g. PostGIS, Oracle, SpatiaLite,
GeoPackage or MSSQL Spatial) and WMS/WFS connections. You can also view your GRASS data.
If you have saved a project, the Browser Panel will also give you quick access to all the layers stored in
the same path of the project file under in the Project Home item.
Moreover, you can set one or more folder as Favorites: search under your path and once you have found
the folder, right click on it and click on Add as a Favorite. You should then be able to see your folder
in the Favorites item.

Tip: It can happen that the folders added to Favorite item have a really long name: don’t worry
right-click on the path and choose Rename Favorite... to set another name.

Toolbars
Your most often used sets of tools can be turned into toolbars for basic access. For example, the File
toolbar allows you to save, load, print, and start a new project. You can easily customize the interface
to see only the tools you use most often, adding or removing toolbars as necessary via the Settings →
Toolbars menu.
Even if they are not visible in a toolbar, all of your tools will remain accessible via the menus. For
example, if you remove the File toolbar (which contains the Save button), you can still save your map
by clicking on the Project menu and then clicking on Save.

The Map Canvas

This is where the map itself is displayed and where layers are loaded. In the map canvas you can interact
with the visible layers: zoom in/out, move the map, select features and many other operations that we
will deeply see in the next sections.

The Status Bar

Shows you information about the current map. Also allows you to adjust the map scale, the map rotation
and see the mouse cursor’s coordinates on the map.

The Side Toolbar

By default the Side toolbar contains the buttons to load the layer and all the buttons to create a new
layer. But remember that you can move all the toolbars wherever it is more comfortable for you.

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The Locator Bar

Within this bar you can access to almost all the objects of QGIS: layers, layer features, algorithms,
spatial bookmarks, etc. Check all the different options in the locator_options section of the QGIS User
Manual.

Tip: With the shortcut Ctrl+K you can easily access the bar.

2.3.2 Try Yourself 1

Try to identify the four elements listed above on your own screen, without referring to the diagram above.
See if you can identify their names and functions. You will become more familiar with these elements as
you use them in the coming days.
Check your results

2.3.3 Try Yourself 2

Try to find each of these tools on your screen. What is their purpose?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Note: If any of these tools is not visible on the screen, try enabling some toolbars that are currently
hidden. Also keep in mind that if there isn’t enough space on the screen, a toolbar may be shortened by
hiding some of its tools. You can see the hidden tools by clicking on the double right arrow button in
any such collapsed toolbar. You can see a tooltip with the name of any tool by holding your mouse over
the tool for a while.

Check your results

2.3.4 What’s Next?

Now you’ve seen how the QGIS interface works, you can use the tools available to you and start improving
on your map! This is the topic of the next lesson.

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 Глава 3

Module: Creating a Basic Map

In this module, you will create a basic map which will be used later as a basis for further demonstrations
of QGIS functionality.

3.1 Lesson: Working with Vector Data

Vector data is arguably the most common kind of data you will find in the daily use of GIS. The vector
model represents the location and shape of geographic features using points, lines and polygons (and
for 3D data also surfaces and volumes), while their other properties are included as attributes (often
presented as a table in QGIS). It is usually used to store discrete features, like roads and city blocks.
The objects in a vector dataset are called features, and contain data that describe their location and
properties.
The goal for this lesson: To learn about the structure of vector data, and how to load vector datasets
into a map.

3.1.1 Follow Along: Viewing Layer Attributes

It’s important to know that the data you will be working with does not only represent where objects
are in space, but also tells you what those objects are.
From the previous exercise, you should have the rivers layer loaded in your map. The lines that you can
see right now are merely the position of the rivers: this is the spatial data.

To see all the available data in the rivers layer, select it in the Layers panel and click the button.
It will show you a table with more data about the rivers layer. This is the layer’s Attribute table. A row
is called a record, and represents a river feature. A column is called a field, and represents a property of
the river. Cells show attributes.

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These definitions are commonly used in GIS, so it’s essential to remember them!
You may now close the attribute table.

3.1.2 Try Yourself Exploring Vector Data Attributes

1. How many fields are available in the rivers layer?

2. Tell us a bit about the town places in your dataset.
Check your results

3.1.3 Follow Along: Loading Vector Data From GeoPackage Database

Databases allow you to store a large volume of associated data in one file. You may already be familiar
with a database management system (DBMS) such as Libreoffice Base or MS Access. GIS applications
can also make use of databases. GIS-specific DBMSes (such as PostGIS) have extra functions, because
they need to handle spatial data.
The GeoPackage open format is a container that allows you to store GIS data (layers) in a single file.
Unlike the ESRI Shapefile format (e.g. the roads.shp dataset you previously loaded that contains only
roads vector data), a single GeoPackage file can contain various data (both vector and/or and raster
data) in different coordinate reference systems, as well as tables without spatial information; all these
features allow you to share data easily and avoid file duplication.
In order to load a layer from a GeoPackage, you will first need to create the connection to it:

1. Click on the Open Data Source Manager button.

2. On the left click on the GeoPackage tab.

3. Click on the New button and browse to the training_data.gpkg file in the exercise_data folder
you downloaded before.

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4. Select the file and press Open. The file path is now added to the Geopackage connections list, and
appears in the drop-down menu.
You are now ready to add any layer from this GeoPackage to QGIS.
1. Click on the Connect button. In the central part of the window you should now see the list of all
the layers contained in the GeoPackage file.
2. Select the roads layer and click on the Add button.

A roads layer is added to the Layers panel with features displayed on the map canvas.
3. Click on Close.
Congratulations! You have loaded the first layer from a GeoPackage.

3.1.4 Follow Along: Loading Vector Data From a SpatiaLite Database with
the Browser

QGIS provides access to many other database formats. Like GeoPackage, the SpatiaLite database format
is an extension of the SQLite library. And adding a layer from a SpatiaLite provider follows the same
rules as described above: Create the connection –> Enable it –> Add the layer(s).
While this is one way to add SpatiaLite data to your map, let’s explore another powerful way to add
data: the Browser.

1. Click the icon to open the Data Source Manager window.

2. Click on the Browser tab.

3. In this tab you can see all the storage disks connected to your computer as well as entries for most
of the tabs in the left. These allow quick access to connected databases or folders.

For example, click on the drop-down icon next to the GeoPackage entry. You’ll see the
training-data.gpkg file we previously connected to (and its layers, if expanded).

4. Right-click the SpatiaLite entry and select New Connection. . . .

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5. Navigate to the exercise_data folder, select the landuse.sqlite file and click Open.

Notice that a landuse.sqlite entry has been added under the SpatiaLite one.

6. Expand the landuse.sqlite entry.

7. Double-click the landuse layer or select and drag-and-drop it onto the map canvas. A new layer
is added to the Layers panel and its features are displayed on the map canvas.

Tip: Enable the Browser panel in View → Panels → and use it to add your data. It’s a handy shortcut
for the Data Source Manager → Browser tab, with the same functionality.

Note: Remember to save your project frequently! The project file doesn’t contain any of the data itself,
but it remembers which layers you loaded into your map.

3.1.5 Try Yourself Load More Vector Data

Load the following datasets from the exercise_data folder into your map using any of the methods
explained above:

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ˆ buildings
ˆ water
Check your results

3.1.6 Follow Along: Reordering the Layers

The layers in your Layers list are drawn on the map in a certain order. The layer at the bottom of the
list is drawn first, and the layer at the top is drawn last. By changing the order that they are shown on
the list, you can change the order they are drawn in.

Note: You can alter this behavior using the Control rendering order checkbox beneath the Layer Order
panel. We will however not discuss this feature yet.

The order in which the layers have been loaded into the map is probably not logical at this stage. It’s
possible that the road layer is completely hidden because other layers are on top of it.
For example, this layer order. . .

. . . would result in roads and places being hidden as they run underneath urban areas.
To resolve this problem:
1. Click and drag on a layer in the Layers list.
2. Reorder them to look like this:

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You’ll see that the map now makes more sense visually, with roads and buildings appearing above the
land use regions.

3.1.7 In Conclusion

Now you’ve added all the layers you need from several different sources.

3.1.8 What’s Next?

Using the random palette automatically assigned when loading the layers, your current map is probably
not easy to read. It would be preferable to assign your own choice of colors and symbols. This is what
you’ll learn to do in the next lesson.

3.2 Lesson: Symbology

The symbology of a layer is its visual appearance on the map. The basic strength of GIS over other ways
of representing data with spatial aspects is that with GIS, you have a dynamic visual representation of
the data you’re working with.
Therefore, the visual appearance of the map (which depends on the symbology of the individual layers)
is very important. The end user of the maps you produce will need to be able to easily see what the map
represents. Equally as important, you need to be able to explore the data as you’re working with it, and
good symbology helps a lot.
In other words, having proper symbology is not a luxury or just nice to have. In fact, it’s essential for
you to use a GIS properly and produce maps and information that people will be able to use.
The goal for this lesson: To be able to create any symbology you want for any vector layer.

3.2.1 Follow Along: Changing Colors

To change a layer’s symbology, open its Layer Properties. Let’s begin by changing the color of the landuse
layer.
1. Right-click on the landuse layer in the layers list.
2. Select the menu item Properties. . . in the menu that appears.

Note: By default, you can also access a layer’s properties by double-clicking on the layer in the
Layers list.

Tip: The button at the top of the Layers panel will open the Layer Styling panel. You can use
this panel to change some properties of the layer: by default, changes will be applied immediately!

3. In the Layer Properties window, select the Symbology tab:

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4. Click the color select button next to the Color label. A standard color dialog will appear.
5. Choose a gray color and click OK.
6. Click OK again in the Layer Properties window, and you will see the color change being applied
to the layer.

3.2.2 Try Yourself

Change the color of the water layer to light blue. Try to use the Layer Styling panel instead of the Layer
Properties menu.
Check your results

3.2.3 Follow Along: Changing Symbol Structure

This is good stuff so far, but there’s more to a layer’s symbology than just its color. Next we want to
eliminate the lines between the different land use areas so as to make the map less visually cluttered.
1. Open the Layer Properties window for the landuse layer.

Under the Symbology tab, you will see the same kind of dialog as before. This time, however,
you’re doing more than just quickly changing the color.
2. In the symbol layers tree, expand the Fill dropdown and select the Simple fill option.
3. Click on the Stroke style dropdown. At the moment, it should be showing a short line and the
words Solid Line.

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4. Change this to No Pen.

5. Click OK.
Now the landuse layer won’t have any lines between areas.

3.2.4 Try Yourself

ˆ Change the water layer’s symbology again so that it has a darker blue outline.
ˆ Change the rivers layer’s symbology to a sensible representation of waterways.

Remember: you can use the Open the Layer Styling panel button and see all the changes instantly. That
panel also allows you to undo individual changes while symbolizing a layer.
Check your results

3.2.5 Follow Along: Scale-Based Visibility

Sometimes you will find that a layer is not suitable for a given scale. For example, a dataset of all the
continents may have low detail, and not be very accurate at street level. When that happens, you want
to be able to hide the dataset at inappropriate scales.
In our case, we may decide to hide the buildings from view at small scales. This map, for example. . .

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. . . is not very useful. The buildings are hard to distinguish at that scale.
To enable scale-based rendering:
1. Open the Layer Properties dialog for the buildings layer.

2. Activate the Rendering tab.

3. Enable scale-based rendering by clicking on the checkbox labeled Scale dependent visibility :
4. Change the Minimum value to 1:10000.

5. Click OK.
Test the effects of this by zooming in and out in your map, noting when the buildings layer disappears
and reappears.

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Note: You can use your mouse wheel to zoom in increments. Alternatively, use the zoom tools to zoom
to a window:

3.2.6 Follow Along: Adding Symbol Layers

Now that you know how to change simple symbology for layers, the next step is to create more complex
symbology. QGIS allows you to do this using symbol layers.
1. Go back to the landuse layer’s symbol properties panel (by clicking Simple fill in the symbol layers
tree).
In this example, the current symbol has no outline (i.e., it uses the No Pen border style).

2. Select the Fill level in the tree and click the Add symbol layer button. The dialog will change to
look something like this, with a new symbol layer added:

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It may appear somewhat different in color, for example, but you’re going to change that anyway.
Now there’s a second symbol layer. Being a solid color, it will of course completely hide the previous
kind of symbol. Plus, it has a Solid Line border style, which we don’t want. Clearly this symbol has to
be changed.

Note: It’s important not to get confused between a map layer and a symbol layer. A map layer is
a vector (or raster) that has been loaded into the map. A symbol layer is part of the symbol used to
represent a map layer. This course will usually refer to a map layer as just a layer, but a symbol layer
will always be called a symbol layer, to prevent confusion.

With the new Simple Fill symbol layer selected:

1. Set the border style to No Pen, as before.
2. Change the fill style to something other than Solid or No brush. For example:

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3. Click OK.
Now you can see your results and tweak them as needed. You can even add multiple extra symbol layers
and create a kind of texture for your layer that way.

It’s fun! But it probably has too many colors to use in a real map. . .

3.2.7 Try Yourself

Remembering to zoom in if necessary, create a simple, but not distracting texture for the buildings layer
using the methods above.
Check your results

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3.2.8 Follow Along: Ordering Symbol Levels

When symbol layers are rendered, they are also rendered in a sequence, similar to the way the different
map layers are rendered. This means that in some cases, having many symbol layers in one symbol can
cause unexpected results.
1. Give the roads layer an extra symbol layer (using the method for adding symbol layers demonstrated
above).
2. Give the base line a Stroke width of 1.5 and a black color.
3. Give the new, uppermost layer a thickness of 0.8 and a white color.
You’ll notice that this happens:

Well, roads have now a street like symbology, but you see that lines are overlapping each others at each
cross. That’s not what we want at all!
To prevent this from happening, you can sort the symbol levels and thereby control the order in which
the different symbol layers are rendered.
To change the order of the symbol layers:
1. Select the topmost Line layer in the symbol layers tree.
2. Click Advanced → Symbol levels. . . in the bottom right-hand corner of the window.

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This will open a dialog like this:

3. Check Enable symbol levels. You can then set the layer order of each symbol by entering the
corresponding level number. 0 is the bottom layer.
In our case, we just want to activate the option, like this:

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This will render the white line above the thick black line borders:
4. Click OK twice to return to the map.
The map will now look like this:

When you’re done, remember to save the symbol itself so as not to lose your work if you change the
symbol again in the future. You can save your current symbol style by clicking the Save Style. . . button
at the bottom of the Layer Properties dialog. We will be using the QGIS QML Style File format.
Save your style in the solution/styles/better_roads.qml folder. You can load a previously saved
style at any time by clicking the Load Style. . . button. Before you change a style, keep in mind that any
unsaved style you are replacing will be lost.

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3.2.9 Try Yourself

Change the appearance of the roads layer again.

Make the roads narrow and yellow, with a thin, pale gray outline and a thin black line in the middle.
Remember that you may need to change the layer rendering order via the Advanced → Symbol levels. . .
dialog.

Check your results

3.2.10 Try Yourself

Symbol levels also work for classified layers (i.e., layers having multiple symbols). Since we haven’t
covered classification yet, you will work with some rudimentary pre-classified data.
1. Create a new map and add only the roads dataset.
2. Load the style file advanced_levels_demo.qml provided in exercise_data/styles.
3. Zoom in to the Swellendam area.
4. Using symbol layers, ensure that the outlines of layers flow into one another as per the image below:

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Check your results

3.2.11 Follow Along: Symbol layer types

In addition to setting fill colors and using predefined patterns, you can use different symbol layer types
entirely. The only type we’ve been using up to now was the Simple Fill type. The more advanced symbol
layer types allow you to customize your symbols even further.
Each type of vector (point, line and polygon) has its own set of symbol layer types. First we will look at
the types available for points.

Point Symbol Layer Types

1. Uncheck all the layers except for places.
2. Change the symbol properties for the places layer:

3. You can access the various symbol layer types by selecting the Simple marker layer in the symbol
layers tree, then click the Symbol layer type dropdown:

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4. Investigate the various options available to you, and choose a symbol with styling you think is
appropriate.
5. If in doubt, use a round Simple marker with a white border and pale green fill, with a Size of 3.00
and a Stroke width of 0.5.

Line Symbol Layer Types

To see the various options available for line data:
1. Change the Symbol layer type for the roads layer’s topmost symbol layer to Marker line :

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2. Select the Simple marker layer in the symbol layers tree. Change the symbol properties to match
this dialog:

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3. Select the Marker line layer and change the interval to 1.00:

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4. Ensure that the symbol levels are correct (via the Advanced → Symbol levels dialog we used earlier)
before applying the style.
Once you have applied the style, take a look at its results on the map. As you can see, these symbols
change direction along with the road but don’t always bend along with it. This is useful for some purposes,
but not for others. If you prefer, you can change the symbol layer in question back to the way it was
before.

Polygon Symbol Layer Types

To see the various options available for polygon data:
1. Change the Symbol layer type for the water layer, as before for the other layers.
2. Investigate what the different options on the list can do.
3. Choose one of them that you find suitable.
4. If in doubt, use the Point pattern fill with the following options:

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5. Add a new symbol layer with a normal Simple fill.

6. Make it the same light blue with a darker blue border.
7. Move it underneath the point pattern symbol layer with the Move down button:

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As a result, you have a textured symbol for the water layer, with the added benefit that you can change
the size, shape and distance of the individual dots that make up the texture.

3.2.12 Try Yourself

Apply a green transparent fill color to the protected_areas layer, and change the outline to look like this:

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Check your results

3.2.13 Follow Along: Geometry generator symbology

You can use the Geometry generator symbology with all layer types (points, lines and polygons). The
resulting symbol depends directly on the layer type.
Very briefly, the Geometry generator symbology allows you to run some spatial operations within the
symbology itself. For example you can run a real centroid spatial operation on a polygon layer without
creating a point layer.
Moreover, you have all the styling options to change the appearance of the resulting symbol.
Let’s give it a try!
1. Select the water layer.
2. Click on Simple fill and change the Symbol layer type to Geometry generator.

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3. Before to start writing the spatial query we have to choose the Geometry Type in output. In this
example we are going to create centroids for each feature, so change the Geometry Type to Point
/ Multipoint.
4. Now let’s write the query in the query panel:

centroid($geometry)

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5. When you click on OK you will see that the water layer is rendered as a point layer! We have just
run a spatial operation within the layer symbology itself, isn’t that amazing?

With the Geometry generator symbology you can really go over the edge of normal symbology.

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Try Yourself
Geometry generator are just another symbol level. Try to add another Simple fill underneath the
Geometry generator one.
Change also the appearance of the Simple marker of the Geometry generator symbology.
The final result should look like this:

Check your results

3.2.14 Follow Along: Creating a Custom SVG Fill

Note: To do this exercise, you will need to have the free vector editing software Inkscape installed.

1. Start the Inkscape program. You will see the following interface:

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You should find this familiar if you have used other vector image editing programs, like Corel.
First, we’ll change the canvas to a size appropriate for a small texture.
2. Click on the menu item File → Document Properties. This will give you the Document Properties
dialog.
3. Change the Units to px.
4. Change the Width and Height to 100.
5. Close the dialog when you are done.
6. Click on the menu item View → Zoom → Page to see the page you are working with.
7. Select the Circle tool:

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8. Click and drag on the page to draw an ellipse. To make the ellipse turn into a circle, hold the Ctrl
button while you’re drawing it.
9. Right-click on the circle you just created and open its Fill and Stroke options. You can modify its
rendering, such as:
(а) Change the Fill color to a somehow pale grey-blue,
(б) Assign to the border a darker color in Stroke paint tab,
(в) And reduce the border thickness under Stroke style tab.

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10. Draw a line using the Pencil tool:

(а) Click once to start the line. Hold Ctrl to make it snap to increments of 15 degrees.
(б) Move the pointer horizontally and place a point with a simple click.
(в) Click and snap to the vertex of the line and trace a vertical line, ended by a simple click.
(г) Now join the two end vertices.
(д) Change the color and width of the triangle symbol to match the circle’s stroke and move it
around as necessary, so that you end up with a symbol like this one:

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11. If the symbol you get satisfies you, then save it as landuse_symbol under the directory that the
course is in, under exercise_data/symbols, as SVG file.
In QGIS:
1. Open the Layer Properties for the landuse layer.

2. In the Symbology tab, change the symbol structure by changing the Symbol Layer Type to
SVG Fill‘‘‘ shown below.
3. Click the . . . button and then Select File. . . to select your SVG image.
It’s added to the symbol tree and you can now customize its different characteristics (colors, angle,
effects, units. . . ).

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Once you validate the dialog, features in landuse layer should now be covered by a set of symbols, showing
a texture like the one on the following map. If textures are not visible, you may need to zoom in the map
canvas or set in the layer properties a bigger Texture width.

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3.2.15 In Conclusion

Changing the symbology for the different layers has transformed a collection of vector files into a legible
map. Not only can you see what’s happening, it’s even nice to look at!

3.2.16 Further Reading

Examples of Beautiful Maps

3.2.17 What’s Next?

Changing symbols for whole layers is useful, but the information contained within each layer is not yet
available to someone reading these maps. What are the streets called? Which administrative regions do
certain areas belong to? What are the relative surface areas of the farms? All of this information is still
hidden. The next lesson will explain how to represent this data on your map.

Note: Did you remember to save your map recently?

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Module: Classifying Vector Data

Classifying vector data allows you to assign different symbols to features (different objects in the same
layer), depending on their attributes. This allows someone who uses the map to easily see the attributes
of various features.

4.1 Lesson: Attribute Data

Up to now, none of the changes we have made to the map have been influenced by the objects that are
being shown. In other words, all the land use areas look alike, and all the roads look alike. When looking
at the map, the viewers don’t know anything about the roads they are seeing; only that there is a road
of a certain shape in a certain area.
But the whole strength of GIS is that all the objects that are visible on the map also have attributes.
Maps in a GIS aren’t just pictures. They represent not only objects in locations, but also information
about those objects.
The goal of this lesson: To explore the attribute data of an object and understand what the various
data can be useful for.

4.1.1 Follow Along: Attribute data

Open the attribute table for the places layer (refer back to the section Lesson: Working with Vector Data
if necessary). Which field would be the most useful to represent in label form, and why?
Check your results

4.1.2 In Conclusion

You now know how to use the attribute table to see what is actually in the data you’re using. Any dataset
will only be useful to you if it has the attributes that you care about. If you know which attributes you
need, you can quickly decide if you’re able to use a given dataset, or if you need to look for another one
that has the required attribute data.

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4.1.3 What’s Next?

Different attributes are useful for different purposes. Some of them can be represented directly as text
for the map user to see. You’ll learn how to do this in the next lesson.

4.2 Lesson: The Label Tool

Labels can be added to a map to show any information about an object. Any vector layer can have labels
associated with it. These labels rely on the attribute data of a layer for their content.

Note: The Layer Properties dialog does have a Labels tab, which now offers the same functionality, but
for this example we’ll use the Label tool, accessed via a toolbar button.

The goal for this lesson: To apply useful and good-looking labels to a layer.

4.2.1 Follow Along: Using Labels

Before being able to access the Label tool, you will need to ensure that it has been activated.
ˆ Go to the menu item View → Toolbars.
ˆ Ensure that the Label item has a check mark next to it. If it doesn’t, click on the Label item, and
it will be activated.
ˆ Click on the places layer in the Layers panel, so that it is highlighted.
ˆ Click on the following toolbar button:
This gives you the Layer labeling settings dialog.
ˆ Check the box next to Label this layer with. . . .
You’ll need to choose which field in the attributes will be used for the labels. In the previous lesson, you
decided that the NAME field was the most suitable one for this purpose.
ˆ Select name from the list:

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ˆ Click OK.
The map should now have labels like this:

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4.2.2 Follow Along: Changing Label Options

Depending on the styles you chose for your map in earlier lessons, you’ll might find that the labels are
not appropriately formatted and either overlap or are too far away from their point markers.
ˆ Open the Label tool again by clicking on its button as before.
ˆ Make sure Text is selected in the left-hand options list, then update the text formatting options to
match those shown here:

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That’s the font problem solved! Now let’s look at the problem of the labels overlapping the points, but
before we do that, let’s take a look at the Buffer option.
ˆ Open the Label tool dialog.
ˆ Select Buffer from the left-hand options list.
ˆ Select the checkbox next to Draw text buffer, then choose options to match those shown here:

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ˆ Click Apply.
You’ll see that this adds a colored buffer or border to the place labels, making them easier to pick out
on the map:

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Now we can address the positioning of the labels in relation to their point markers.
ˆ In the Label tool dialog, go to the Placement tab.
ˆ Change the value of Distance to 2mm and make sure that Around point is selected:

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ˆ Click Apply.
You’ll see that the labels are no longer overlapping their point markers.

4.2.3 Follow Along: Using Labels Instead of Layer Symbology

In many cases, the location of a point doesn’t need to be very specific. For example, most of the points
in the places layer refer to entire towns or suburbs, and the specific point associated with such features is
not that specific on a large scale. In fact, giving a point that is too specific is often confusing for someone
reading a map.
To name an example: on a map of the world, the point given for the European Union may be somewhere
in Poland, for instance. To someone reading the map, seeing a point labeled European Union in Poland,
it may seem that the capital of the European Union is therefore in Poland.
So, to prevent this kind of misunderstanding, it’s often useful to deactivate the point symbols and replace
them completely with labels.
In QGIS, you can do this by changing the position of the labels to be rendered directly over the points
they refer to.
ˆ Open the Layer labeling settings dialog for the places layer.
ˆ Select the Placement option from the options list.
ˆ Click on the Offset from point button.

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This will reveal the Quadrant options which you can use to set the position of the label in relation to the
point marker. In this case, we want the label to be centered on the point, so choose the center quadrant:

ˆ Hide the point symbols by editing the layer style as usual, and setting the size of the Ellipse marker
width and height to 0:

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ˆ Click OK and you’ll see this result:

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If you were to zoom out on the map, you would see that some of the labels disappear at larger scales to
avoid overlapping. Sometimes this is what you want when dealing with datasets that have many points,
but at other times you will lose useful information this way. There is another possibility for handling
cases like this, which we’ll cover in a later exercise in this lesson.

4.2.4 Try Yourself Customize the Labels

ˆ Return the label and symbol settings to have a point marker and a label offset of 2.00mm. You may
like to adjust the styling of the point marker or labels at this stage.
Check your results
ˆ Set the map to the scale 1:100000. You can do this by typing it into the Scale box in the Status
Bar.
ˆ Modify your labels to be suitable for viewing at this scale.
Check your results

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4.2.5 Follow Along: Labeling Lines

Now that you know how labeling works, there’s an additional problem. Points and polygons are easy to
label, but what about lines? If you label them the same way as the points, your results would look like
this:

We will now reformat the roads layer labels so that they are easy to understand.
ˆ Hide the Places layer so that it doesn’t distract you.
ˆ Activate labels for the streets layer as before.
ˆ Set the font Size to 10 so that you can see more labels.
ˆ Zoom in on the Swellendam town area.
ˆ In the Label tool dialog’s Advanced tab, choose the following settings:

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You’ll probably find that the text styling has used default values and the labels are consequently very
hard to read. Set the label text format to have a dark-grey or black Color and a light-yellow buffer.
The map will look somewhat like this, depending on scale:

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You’ll see that some of the road names appear more than once and that’s not always necessary. To
prevent this from happening:
ˆ In the Label labelling settings dialog, choose the Rendering option and select the Merge connected
lines to avoid duplicate labels :

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ˆ Click OK
Another useful function is to prevent labels being drawn for features too short to be of notice.
ˆ In the same Rendering panel, set the value of Suppress labeling of features smaller than . . . to 5mm
and note the results when you click Apply.
Try out different Placement settings as well. As we’ve seen before, the horizontal option is not a good
idea in this case, so let’s try the curved option instead.
ˆ Select the Curved option in the Placement panel of the Layer labeling settings dialog.
Here’s the result:

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As you can see, this hides a lot of the labels that were previously visible, because of the difficulty of
making some of them follow twisting street lines and still be legible. You can decide which of these
options to use, depending on what you think seems more useful or what looks better.

4.2.6 Follow Along: Data Defined Settings

ˆ Deactivate labeling for the Streets layer.

ˆ Reactivate labeling for the Places layer.

ˆ Open the attribute table for Places via the button.

It has one fields which is of interest to us now: place which defines the type of urban area for each
object. We can use this data to influence the label styles.
ˆ Navigate to the Text panel in the places Labels panel.
ˆ In the Italic dropdown, select Edit... to open the Expression string builder :

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In the text input, type: "place- 'town' and click Ok twice:

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Notice its effects:

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4.2.7 Try Yourself Using Data Defined Settings

Note: We’re jumping ahead a bit here to demonstrate some advanced labeling settings. At the advanced
level, it’s assumed that you’ll know what the following means. If you don’t, feel free to leave out this
section and come back later when you’ve covered the requisite materials.

ˆ Open the Attribute Table for places.

ˆ Enter edit mode by clicking this button:

ˆ Add a new column:

ˆ Configure it like this:

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ˆ Use this to set custom font sizes for each different type of place (i.e., each key in the PLACE field).
Check your results

4.2.8 Further Possibilities With Labeling

We can’t cover every option in this course, but be aware that the Label tool has many other useful
functions. You can set scale-based rendering, alter the rendering priority for labels in a layer, and set
every label option using layer attributes. You can even set the rotation, XY position, and other properties
of a label (if you have attribute fields allocated for the purpose), then edit these properties using the
tools adjacent to the main Label tool :

(These tools will be active if the required attribute fields exist and you are in edit mode.)
Feel free to explore more possibilities of the labeling system.

4.2.9 In Conclusion

You’ve learned how to use layer attributes to create dynamic labels. This can make your map a lot more
informative and stylish!

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4.2.10 What’s Next?

Now that you know how attributes can make a visual difference for your map, how about using them to
change the symbology of objects themselves? That’s the topic for the next lesson!

4.3 Lesson: Classification

Labels are a good way to communicate information such as the names of individual places, but they
can’t be used for everything. For example, let’s say that someone wants to know what each landuse area
is used for. Using labels, you’d get this:

This makes the map’s labeling difficult to read and even overwhelming if there are numerous different
landuse areas on the map.
The goal for this lesson: To learn how to classify vector data effectively.

4.3.1 Follow Along: Classifying Nominal Data

ˆ Open the Layer Properties dialog for the landuse layer.

ˆ Go to the Symbology tab.
ˆ Click on the dropdown that says Single Symbol and change it to Categorized :

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ˆ In the new panel, change the Column to landuse and the Color ramp to Greens.
ˆ Click the button labeled Classify :

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ˆ Click OK.
You’ll see something like this:

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ˆ Click the arrow (or plus sign) next to landuse in the Layer list, you’ll see the categories explained:

Now our landuse polygons are appropriately colored and are classified so that areas with the same land
use are the same color. You may wish to remove the black border from the landuse layer:

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ˆ Open Layer Properties, go to the Symbology tab and select Symbol.

ˆ Change the symbol by removing the border from the Simple Fill layer and click OK.
You’ll see that the landuse polygon outlines have been removed, leaving just our new fill colours for each
categorisation.
ˆ If you wish to, you can change the fill color for each landuse area by double-clicking the relevant
color block:

Notice that there is one category that’s empty:

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This empty category is used to color any objects which do not have a landuse value defined or which
have a NULL value. It is important to keep this empty category so that areas with a NULL value are
still represented on the map. You may like to change the color to more obviously represent a blank or
NULL value.
Remember to save your map now so that you don’t lose all your hard-earned changes!

4.3.2 Try Yourself More Classification

If you’re only following the basic-level content, use the knowledge you gained above to classify the
buildings layer. Set the categorisation against the building column and use the Spectral color ramp.

Note: Remember to zoom into an urban area to see the results.

4.3.3 Follow Along: Ratio Classification

There are four types of classification: nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio.

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In nominal classification, the categories that objects are classified into are name-based; they have no
order. For example: town names, district codes, etc.
In ordinal classification, the categories are arranged in a certain order. For example, world cities are
given a rank depending on their importance for world trade, travel, culture, etc.
In interval classification, the numbers are on a scale with positive, negative and zero values. For example:
height above/below sea level, temperature above/below freezing (0 degrees Celsius), etc.
In ratio classification, the numbers are on a scale with only positive and zero values. For example:
temperature above absolute zero (0 degrees Kelvin), distance from a point, the average amount of traffic
on a given street per month, etc.
In the example above, we used nominal classification to assign each farm to the town that it is
administered by. Now we will use ratio classification to classify the farms by area.
ˆ Save your landuse symbology (if you want to keep it) by clicking on the Save Style . . . button in
the Style drop-down menu.
We’re going to reclassify the layer, so existing classes will be lost if not saved.
ˆ Close the Layer Properties dialog.
ˆ Open the Attributes Table for the landuse layer.
We want to classify the landuse areas by size, but there’s a problem: they don’t have a size field, so we’ll
have to make one.
ˆ Enter edit mode by clicking this button:

ˆ Add a new column with this button:

ˆ Set up the dialog that appears, like this:

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ˆ Click OK.
The new field will be added (at the far right of the table; you may need to scroll horizontally to see it).
However, at the moment it is not populated, it just has a lot of NULL values.
To solve this problem, we’ll need to calculate the areas.
ˆ Open the field calculator:

You’ll get this dialog:

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ˆ Change the values at the top of the dialog to look like this:

ˆ In the Function List, select Geometry → $area :

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ˆ Double-click on it so that it appears in the Expression field.

ˆ Click OK.
Now your AREA field is populated with values (you may need to click the column header to refresh the
data). Save the edits and click Ok.

Note: These areas are in degrees. Later, we will compute them in square meters.

ˆ Open the Layer properties dialog’s Symbology tab.

ˆ Change the classification style from Categorized to Graduated.
ˆ Change the Column to AREA:
ˆ Under Color ramp, choose the option New color ramp. . . to get this dialog:

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ˆ Choose Gradient (if it’s not selected already) and click OK. You’ll see this:

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You’ll be using this to denote area, with small areas as Color 1 and large areas as Color 2.
ˆ Choose appropriate colors.
In the example, the result looks like this:

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ˆ Click OK.
ˆ Choose a suitable name for the new color ramp.
ˆ Click OK after filling in the name.
Now you’ll have something like this:

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Leave everything else as-is.

ˆ Click Ok :

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4.3.4 Try Yourself Refine the Classification

ˆ Get rid of the lines between the classes.

ˆ Change the values of Mode and Classes until you get a classification that makes sense.
Check your results

4.3.5 Follow Along: Rule-based Classification

It’s often useful to combine multiple criteria for a classification, but unfortunately normal classification
only takes one attribute into account. That’s where rule-based classification comes in handy.
ˆ Open the Layer Properties dialog for the landuse layer.
ˆ Switch to the Symbology tab.
ˆ Switch the classification style to Rule-based. You’ll get this:

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ˆ Click the Add rule button: .

ˆ A new dialog then appears.
ˆ Click the ellipsis . . . button next to the Filter text area.
ˆ Using the query builder that appears, enter the criterion "landuse- 'residential' AND "name"!
= ' |majorUrbanName| ' , click Ok and choose a pale blue-grey for it and remove the border:

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ˆ Add a new criterion "landuse"!= 'residential' AND "AREA">= 0.00005 and choose a mid-
green color.
ˆ Add another new criterion "name- ' |majorUrbanName| ' and assign it a darker grey-blue color
in order to indicate the town’s importance in the region.
ˆ Click and drag this criterion to the top of the list.
These filters are exclusive, in that they collectively exclude some areas on the map (i.e. those which
are smaller that 0.00005, are not residential and are not Swellendam‘). This means that the excluded
’
polygons take the style of the default (no filter) category.
We know that the excluded polygons on our map cannot be residential areas, so give the default category
a suitable pale green color.
Your dialog should now look like this:

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ˆ Apply this symbology.

Your map will look something like this:

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Now you have a map with Swellendam the most prominent residential area and other non-residential
areas colored according to their size.

4.3.6 In Conclusion

Symbology allows us to represent the attributes of a layer in an easy-to-read way. It allows us as well as
the map reader to understand the significance of features, using any relevant attributes that we choose.
Depending on the problems you face, you’ll apply different classification techniques to solve them.

4.3.7 What’s Next?

Now we have a nice-looking map, but how are we going to get it out of QGIS and into a format we can
print out, or make into an image or PDF? That’s the topic of the next lesson!

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Module: Creating Maps

In this module, you’ll learn how to use the QGIS print layout to produce quality maps with all the
requisite map components.

5.1 Lesson: Using Print Layout

Now that you’ve got a map, you need to be able to print it or to export it to a document. The reason is,
a GIS map file is not an image. Rather, it saves the state of the GIS program, with references to all the
layers, their labels, colors, etc. So for someone who doesn’t have the data or the same GIS program (such
as QGIS), the map file will be useless. Luckily, QGIS can export its map file to a format that anyone’s
computer can read, as well as printing out the map if you have a printer connected. Both exporting and
printing is handled via the print layout.
The goal for this lesson: To use the QGIS print layout to create a basic map with all the required
settings.

5.1.1 Follow Along: The Layout Manager

QGIS allows you to create multiple maps using the same map file. For this reason, it has a tool called
the Layout Manager.
ˆ Click on the Project → Layout Manager menu entry to open this tool. You’ll see a blank Layout
manager dialog appear.
ˆ Click the Add button and give the new layout the name of Swellendam.
ˆ Click OK.
ˆ Click the Show button.
(You could also close the dialog and navigate to a layout via the Project → Layouts → menu, as in the
image below.)

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Whichever route you take to get there, you will now see the Print Layout window:

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5.1.2 Follow Along: Basic Map Composition

In this example, the composition was already the way we wanted it. Ensure that yours is as well.
ˆ In the Print Layout window, check that the values under Composition → Paper and Quality are
set to the following:
ˆ Size : A4 (210x297mm)
ˆ Orientation : Landscape
ˆ Quality : 300dpi
Now you’ve got the page layout the way you wanted it, but this page is still blank. It clearly lacks a
map. Let’s fix that!

ˆ Click on the Add New Map button:

With this tool activated, you’ll be able to place a map on the page.
ˆ Click and drag a box on the blank page:

The map will appear on the page.

ˆ Move the map by clicking and dragging it around:

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ˆ Resize it by clicking and dragging the boxes in the corners:

Note: Your map may look a lot different, of course! This depends on how your own project is set up.
But not to worry! These instructions are general, so they will work the same regardless of what the map
itself looks like.

ˆ Be sure to leave margins along the edges, and a space along the top for the title.
ˆ Zoom in and out on the page (but not the map!) by using these buttons:

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ˆ Zoom and pan the map in the main QGIS window. You can also pan the map using the Move item
content tool:
When zooming in, the map view will not refresh by itself. This is so that it doesn’t waste your time
redrawing the map while you’re zooming the page to where you want it, but it also means that if you
zoom in or out, the map will be at the wrong resolution and will look ugly or unreadable.
ˆ Force the map to refresh by clicking this button:

Remember that the size and position you’ve given the map doesn’t need to be final. You can always
come back and change it later if you’re not satisfied. For now, you need to ensure that you’ve saved your
work on this map. Because a Layout in QGIS is part of the main map file, you’ll need to save your main
project. Go to the main QGIS window (the one with the Layers panel and all the other familiar elements
you were working with before), and save your project from there as usual.

5.1.3 Follow Along: Adding a Title

Now your map is looking good on the page, but your readers/users are not being told what’s going on
yet. They need some context, which is what you’ll provide for them by adding map elements. First, let’s
add a title.

ˆ Click on this button:

ˆ Click on the page, above the map, and a label will appear at the top of the map.
ˆ Resize it and place it in the top center of the page. It can be resized and moved in the same way
that you resized and moved the map.
As you move the title, you’ll notice that guidelines appear to help you position the title in the center of
the page.
However, there is also a tool to help position the title relative to the map (not the page):

ˆ Click the map to select it.

ˆ Hold in Shift on your keyboard and click on the label so that both the map and the label are
selected.

ˆ Look for the Align button and click on the dropdown arrow next to it to reveal the positioning
options and click Align center :

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To make sure that you don’t accidentally move these elements around now that you’ve aligned them:
ˆ Right-click on both the map and the label.
A small lock icon will appear in the corner to tell you that an element can’t be dragged right now. You
can always right-click on an element again to unlock it, though.
Now the label is centered to the map, but not the contents. To center the contents of the label:
ˆ Select the label by clicking on it.
ˆ Click on the Item Properties tab in the side panel of the Layout window.
ˆ Change the text of the label to „Swellendam“:
ˆ Use this interface to set the font and alignment options:

ˆ Choose a large but sensible font (the example will use the default font with a size of 36) and set
the Horizontal Alignment to Center.
You can also change the font color, but it’s probably best to keep it black as per the default.

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The default setting is not to add a frame to the title’s text box. However, if you wish to add a frame,
you can do so:
ˆ In the Item Properties tab, scroll down until you see the Frame option.
ˆ Click the Frame checkbox to enable the frame. You can also change the frame’s color and width.
In this example, we won’t enable the frame, so here is our page so far:

5.1.4 Follow Along: Adding a Legend

The map reader also needs to be able to see what various things on the map actually mean. In some
cases, like the place names, this is quite obvious. In other cases, it’s more difficult to guess, like the colors
of the farms. Let’s add a new legend.

ˆ Click on this button:

ˆ Click on the page to place the legend, and move it to where you want it:

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5.1.5 Follow Along: Customizing Legend Items

Not everything on the legend is necessary, so let’s remove some unwanted items.
ˆ In the Item Properties tab, you’ll find the Legend items panel.
ˆ Select the buildings entry.

ˆ Delete it from the legend by clicking the minus button:

You can also rename items.
ˆ Select a layer from the same list.

ˆ Click the Edit button:

ˆ Rename the layers to Places, Roads and Streets, Surafce Water, and Rivers.
ˆ Set landuse to Hidden, then click the down arrow and edit each category to name them on the
legend. You can also reorder the items:

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As the legend will likely be widened by the new layer names, you may wish to move and resize the legend
and or map. This is the result:

5.1.6 Follow Along: Exporting Your Map

Note: Did you remember to save your work often?

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Finally the map is ready for export! You’ll see the export buttons near the top left corner of the Layout
window:

The button on the left is the Print button, which interfaces with a printer. Since the printer options will
differ depending on the model of printer that you’re working with, it’s probably better to consult the
printer manual or a general guide to printing for more information on this topic.
The other three buttons allow you to export the map page to a file. There are three export formats to
choose from:
ˆ Export as Image
ˆ Export as SVG
ˆ Export as PDF
Exporting as an image will give you a selection of various common image formats to choose from. This
is probably the simplest option, but the image it creates is „dead“ and difficult to edit.
The other two options are more common.
If you’re sending the map to a cartographer (who may want to edit the map for publication), it’s best
to export as an SVG. SVG stands for „Scalable Vector Graphic“, and can be imported to programs like
Inkscape or other vector image editing software.
If you need to send the map to a client, it’s most common to use a PDF, because it’s easier to set up
printing options for a PDF. Some cartographers may prefer PDF as well, if they have a program that
allows them to import and edit this format.
For our purposes, we’re going to use PDF.

ˆ Click the Export as PDF button:

ˆ Choose a save location and a file name as usual.
ˆ Click Save.

5.1.7 In Conclusion

ˆ Close the Layout window.

ˆ Save your map.
ˆ Find your exported PDF using your operating system’s file manager.
ˆ Open it.
ˆ Bask in its glory.
Congratulations on your first completed QGIS map project!

5.1.8 What’s Next?

On the next page, you will be given an assignment to complete. This will allow you to practice the
techniques you have learned so far.

5.2 Assignment 1
Open your existing map project and revise it thoroughly. If you have noticed small errors or things you’d
have liked to fix earlier, do so now.

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While customizing your map, keep asking yourself questions. Is this map easy to read and understand
for someone who’s unfamiliar with the data? If I saw this map on the Internet, or on a poster, or in a
magazine, would it capture my attention? Would I want to read this map if it wasn’t mine?

If you’re doing this course at a Basic or Intermediate level, read up on techniques from the
more advanced sections. If you see something you’d like to do in your map, why not try to implement
it?
If this course is being presented to you, the course presenter may require you to submit a final version
of your map, exported to PDF, for evaluation. If you’re doing this course by yourself, it’s recommended
that you evaluate your own map using the same criteria. Your map will be evaluated on the overall
appearance and symbology of the map itself, as well as the appearance and layout of the map page and
elements. Remember that the emphasis for evaluating the appearance of maps will always be ease of use.
The nicer the map is to look at and the easier it is to understand at a glance, the better.
Happy customizing!

5.2.1 In Conclusion

The first four modules have taught you how to create and style a vector map. In the next four modules,
you’ll learn how to use QGIS for a complete GIS analysis. This will include creating and editing vector
data; analyzing vector data; using and analyzing raster data; and using GIS to solve a problem from
start to finish, using both raster and vector data sources.

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Module: Creating Vector Data

Creating maps using existing data is just the beginning. In this module, you’ll learn how to modify
existing vector data and create new datasets entirely.

6.1 Lesson: Creating a New Vector Dataset

The data that you use has to come from somewhere. For most common applications, the data exists
already; but the more particular and specialized the project, the less likely it is that the data will already
be available. In such cases, you’ll need to create your own new data.
The goal for this lesson: To create a new vector dataset.

6.1.1 Follow Along: The Layer Creation Dialog

Before you can add new vector data, you need a vector dataset to add it to. In our case, you’ll begin by
creating new data entirely, rather than editing an existing dataset. Therefore, you’ll need to define your
own new dataset first.
You’ll need to open a Create Layer dialog that will allow you to define a new layer.
ˆ Navigate to and click on the menu entry Layer → Create Layer → New Shapefile Layer.
You’ll be presented with the following dialog:

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It’s important to decide which kind of dataset you want at this stage. Each different vector layer type is
„built differently“ in the background, so once you’ve created the layer, you can’t change its type.
For the next exercise, we’re going to be creating new features which describe areas. For such features,
you’ll need to create a polygon dataset.
ˆ Click on the Polygon radio button:

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This has no impact on the rest of the dialog, but it will cause the correct type of geometry to be used
when the vector dataset is created.
The next field allows you to specify the Coordinate Reference System, or CRS. A CRS specifies how to
describe a point on Earth in terms of coordinates, and because there are many different ways to do this,
there are many different CRSs. The CRS of this project is WGS84, so it’s already correct by default:

Next there is a collection of fields grouped under New attribute. By default, a new layer has only one
attribute, the id field (which you should see in the Attributes list ) below. However, in order for the data
you create to be useful, you actually need to say something about the features you’ll be creating in this
new layer. For our current purposes, it will be enough to add one field called name.
ˆ Replicate the setup below, then click the Add to attributes list button:

ˆ Check that your dialog now looks like this:

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ˆ Click OK. A save dialog will appear.

ˆ Navigate to the exercise_data directory.
ˆ Save your new layer as school_property.shp.
The new layer should appear in your Layers panel.

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6.1.2 Follow Along: Data Sources

When you create new data, it obviously has to be about objects that really exist on the ground. Therefore,
you’ll need to get your information from somewhere.
There are many different ways to obtain data about objects. For example, you could use a GPS to capture
points in the real world, then import the data into QGIS afterwards. Or you could survey points using
a theodolite, and enter the coordinates manually to create new features. Or you could use the digitizing
process to trace objects from remote sensing data, such as satellite imagery or aerial photography.
For our example, you’ll be using the digitizing approach. Sample raster datasets are provided, so you’ll
need to import them as necessary.

ˆ Click on the Add Raster Layer button:

ˆ Navigate to exercise_data/raster/.
ˆ Select the file 3420C_2010_327_RGB_LATLNG.tif.
ˆ Click Open. An image will load into your map.
ˆ Find the new image in the Layers panel.
ˆ Click and drag it to the bottom of the list so that you can still see your other layers.
ˆ Find and zoom to this area:

Note: If your buildings layer symbology is covering part or all of the raster layer, you can temporarily
disable the layer by deselecting it in the Layers panel. You may also wish to hide the roads symbology
if you find it distracting.

You’ll be digitizing these three fields:

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In order to begin digitizing, you’ll need to enter edit mode. GIS software commonly requires this
to prevent you from accidentally editing or deleting important data. Edit mode is switched on or off
individually for each layer.
To enter edit mode for the school_property layer:
ˆ Click on the layer in the Layer list to select it. (Make very sure that the correct layer is selected,
otherwise you’ll edit the wrong layer!)

ˆ Click on the Toggle Editing button:

If you can’t find this button, check that the Digitizing toolbar is enabled. There should be a check mark
next to the View → Toolbars → Digitizing menu entry.
As soon as you are in edit mode, you’ll see the digitizing tools are now active:

Four other relevant buttons are still inactive, but will become active when we start interacting with our
new data:

From left to right on the toolbar, they are:

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ˆ Save Edits : saves changes made to the layer.

ˆ Add Feature : start digitizing a new feature.
ˆ Move Feature(s) : move an entire feature around.
ˆ Node Tool : move only one part of a feature.
ˆ Delete Selected : delete the selected feature.
ˆ Cut Features : cut the selected feature.
ˆ Copy Features : copy the selected feature.
ˆ Paste Features : paste a cut or copied feature back into the map.
You want to add a new feature.
ˆ Click on the Add Feature button now to begin digitizing our school fields.
You’ll notice that your mouse cursor has become a crosshair. This allows you to more accurately place
the points you’ll be digitizing. Remember that even as you’re using the digitizing tool, you can zoom in
and out on your map by rolling the mouse wheel, and you can pan around by holding down the mouse
wheel and dragging around in the map.
The first feature you’ll be digitizing is the athletics field:

ˆ Start digitizing by clicking on a point somewhere along the edge of the field.
ˆ Place more points by clicking further along the edge, until the shape you’re drawing completely
covers the field.
ˆ After placing your last point, right-click to finish drawing the polygon. This will finalize the feature
and show you the Attributes dialog.
ˆ Fill in the values as below:

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ˆ Click OK and you’ve created a new feature!

Remember, if you’ve made a mistake while digitizing a feature, you can always edit it after you’re done
creating it. If you’ve made a mistake, continue digitizing until you’re done creating the feature as above.
Then:
ˆ Select the feature with the Select Single Feature tool:

You can use:

ˆ the Move Feature(s) tool to move the entire feature,
ˆ the Node Tool to move only one point where you may have miss-clicked,

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ˆ Delete Selected to get rid of the feature entirely so you can try again, and
ˆ the Edit → Undo menu item or the Ctrl+Z keyboard shortcut to undo mistakes.

6.1.3 Try Yourself

ˆ Digitize the school itself and the upper field. Use this image to assist you:

Remember that each new feature needs to have a unique id value!

Note: When you’re done adding features to a layer, remember to save your edits and then exit edit
mode.

Note: You can style the fill, outline and label placement and formatting of the school_property using
techniques learnt in earlier lessons. In our example, we will use a dashed outline of light purple color
with no fill.

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6.1.4 Try Yourself

ˆ Create a new line feature called routes.shp with attributes id and type. (Use the approach above
to guide you.)
ˆ We’re going to digitize two routes which are not already marked on the roads layer; one is a path,
the other is a track.
Our path runs along the southern edge of the suburb of Railton, starting and ending at marked roads:

Our track is a little further to the south:

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One at a time, digitize the path and the track on the routes layer. Try to follow the routes as accurately
as possible, using points (left-click) at any corners or turns.
When creating each route, give them the type attribute value of path or track.
You’ll probably find that only the points are marked; use the Layer Properties dialog to add styling to
your routes. Feel free to give different styles to the path and track.
Save your edits and toggle Edit mode.
Check your results

6.1.5 In Conclusion

Now you know how to create features! This course doesn’t cover adding point features, because that’s
not really necessary once you’ve worked with more complicated features (lines and polygons). It works
exactly the same, except that you only click once where you want the point to be, give it attributes as
usual, and then the feature is created.
Knowing how to digitize is important because it’s a very common activity in GIS programs.

6.1.6 What’s Next?

Features in a GIS layer aren’t just pictures, but objects in space. For example, adjacent polygons know
where they are in relation to one another. This is called topology. In the next lesson you’ll see an example
of why this can be useful.

6.2 Lesson: Feature Topology

Topology is a useful aspect of vector data layers, because it minimizes errors such as overlap or gaps.

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For example: if two features share a border, and you edit the border using topology, then you won’t need
to edit first one feature, then another, and carefully line up the borders so that they match. Instead, you
can edit their shared border and both features will change at the same time.
The goal for this lesson: To understand topology using examples.

6.2.1 Follow Along: Snapping

To make topological editing easier, it’s best if you enable snapping. This will allow your mouse cursor to
snap to other objects while you digitize. To set snapping options:
ˆ Navigate to the menu entry Project → Snapping Options. . . .
ˆ Set up your Snapping options dialog as shown:

ˆ Ensure that the box in the Avoid Int. column is checked (set to true).
ˆ Click OK to save your changes and leave the dialog.
ˆ Enter edit mode with the landuse layer selected.
ˆ Check under View → Toolbars to make sure that your Advanced Digitizing toolbar is enabled.
ˆ Zoom to this area (enable layers and labels if necessary):

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ˆ Digitize this new (fictional) area of the Bontebok National Park:

ˆ When prompted, give it a OGC_FID of 999, but feel free to leave the other values unchanged.
If you’re careful while digitizing and allow the cursor to snap to the vertices of adjoining farms, you’ll
notice that there won’t be any gaps between your new farm and the existing farms adjacent to it.
ˆ Note the undo/redo tools in the Advanced Digitizing toolbar:

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6.2.2 Follow Along: Correct Topological Features

Topology features can sometimes need to be updated. In our example, the landuse layer has some complex
forest areas which have recently been joined to form one area:

Instead of creating new polygons to join the forest areas, we’re going to use the Node Tool to edit the
existing polygons and join them.
ˆ Enter edit mode, if it isn’t active already.
ˆ Select the Node Tool.
ˆ Pick an area of forest, select a corner and move it to an adjoining corner so two forest sections
meet:

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ˆ Click and drag the nodes until they snap into place.

The topologically correct border looks like this:

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Go ahead and join a few more areas using the Node Tool. You can also use the Add Feature tool if it
is appropriate. If you are using our example data, you should have a forest area looking something like
this:

Don’t worry if you have joined more, less or different areas of forest.

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6.2.3 Follow Along: Tool: Simplify Feature

This is the Simplify Feature tool:

ˆ Click on it to activate it.

ˆ Click on one of the areas which you joined using either the Node Tool or Add Feature tool. You’ll
see this dialog:

ˆ Move the slider from side to side and watch what happens:

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This allows you to reduce the amount of nodes in complex features.

ˆ Click Ok
Notice what the tool does to the topology. The simplified polygon is now no longer touching the adjacent
polygons as it should. This shows that this tool is better suited to generalizing stand-alone features. The
advantage is that it provides you with a simple, intuitive interface for generalization.
Before you go on, set the polygon back to its original state by undoing the last change.

6.2.4 Try Yourself Tool: Add Ring

This is the Add Ring tool:

It allows you to take a hole out of a feature, as long as the hole is bounded on all side by the feature.
For example, if you’ve digitized the outer boundaries of South Africa and you need to add a hole for
Lesotho, you’d use this tool.
If you experiment with this tool, you’ll notice that the current snapping options prevent you from creating
a ring in the middle of the polygon. This would be fine if the area you wished to exclude linked to the
polygon’s boundaries.
ˆ Disable snapping for the landuse layer via the dialog you used earlier.
ˆ Now try using the Add Ring tool to create a gap in the middle of the Bontebok National Park.
ˆ Delete your new feature by using the Delete Ring tool:

Note: You need to select a corner of the ring in order to delete it.

Check your results

6.2.5 Try Yourself Tool: Add Part

This is the Add Part tool:

It allows you to create an extra part of the feature, not directly connected to the main feature. For
example, if you’ve digitized the boundaries of mainland South Africa but you haven’t yet added the
Prince Edward Islands, you’d use this tool to create them.
ˆ To use this tool, you must first select the polygon to which you wish to add the part by using the
Select Features by area or single click tool:

ˆ Now try using the Add Part tool to add an outlying area to the Bontebok National Park.
ˆ Delete your new feature by using the Delete Part tool:

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Note: You need to select a corner of the part in order to delete it.

Check your results

6.2.6 Follow Along: Tool: Reshape Features

This is the Reshape Features tool:

It can add a bump to an existing feature. With this tool selected:

ˆ Left-click inside the Bontebok National Park to start drawing a polygon.
ˆ Draw a polygon with three corners, the last of which should be back inside the original polygon,
forming an open-sided rectangle.
ˆ Right-click to finish marking points:

This will give a result similar to:

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You can do the opposite, too:

ˆ Click outside the polygon.
ˆ Draw a rectangle into the polygon.
ˆ Right-click outside the polygon again:

The result of the above:

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6.2.7 Try Yourself Tool: Split Features

The Split Features tool is similar to how you took part of the farm away, except that it doesn’t delete
either of the two parts. Instead, it keeps them both.

ˆ First, re-enable snapping for the landuse layer.

We will use the tool to split a corner from the Bontebok National Park.
ˆ Select the Split Features tool and click on a vertex to begin drawing a line. Click the vertex on the
opposite side of the corner you wish to split and right-click to complete the line:

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ˆ At this point, it may seem as if nothing has happened. But remember that your symbology for the
landuse layer does not have any border, so the new division line will not be shown.
ˆ Use the Select Single Feature tool to select the corner you just split; the new feature will now be
highlighted:

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6.2.8 Try Yourself Tool: Merge Features

Now we will re-join the feature you just created to the original polygon:
ˆ Experiment with the Merge Selected Features and Merge Attributes of Selected Features tools.
ˆ Note the differences.
Check your results

6.2.9 In Conclusion

Topology editing is a powerful tool that allows you to create and modify objects quickly and easily, while
ensuring that they remain topologically correct.

6.2.10 What’s Next?

Now you know how to digitize the shape of the objects easily, but adding in the attributes is still a bit of
a headache! Next we’ll show you how to use forms so that attribute editing is simpler and more effective.

6.3 Lesson: Forms

When you add new data via digitizing, you’re presented with a dialog that lets you fill in the attributes
for that feature. However, this dialog is not, by default, very nice to look at. This can cause a usability
problem, especially if you have large datasets to create, or if you want other people to help you digitize
and they find the default forms to be confusing.
Fortunately, QGIS lets you create your own custom dialogs for a layer. This lesson shows you how.
The goal for this lesson: To create a form for a layer.

6.3.1 Follow Along: Using QGIS‘ Form Design Functionality

ˆ Select the roads layer in the Layers panel.

ˆ Enter Edit Mode as before.
ˆ Open its Attribute Table.
ˆ Right-click on any cell in the table. A short menu will appear, with the only entry being Open
form.
ˆ Click on it to see the form that QGIS generates for this layer.
Obviously it would be nice to be able to do this while looking at the map, rather than needing to search
for a specific street in the Attribute Table all the time.
ˆ Select the roads layer in the Layers panel.
ˆ Using the Identify tool, click on any street in the map.

ˆ The Identify Results panel opens and shows in a tree view the fields values and other general
information about the clicked feature.
ˆ At the bottom of the panel, Check the Auto open form checkbox

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ˆ Now, click again on any street in the map. Along the previous Identify Results dialog, you’ll see
the now-familiar form:

ˆ Each time you click on a single feature with the Identify tool, its form pops-up unless the Auto
open form is unchecked.

6.3.2 Try Yourself Using the Form to Edit Values

If you are in edit mode, you can use this form to edit a feature’s attributes.
ˆ Activate edit mode (if it isn’t already activated).
ˆ Using the Identify tool, click on the main street running through Swellendam:

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ˆ Edit its highway value to be secondary.

ˆ Save your edits.
ˆ Exit edit mode.
ˆ Open the Attribute Table and note that the value has been updated in the attributes table and
therefore in the source data.

Note: If you’re using the default dataset, you’ll find that there is more than one road on this map called
Voortrek Street.

6.3.3 Follow Along: Setting Form Field Types

It’s nice to edit things using a form, but you still have to enter everything by hand. Fortunately, forms
have different kinds of so-called widgets that allow you to edit data in various different ways.
ˆ Open the roads layer’s Layer Properties.
ˆ Switch to the Fields tab. You’ll see this:

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ˆ Click on the Line edit button in the same row as man_made and you’ll be given a new dialog.
ˆ Select Checkbox in the list of options:

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ˆ Click OK.
ˆ Enter edit mode (if the roads layer is not already in edit mode.
ˆ Click on the Identify tool.
ˆ Click on the same main road you chose earlier.
You’ll now see that the man_made attribute has a checkbox next to it denoting True (checked) or False
(unchecked).

6.3.4 Try Yourself

Set a more appropriate form widget for the highway field.

Check your results

6.3.5 Try Yourself Creating Test Data

You can also design your own custom form completely from scratch.
ˆ Create a simple point layer named test-data with two attributes:
– Name (text)
– Age (text)

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ˆ Capture a few points on your new layer using the digitizing tools so that you have a little data to
play with. You should be presented with the default QGIS generated attribute capture form each
time you capture a new point.

Note: You may need to disable Snapping if still enabled from earlier tasks.

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6.3.6 Follow Along: Creating a New Form

Now we want to create our own custom form for the attribute data capture phase. To do this, you need
to have Qt4 Designer installed (only needed for the person who creates the forms). It should be provided
as part of your course materials, if you’re using Windows. You may need to look for it if you’re using
another OS. In Ubuntu, do the following in the terminal:

Note: At the time of writing, Qt5 is the latest version available. However, this process specifically
requires Qt4 and is not necessarily compatible with Qt5.

sudo apt-get install qt4-designer

. . . and it should install automatically. Otherwise, look for it in the Software Center.
ˆ Start Designer by opening its Start Menu entry in Windows (or whatever approach is appropriate
in your OS).
ˆ In the dialog that appears, create a new dialog:

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ˆ Look for the Widget Box along the left of your screen (default). It contains an item called Line
Edit.
ˆ Click and drag this item into your form. This creates a new Line Edit in the form.
ˆ With the new line edit element selected, you’ll see its properties along the side of your screen (on
the right by default):

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ˆ Set its name to Name.

ˆ Using the same approach, create a new spinbox and set its name to Age.
ˆ Add a Label with the text Add a New Person in a bold font (look in the object properties to find
out how to set this). Alternatively, you may want to set the title of the dialog itself (rather than
adding a label).
ˆ Click anywhere in your dialog.
ˆ Find the Lay Out Vertically button (in a toolbar along the top edge of the screen, by default). This
lays out your dialog automatically.
ˆ Set the dialog’s maximum size (in its properties) to 200 (width) by 100 (height).
ˆ Save your new form as exercise_data/forms/add_people.ui.
ˆ When it’s done saving, you can close the Qt4 Designer program.

6.3.7 Follow Along: Associating the Form with Your Layer

ˆ Go back to QGIS.
ˆ Double click the test-data layer in the legend to access its properties.
ˆ Click on the Fields tab in the Layer Properties dialog.
ˆ In the Attribute editor layout dropdown, select Provide ui-file.
ˆ Click the ellipsis button and choose the add_people.ui file you just created:

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ˆ Click OK on the Layer Properties dialog.

ˆ Enter edit mode and capture a new point.
ˆ When you do so, you will be presented with your custom dialog (instead of the generic one that
QGIS usually creates).
ˆ If you click on one of your points using the Identify tool, you can now bring up the form by right
clicking in the identify results window and choosing View Feature Form from the context menu.
ˆ If you are in edit mode for this layer, that context menu will show Edit Feature Form instead, and
you can then adjust the attributes in the new form even after initial capture.

6.3.8 In Conclusion

Using forms, you can make life easier for yourself when editing or creating data. By editing widget types
or creating an entirely new form from scratch, you can control the experience of someone who digitizes
new data for that layer, thereby minimizing misunderstandings and unnecessary errors.

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6.3.9 Further Reading

If you completed the advanced section above and have knowledge of Python, you may want to check out
this blog entry about creating custom feature forms with Python logic, which allows advanced functions
including data validation, autocompletion, etc.

6.3.10 What’s Next?

Opening a form on identifying a feature is one of the standard actions that QGIS can perform. However,
you can also direct it to perform custom actions that you define. This is the subject of the next lesson.

6.4 Lesson: Actions

Now that you’ve seen a default action in the previous lesson, it’s time to define your own actions. An
action is something that happens when you click on a feature. It can add a lot of extra functionality
to your map, allowing you to retrieve additional information about an object, for example. Assigning
actions can add a whole new dimension to your map!
The goal for this lesson: To learn how to add custom actions.

6.4.1 Follow Along: Open an Image

Use the school_property layer you created previously. The course materials include photos of each of the
three properties you digitized. What we’re going to do next is to associate each property with its image.
Then we’ll create an action that will open the image for a property when clicking on the property.

6.4.2 Follow Along: Add a Field for Images

The school_property layer has no way to associate an image with a property yet. First we’ll create a
field for this purpose.
ˆ Open the Layer Properties dialog.
ˆ Click on the Fields tab.
ˆ Toggle editing mode:

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ˆ Add a new column:

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ˆ Enter the values below:

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ˆ After the field has been created, click on the Line edit button next to the new field.
ˆ Set it up for a File name :

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ˆ Click OK on the Layer Properties dialog.

ˆ Use the Identify tool to click on one of the three features in the school_property layer.
Since you’re still in edit mode, the dialog should be active and look like this:

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ˆ Click on the browse button (the . . . next to the image field).

ˆ Select the path for your image. The images are in exercise_data/school_property_photos/ and
are named the same as the features they should be associated with.
ˆ Click OK.
ˆ Associate all of the images with the correct features using this method.
ˆ Save your edits and exit edit mode.

6.4.3 Follow Along: Creating an Action

ˆ Open the Actions form for the school_property layer.

ˆ In the Action properties panel, enter the words Show Image into the Name field:

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What to do next varies according to your operating system, so choose the appropriate course to follow:

Windows
ˆ Click on the Type dropdown and choose Open.

Ubuntu Linux
ˆ Under Action, write eog for the Gnome Image Viewer, or write display to use ImageMagick.
Remember to put a space after the command!

MacOS
ˆ Click on the Type dropdown and choose Mac.
ˆ Under Action, write open. Remember to put a space after the command!

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Continue writing the command

You want to open the image, and QGIS knows where the image is. All it needs to do is to tell the Action
where the image is.
ˆ Select image from the list:

ˆ Click the Insert field button. QGIS will add the phrase [% "image"%] in the Action field.
ˆ Click the Add to action list button.
ˆ Click OK on the Layer Properties dialog.
Now we will test the new Action:
ˆ Click on the school_property layer in the Layers panel so that it is highlighted.
ˆ Find the Run feature action button (on the same toolbar as the Open Attribute Table button):

ˆ Click on the down arrow to the right of this button. There’s only one action defined for this layer
so far, which is the one you just created.
ˆ Click the button itself to activate the tool.
ˆ Using this tool, click on any of the three school properties.
ˆ The image for that property will now open.

6.4.4 Follow Along: Searching the Internet

Let’s say we’re looking at the map and want to know more about the area that a farm is in. Suppose you
know nothing of the area in question and want to find general information about it. Your first impulse,
considering that you’re using a computer right now, would probably be to Google the name of the area.
So let’s tell QGIS to do that automatically for us!
ˆ Open the attribute table for the landuse layer.
We’ll be using the name field for each of our landuse areas to search Google.
ˆ Close the attribute table.
ˆ Go back to Actions in Layer Properties.
ˆ In the field Action Properties → Name, write Google Search.
What to do next varies according to your operating system, so choose the appropriate course to follow:

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Windows
ˆ Under Type, choose Open. This will tell Windows to open an Internet address in your default
browser, such as Internet Explorer.

Ubuntu Linux
ˆ Under Action, write xdg-open. This will tell Ubuntu to open an Internet address in your default
browser, such as Chrome or Firefox.

MacOS
ˆ Under Action, write open. This will tell MacOS to open an Internet address in your default browser,
such as Safari.

Continue writing the command

Whichever command you used above, you need to tell it which Internet address to open next. You want
it to visit Google, and to search for a phrase automatically.
Usually when you use Google, you enter your search phrase into the Google Search bar. But in this case,
you want your computer to do this for you. The way you tell Google to search for something (if you
don’t want to use its search bar directly) is by giving your Internet browser the address https://www.
google.com/search?q=SEARCH_PHRASE, where SEARCH_PHRASE is what you want to search for. Since we
don’t know what phrase to search for yet, we’ll just enter the first part (without the search phrase).
ˆ In the Action field, write https://www.google.com/search?q=. Remember to add a space after
your initial command before writing this in!
Now you want QGIS to tell the browser to tell Google to search for the value of name for any feature
that you could click on.
ˆ Select the name field.
ˆ Click Insert field :

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This will tell QGIS to add the phrase next:

What this means is that QGIS is going to open the browser and send it to the address https://www.
google.com/search?q=[% "name"%]. But [% "name"%] tells QGIS to use the contents of the name field
as the phrase to search for.
So if, for example, the landuse area you click on is named Marloth Nature Reserve, then QGIS is going
to send the browser to https://www.google.com/search?q=Marloth%20Nature%20Reserve, which will
cause your browser to visit Google, which will in turn search for „Marloth Nature Reserve“.

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ˆ If you haven’t done so already, set everything up as explained above.

ˆ Click the Add to action list button. The new action will appear in the list above.
ˆ Click OK on the Layer Properties dialog.
Now to test the new action.
ˆ With the landuse layer active in the Layers panel, click on the Run feature action button.
ˆ Click on any landuse area you can see on the map. Your browser will now open, and will
automatically start a Google search for the town that is recorded as that area’s name value.

Note: If your action doesn’t work, check that everything was entered correctly; typos are common with
this kind of work!

6.4.5 Follow Along: Open a Webpage Directly in QGIS

Above, you’ve seen how to open a webpage in an external browser. There are some shortcomings with
this approach in that it adds an unknowable dependency – will the end-user have the software required
to execute the action on their system? As you’ve seen, they don’t necessarily even have the same kind of
base command for the same kind of action, if you don’t know which OS they’ll be using. With some OS
versions, the above commands to open the browser might not work at all. This could be an insurmountable
problem.
However, QGIS sits on top of the incredibly powerful and versatile Qt4 library. Also, QGIS actions can
be arbitrary, tokenized (i.e. using variable information based on the contents of a field attribute) Python
commands!
Now you’ll see how to use a python action to show a web page. It’s the same general idea as opening a site
in an external browser, but it requires no browser on the user’s system since it uses the Qt4 QWebView
class (which is a webkit based html widget) to display the content in a pop up window.
Instead of Google, let’s use Wikipedia this time. So the URL you request will look like this:
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/SEARCH_PHRASE
To create the layer action:
ˆ Open the Layer Properties dialog and head over to the Actions tab.
ˆ Set up a new action using the following properties for the action:
– Type : Python
– Name : Wikipedia
– Action (all on one line):
from PyQt4.QtCore import QUrl; from PyQt4.QtWebKit import QWebView; myWV =␣
˓→QWebView(None); myWV.load(QUrl('https://wikipedia.org/wiki/[% "name" %]')); myWV.

˓→show()

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There are a couple of things going on here:

ˆ All the python code is in a single line with semi-colons separating commands (instead of newlines,
the usual way of separating Python commands).
ˆ [% "name"%] will be replaced by the actual attribute value when the action is invoked (as before).
ˆ The code simply creates a new QWebView instance, sets its URL, and then calls show() on it to
make it visible as a window on the user’s desktop.
Note that this is a somewhat contrived example. Python works with semantically significant indentation,
so separating things with semicolons isn’t the best way to write it. So, in the real world, you’d be more
likely to import your logic from a Python module and then call a function with a field attribute as
parameter.
You could equally use the approach to display an image without requiring that the user has a particular
image viewer on their system.
ˆ Try using the methods described above to load a Wikipedia page using the Wikipedia action you
just created.

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6.4.6 In Conclusion

Actions allow you to give your map extra functionality, useful to the end-user who views the same map
in QGIS. Due to the fact that you can use shell commands for any operating system, as well as Python,
the sky’s the limit in terms of the functions you could incorporate!

6.4.7 What’s Next?

Now that you’ve done all kinds of vector data creation, you’ll learn how to analyze this data to solve
problems. That’s the topic of the next module.

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Module: Vector Analysis

Now that you have edited a few features, you must want to know what else one can do with them. Having
features with attributes is nice, but when all is said and done, this doesn’t really tell you anything that
a normal, non-GIS map can’t.
The key advantage of a GIS is this: a GIS can answer questions.
For the next three modules, we’ll endeavor to answer a research question using GIS functions. For
example, you are an estate agent and you are looking for a residential property in Swellendam for clients
who have the following criteria:
1. It needs to be in Swellendam.
2. It must be within reasonable driving distance of a school (say 1km).
3. It must be more than 100m squared in size.
4. Closer than 50m to a main road.
5. Closer than 500m to a restaurant.
Within the next few modules, we’ll harness the power of GIS analysis tools to locate suitable farm
properties for this new residential development.

7.1 Lesson: Reprojecting and Transforming Data

Let’s talk about Coordinate Reference Systems (CRSs) again. We’ve touched on this briefly before, but
haven’t discussed what it means practically.
The goal for this lesson: To reproject and transform vector datasets.

7.1.1 Follow Along: Projections

The CRS that all the data as well as the map itself are in right now is called WGS84. This is a very
common Geographic Coordinate System (GCS) for representing data. But there’s a problem, as we will
see.
1. Save your current map

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2. Then open the map of the world which you’ll find under exercise_data/world/world.qgs
3. Zoom in to South Africa by using the Zoom In tool
4. Try setting a scale in the Scale field, which is in the Status Bar along the bottom of the screen.
While over South Africa, set this value to 1:5 000 000 (one to five million).
5. Pan around the map while keeping an eye on the Scale field
Notice the scale changing? That’s because you’re moving away from the one point that you zoomed into
at 1:5 000 000, which was at the center of your screen. All around that point, the scale is different.
To understand why, think about a globe of the Earth. It has lines running along it from North to South.
These longitude lines are far apart at the equator, but they meet at the poles.
In a GCS, you’re working on this sphere, but your screen is flat. When you try to represent the sphere
on a flat surface, distortion occurs, similar to what would happen if you cut open a tennis ball and tried
to flatten it out. What this means on a map is that the longitude lines stay equally far apart from each
other, even at the poles (where they are supposed to meet). This means that, as you travel away from
the equator on your map, the scale of the objects that you see gets larger and larger. What this means
for us, practically, is that there is no constant scale on our map!
To solve this, let’s use a Projected Coordinate System (PCS) instead. A PCS „projects“ or converts the
data in a way that makes allowance for the scale change and corrects it. Therefore, to keep the scale
constant, we should reproject our data to use a PCS.

7.1.2 Follow Along: „On the Fly“ Reprojection

By default, QGIS reprojects data „on the fly“. What this means is that even if the data itself is in another
CRS, QGIS can project it as if it were in a CRS of your choice.

You can change the CRS of the project by clicking on button in the bottom right corner of QGIS.
1. In the dialog that appears, type the word global into the Filter field. One CRS (NSIDC EASE-
Grid 2.0 Global, EPSG:6933) should appear in the list below.
2. Click on the NSIDC EASE-Grid 2.0 Global to select it, then click OK.
Notice how the shape of South Africa changes. All projections work by changing the apparent
shapes of objects on Earth.
3. Zoom in to a scale of 1:5 000 000 again, as before.
4. Pan around the map.
Notice how the scale stays the same!
„On the fly“ reprojection is also used for combining datasets that are in different CRSs.
1. Add another vector layer to your map which has the data for South Africa only. You’ll find it as
exercise_data/world/RSA.shp.
2. Load it and a quick way to see what is its CRS is by hovering the mouse over the layer in the
legend. It is EPSG:3410.
What do you notice?
The layer is visible even if it has a different CRS from the continents one.

7.1.3 Follow Along: Saving a Dataset to Another CRS

Sometimes you need to export an existing dataset in another CRS. As we will see in the next lesson, if
you need to make some distance calculations on layer, it is always better to have the layer in a projected

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coordinate system.
Be aware that the on the fly‘ reprojection is related to the project and not to single layers. This means
’
that layers can have different CRS from the project even if you see them in the correct position.
But you can easily export the layer in another CRS.
1. Right-click on the buildings layer in the Layers panel
2. Select Export → Save Features As. . . in the menu that appears. You will be shown the Save Vector
Layer as. . . dialog.
3. Click on the Browse button next to the File name field
4. Navigate to exercise_data/ and specify the name of the new layer as buildings_reprojected.shp.
5. We must change the value of the CRS. Only the recent CRSs used will be shown in the drop down
menu. Click on the button next to the dropdown menu.
6. The CRS Selector dialog will now appear. In its Filter field, search for 34S.
7. Select WGS 84 / UTM zone 34S from the list

8. Leave the other options unchanged. The Save Vector Layer as. . . dialog now looks like this:

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9. Click OK
You can now compare the old and new projections of the layer and see that they are in two different
CRS but they are still overlapping.

7.1.4 Follow Along: Creating Your Own Projection

There are many more projections than just those included in QGIS by default. You can also create your
own projections.
1. Start a new map
2. Load the world/oceans.shp dataset
3. Go to Settings → Custom Projections. . . and you’ll see this dialog.

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4. Click on the button to create a new projection

5. An interesting projection to use is called Van der Grinten I. Enter its name in the Name field.
This projection represents the Earth on a circular field instead of a rectangular one, as most other
projections do.
6. Add the following string in the Parameters field:

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+proj=vandg +lon_0=0 +x_0=0 +y_0=0 +R_A +a=6371000 +b=6371000 +units=m +no_defs

7. Click OK

8. Click on the button to change the project CRS

9. Choose your newly defined projection (search for its name in the Filter field)
10. On applying this projection, the map will be reprojected thus:

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7.1.5 In Conclusion

Different projections are useful for different purposes. By choosing the correct projection, you can ensure
that the features on your map are being represented accurately.

7.1.6 Further Reading

Materials for the Advanced section of this lesson were taken from this article.
Further information on Coordinate Reference Systems is available here.

7.1.7 What’s Next?

In the next lesson you’ll learn how to analyze vector data using QGIS‘ various vector analysis tools.

7.2 Lesson: Vector Analysis

Vector data can also be analyzed to reveal how different features interact with each other in space. There
are many different analysis-related functions in GIS, so we won’t go through them all. Rather, we’ll pose
a question and try to solve it using the tools that QGIS provides.
The goal for this lesson: To ask a question and solve it using analysis tools.

7.2.1 The GIS Process

Before we start, it would be useful to give a brief overview of a process that can be used to solve any
GIS problem. The way to go about it is:
1. State the Problem
2. Get the Data
3. Analyze the Problem
4. Present the Results

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7.2.2 The Problem

Let’s start off the process by deciding on a problem to solve. For example, you are an estate agent and
you are looking for a residential property in Swellendam for clients who have the following criteria:
1. It needs to be in Swellendam
2. It must be within reasonable driving distance of a school (say 1km)
3. It must be more than 100m squared in size
4. Closer than 50m to a main road
5. Closer than 500m to a restaurant

7.2.3 The Data

To answer these questions, we’re going to need the following data:

1. The residential properties (buildings) in the area
2. The roads in and around the town
3. The location of schools and restaurants
4. The size of buildings
All of this data is available through OSM and you should find that the dataset you have been using
throughout this manual can also be used for this lesson.
If you want to download data from another area jump to Introduction Chapter section to read how to
do it.

Note: Although OSM downloads have consistent data fields, the coverage and detail does vary. If you
find that your chosen region does not contain information on restaurants, for example, you may need to
chose a different region.

7.2.4 Follow Along: Start a Project and get the Data

We first need to load the data to work with.

1. Start a new QGIS project
2. If you want you can add a background map. Open the Browser and load the OSM background
map from the XYZ Tiles menu.

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3. In the training_data.gpkg Geopackage database load all the files we will use in this chapter:
(а) landuse
(б) buildings
(в) roads
(г) restaurants
(д) schools
4. Zoom to the layer extent to see Swellendam, South Africa
Before proceeding we should filter the roads layer in order to have only some specific road types to work
with.
Some of the roads in OSM dataset are listed as unclassified, tracks, path and footway. We want to
exclude these from our dataset and focus on the other road types, more suitable for this exercise.
Moreover, OSM data might not be updated everywhere and we will also exclude NULL values.
1. Right click on the roads layer and choose Filter. . . .
2. In the dialog that pops up we can filter these features with the following expression:

"highway" NOT IN ('footway','path','unclassified','track') OR "highway" != NULL

The concatenation of the two operators NOT and IN means to exclude all the unwanted features
that have these attributes in the highway field.
!= NULL combined with the OR operator is excluding roads with no values in the highway field.

You will note the icon next to the roads layer that helps you remember that this layer has a
filter activated and not all the features are available in the project.
The map with all the data should look like the following one:

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7.2.5 Try Yourself Convert Layers‘ CRS

Because we are going to be measuring distances within our layers, we need to change the layers‘ CRS.
To do this, we need to select each layer in turn, save the layer to a new one with our new projection,
then import that new layer into our map.
You have many different options, e.g. you can export each layer as a new Shapefile, you can append the
layers to an existing GeoPackage file or you can create another GeoPackage file and fill it with the new
reprojected layers. We will show the last option so the training_data.gpkg will remain clean. But feel
free to choose the best workflow for yourself.

Note: In this example, we are using the WGS 84 / UTM zone 34S CRS, but you may use a UTM CRS
which is more appropriate for your region.

1. Right click the roads layer in the Layers panel;

2. Click Export –> Save Features As. . . ;
3. In the Save Vector Layer As dialog choose GeoPackage as Format ;
4. Click on . . . of File name parameter and name the new GeoPackage as vector_analysis ;
5. Change the Layer name as roads_34S ;
6. Change the CRS parameter to WGS 84 / UTM zone 34S ;
7. Finally click on OK :

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This will create the new GeoPackage database and fill it with the roads_34S layer.
8. Repeat this process for each layer, creating a new layer in the vector_analysis.gpkg GeoPackage
file with _34S appended to the original name and removing each of the old layers from the project.

Note: When you choose to save a layer to an existing GeoPackage, QGIS will append that layer
in the GeoPackage.

9. Once you have completed the process for each layer, right click on any layer and click Zoom to
layer extent to focus the map to the area of interest.
Now that we have converted OSM’s data to a UTM projection, we can begin our calculations.

7.2.6 Follow Along: Analyzing the Problem: Distances From Schools and
Roads

QGIS allows you to calculate distances from any vector object.

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1. Make sure that only the roads_34S and buildings_34S layers are visible, to simplify the map while
you’re working
2. Click on the Processing → Toolbox to open the analytical core of QGIS. Basically: all algorithms
(for vector and raster) analysis are available within this toolbox.
3. We start by calculating the area around the roads_34S by using the Buffer algorithm. You can
find it expanding the Vector Geometry group.

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Or you can type buffer in the search menu in the upper part of the toolbox:

4. Double click on it to open the algorithm dialog

5. Set it up like this

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6. The default Distance is in meters because our input dataset is in a Projected Coordinate System
that uses meter as its basic measurement unit. You can use the combo box to choose other projected
units like kilometers, yards, etc.

Note: If you are trying to make a buffer on a layer with a Geographical Coordinate System,
Processing will warn you and suggest to reproject the layer to a metric Coordinate System.

7. By default Processing creates temporary layers and adds them to the Layers panel. You can also
append the result to the GeoPackage database by:
(а) clicking on the . . . button and choose Save to GeoPackage. . .
(б) naming the new layer roads_buffer_50m
(в) and saving it in the vector_analysis.gpkg file

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8. Click on Run and then close the Buffer dialog.

Now your map will look something like this:

If your new layer is at the top of the Layers list, it will probably obscure much of your map, but this
gives you all the areas in your region which are within 50m of a road.
However, you’ll notice that there are distinct areas within your buffer, which correspond to all the
individual roads. To get rid of this problem:

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1. Uncheck the roads_buffer_50m layer and re-create the buffer using the settings shown here:

Note that we’re now checking the Dissolve result box

2. Save the output as roads_buffer_50m_dissolved
3. Click Run and close the Buffer dialog again
Once you’ve added the layer to the Layers panel, it will look like this:

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Now there are no unnecessary subdivisions.

Note: The Short Help on the right side of the dialog explains how the algorithm works. If you need
more information, just click on the Help button in the bottom part to open a more detailed guide of the
algorithm.

7.2.7 Try Yourself Distance from schools

Use the same approach as above and create a buffer for your schools.
It needs to be 1 km in radius. Save the new layer in the vector_analysis.gpkg file as
schools_buffer_1km_dissolved.
Check your results

7.2.8 Follow Along: Overlapping Areas

Now we have areas where the road is 50 meters away and there’s a school within 1 km (direct line, not by
road). But obviously, we only want the areas where both of these criteria are satisfied. To do that, we’ll
need to use the Intersect tool. You can find it in Vector Overlay group within Processing → Toolbox.
1. Set it up like this:

ˆ The input layers are the two buffers

ˆ The saving location is, once again, the vector_analysis.gpkg GeoPackage

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ˆ And the output layer name is road_school_buffers_intersect

2. Click Run.
In the image below, the blue areas show us where both distance criteria are satisfied at once!

3. You may remove the two buffer layers and only keep the one that shows where they overlap, since
that’s what we really wanted to know in the first place:

7.2.9 Follow Along: Extract the Buildings

Now you’ve got the area that the buildings must overlap. Next, you want to extract the buildings in that
area.
1. Look for the menu entry Vector Selection → Extract by location within Processing → Toolbox
2. Set up the algorithm dialog like in the following picture

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3. Click Run and then close the dialog

4. You’ll probably find that not much seems to have changed. If so, move the well_located_houses
layer to the top of the layers list, then zoom in.

The red buildings are those which match our criteria, while the buildings in green are those which
do not.
5. Now you have two separated layers and can remove buildings_34S from layer list.

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7.2.10 Try Yourself Further Filter our Buildings

We now have a layer which shows us all the buildings within 1km of a school and within 50m of a road.
We now need to reduce that selection to only show buildings which are within 500m of a restaurant.
Using the processes described above, create a new layer called houses_restaurants_500m which further
filters your well_located_houses layer to show only those which are within 500m of a restaurant.
Check your results

7.2.11 Follow Along: Select Buildings of the Right Size

To see which buildings are of the correct size (more than 100 square meters), we first need to calculate
their size.

1. Select the houses_restaurants_500m layer and open the Field Calculator by clicking on the
button in the main toolbar or within the attribute table
2. Set it up like this

We are creating the new field AREA that will contain the area of each building square meters.
3. Click OK. The AREA field has been added at the end of the attribute table.
4. Click the edit mode button again to finish editing, and save your edits when prompted.
5. Build a query as earlier in this lesson

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6. Click OK.
Your map should now only show you those buildings which match our starting criteria and which are
more than 100m squared in size.

7.2.12 Try Yourself

Save your solution as a new layer, using the approach you learned above for doing so. The file should be
saved within the same GeoPackage database, with the name solution.

7.2.13 In Conclusion

Using the GIS problem-solving approach together with QGIS vector analysis tools, you were able to solve
a problem with multiple criteria quickly and easily.

7.2.14 What’s Next?

In the next lesson, we’ll look at how to calculate the shortest distance along the road from one point to
another.

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7.3 Lesson: Network Analysis

Calculating the shortest distance between two points is a commonly cited use for GIS. Tools for this can
be found in the Processing toolbox.
The goal for this lesson: learn to use Network analysis algorithms.

7.3.1 Follow Along: The Tools and the Data

You can find all the network analysis algorithms in the Processing → Network Analysis menu. You can
see that there are many tools available:

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Open the project exercise_data/network_analysis/network.qgz, it contains two layers:

1. network_points
2. network_lines
As you can see the network_lines layer has already a style that helps to understand the road network.

The shortest path tools provide ways to calculate either the shortest or the fastest path between two
points of a network, given:
ˆ start point and end point selected on the map
ˆ start point selected on the map and end points taken from a point layer
ˆ start points taken from a point layer and end point selected on the map
Let’s start.

7.3.2 Calculate the shortest path (point to point)

The Network analysis → Shortest path (point to point) allows you to calculate the shortest distance
between two manually selected points on the map.
In this example we will calculate the shortest (not fastest) path between two points.
In the following image we choose these two points as starting and ending point for the analysis:

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1. Open the Shortest path (point to point) algorithm

2. Select network_lines for Vector layer representing network
3. Let Shortest in the Path type to calculate parameter
4. Click on the . . . button next to the Start point (x, y) and choose the location tagged with Starting
Point in the picture. The menu is filled with the coordinates of the clicked point.
5. Do the same thing but choosing the location tagged with Ending point for End point (x, y)
6. Click on the Run button:

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7. A new line layer is created representing the shortest path between the chosen points. Uncheck the
network_lines layer to see the result better:

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8. Let’s open the attribute table of the output layer. It contains three fields, representing the
coordinates of the starting and ending points and the cost.
We chose Shortest as Path type to calculate, so the cost represent the distance, in layer units,
between the two locations.
In our case, the shortest distance between the chosen points is around 1000 meters:

Now that you know how to use the tool, feel free to change them and test other locations.

7.3.3 Try Yourself Fastest path

With the same data of the previous exercise, try to calculate the fastest path between the two points.
How much time do you need to go from the start to the end point?
Check your results

7.3.4 Follow Along: Advanced options

Let’s explore some more options of the Network Analysis tools. In the previous exercise we calculated
the fastest route between two points. As you can imagine, the time depends on the travel speed.
We will use the same layers and same starting and ending points of the previous exercises.
1. Open the Shortest path (point to point) algorithm
2. Fill the Input layer, Start point (x, y) and End point (x, y) as we did before
3. Choose Fastest as the Path type to calculate
4. Open the Advanced parameter menu
5. Change the Default speed (km/h) from the default 50 value to 4

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6. Click on Run
7. Once the algorithm is finished, close the dialog and open the attribute table of the output layer.
The cost field contains the value according to the speed parameter you have chosen. We can convert
the cost field from hours with fractions to the more readable minutes values.

8. Open the field calculator by clicking on the icon and add the new field minutes by multiplying
the cost field by 60:

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That’s it! Now you know how many minutes it will take to get from one point to the other one.

7.3.5 Shortest map with speed limit

The Network analysis toolbox has other interesting options. Looking at the following map:

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we would like to know the fastest route considering the speed limits of each road (the labels represent
the speed limits in km/h). The shortest path without considering speed limits would of course be the
purple path. But in that road the speed limit is 20 km/h, while in the green road you can go at 100
km/h!
As we did in the first exercise, we will use the Network analysis → Shortest path (point to point) and we
will manually choose the start and end points.
1. Open the Network analysis → Shortest path (point to point) algorithm
2. Select network_lines for the Vector layer representing network parameter
3. Choose Fastest as the Path type to calculate
4. Click on the . . . button next to the Start point (x, y) and choose the location tagged with Start
Point in the picture. The menu is filled with the coordinates of the clicked point.
5. Do the same thing but choosing the location tagged with End point for End point (x, y)
6. Open the Advanced parameters menu
7. Choose the speed field as the Speed Field parameter. With this option the algorithm will take into
account the speed values for each road.

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8. Click on the Run button

9. Turn off the network_lines layer to better see the result

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As you can see the fastest route does not correspond to the shortest one.

7.3.6 Service area (from layer)

The Network Analysis → Service area (from layer) algorithm can answer the question: given a point
layer, what are all the reachable areas given a distance or a time value?

Note: The Network Analysis → Service area (from point) is the same algorithm but, it allows you to
manually choose the point on the map.

Given a distance of 250 meters we want to know how far we can go on the network from each point of
the network_points layer.
1. Uncheck all the layers except network_points
2. Open the Network Analysis → Service area (from layer) algorithm
3. Choose network_lines for Vector layer representing network
4. Choose network_points for Vector layer with start points
5. Choose Shortest in Path type to calculate
6. Enter 250 in the Travel cost parameter
7. Click on Run and then close the dialog

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The output layer represents the maximum path you can reach from the point features given a
distance of 250 meters:

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Cool isn’t it?

7.3.7 In Conclusion

Now you know how to use Network analysis algorithm to solve shortest-fastest path problems.
We are now ready to perform some spatial statistic on vector layer data. Let’s go!

7.3.8 What’s Next?

Next you’ll see how to run spatial statistics algorithms on vector datasets.

7.4 Lesson: Spatial Statistics

Note: Lesson developed by Linfiniti and S Motala (Cape Peninsula University of Technology)

Spatial statistics allow you to analyze and understand what is going on in a given vector dataset. QGIS
includes several standard tools for statistical analysis which prove useful in this regard.
The goal for this lesson: To know how to use QGIS‘ spatial statistics tools within the Processing
toolbox.

7.4.1 Follow Along: Create a Test Dataset

In order to get a point dataset to work with, we’ll create a random set of points.
To do so, you’ll need a polygon dataset defining the extents of the area you want to create the points in.
We’ll use the area covered by streets.
1. Start a new project.
2. Add your roads layer, as well as the srtm_41_19 raster file (elevation data) found in
exercise_data/raster/SRTM/.

Note: You might find that your SRTM DEM layer has a different CRS to that of the roads layer.
QGIS is reprojecting both layers in a single CRS. For the following exercises this difference does
not matter, but feel free to reproject a layer in another CRS as shown in this module.

3. Open Processing toolbox.

4. Use the Vector Geometry → Minimum bounding geometry tool to generate an area enclosing all
the roads by selecting Convex Hull as the Geometry Type parameter:

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As you know, if you don’t specify the output, Processing creates temporary layers. It is up to you
to save the layers immediately or in a second moment.

Creating random points

ˆ Create random points in this area using the tool at Vector Creation → Random points in layer
bounds :

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Note: The yellow warning sign is telling you that that parameter concerns something about the
distance. The Bounding geometry layer is in a Geographical Coordinate System and the algorithm
is just reminding you this. For this example we won’t use this parameter so you can ignore it.

If needed, move the generated random point at the top of the legend to see them better:

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Sampling the data

To create a sample dataset from the raster, you’ll need to use the Raster Analysis → Sample raster values
algorithm within Processing toolbox. This tool samples the raster at the points locations and copies the
raster values in other field(s) depending on how many bands the raster is made of.
1. Open the Sample raster values algorithm dialog
2. Select random_points as the layer containing sampling points, and the SRTM raster as the band
to get values from. The default name of the new field is rvalue_N, where N is the number of the
raster band. You can change the name of the prefix if you want:

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3. Press Run
Now you can check the sampled data from the raster file in the attributes table of the Random points
layer, they will be in a new field with the name you have chosen.
A possible sample layer is shown here:

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The sample points are classified by their rvalue_1 field such that red points are at a higher altitude.
You’ll be using this sample layer for the rest of the statistical exercises.

7.4.2 Follow Along: Basic Statistics

Now get the basic statistics for this layer.

1. Click on the icon in the Attributes Toolbar of QGIS main dialog. A new panel will pop up.
2. In the dialog that appears, specify the Sampled Points layer as the source.
3. Select the rvalue_1 field in the field combo box which is the field you will calculate statistics for.
4. The Statistics Panel will be automatically updated with the calculated statistics:

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Note: You can copy the values by clicking on the Copy Statistics To Clipboard button and paste

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the results into a spreadsheet.

5. Close the Statistics Panel when done.

Many different statistics are available, below some description:
Count The amount of samples/values.
Sum All the values added together.
Средна стойност The mean (average) value is simply the sum of the values divided by the amount
of values.
Median If you arrange all the values from least to greatest, the middle value (or the average of the two
middle values, if N is an even number) is the median of the values.
St Dev (pop) The standard deviation. Gives an indication of how closely the values are clustered
around the mean. The smaller the standard deviation, the closer values tend to be to the mean.
Minimum The minimum value.
Maximum The maximum value.
Диапазон The difference between the minimum and maximum values.
Q1 First quartile of the data.
Q3 Third quartile of the data.
Missing (null) values Total count of values with missing data-

7.4.3 Follow Along: Compute statistics on distances between points using

the Distance Matrix tool

1. Create a new point layer as a Temporary layer.

2. Enter edit mode and digitize three points somewhere among the other points.
Alternatively, use the same random point generation method as before, but specify only three
points.
3. Save your new layer as distance_points in the format you prefer.
To generate statistics on the distances between points in the two layers:
1. Open the tool Vector Analysis → Distance matrix.
2. Select the distance_points layer as the input layer, and the Sampled Points layer as the target
layer.
3. Set it up like this:

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4. If you want you can save the output layer as a file or just run the algorithm and save the temporary
output layer in a second moment.
5. Click Run to generate the distance matrix layer.
6. Open the attribute table of the generated layer: values refer to the distances between the
distance_points features and their two nearest points in the Sampled Points layer:

With these parameters, the Distance Matrix tool calculates distance statistics for each point of the
input layer with respect to the nearest points of the target layer. The fields of the output layer contains
the mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum for the distances to the nearest neighbors of the
points in the input layer.

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7.4.4 Follow Along: Nearest Neighbor Analysis (within layer)

To do a nearest neighbor analysis of a point layer:

1. Click on the menu item Vector analysis → Nearest neighbor analysis.
2. In the dialog that appears, select the Random points layer and click Run.
3. The results will appear in the Processing Result Viewer Panel.

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4. Click on the blue link to open the html page with the results:

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7.4.5 Follow Along: Mean Coordinates

To get the mean coordinates of a dataset:

1. Click on the Vector analysis → Mean coordinate(s) menu item.
2. In the dialog that appears, specify Random points as the input layer, but leave the optional choices
unchanged.
3. Click Run.
Let’s compare this to the central coordinate of the polygon that was used to create the random sample.
1. Click on the Vector geometry → Centroids menu item.
2. In the dialog that appears, select Bounding geometry as the input layer.
As you can see from the example below, the mean coordinates (pink point) and the center of the study
area (in green) don’t necessarily coincide.
The centroid is the barycenter of the layer (the barycenter of a square is the center of the square) while
the mean coordinates represent the average of all node coordinates.

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7.4.6 Follow Along: Image Histograms

The histogram of a dataset shows the distribution of its values. The simplest way to demonstrate this
in QGIS is via the image histogram, available in the Layer Properties dialog of any image layer (raster
dataset).
1. In your Layers panel, right-click on the srtm_41_19 layer.
2. Select Properties.
3. Choose the tab Histogram. You may need to click on the Compute Histogram button to generate
the graphic. You will see a graph describing the frequency of values in the image.
4. You can export it as an image:

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5. Select the Information tab, you can see more detailed information of the layer.
The mean value is 332.8, and the maximum value is 1699! But those values don’t show up on the
histogram. Why not? It’s because there are so few of them, compared to the abundance of pixels with
values below the mean. That’s also why the histogram extends so far to the right, even though there is
no visible red line marking the frequency of values higher than about 250.

Note: If the mean and maxmimum values are not the same as those of the example, it can be due to the
min/max value calculation. Open the Symbology tab and expand the Min / Max Value Settings menu.
Choose |radioButtonOn| Min / max and click on Apply.

Therefore, keep in mind that a histogram shows you the distribution of values, and not all values are
necessarily visible on the graph.

7.4.7 Follow Along: Spatial Interpolation

Let’s say you have a collection of sample points from which you would like to extrapolate data. For
example, you might have access to the Sampled points dataset we created earlier, and would like to have
some idea of what the terrain looks like.
1. To start, launch the GDAL → Raster analysis → Grid (IDW with nearest neighbor searching) tool
within Processing toolbox.
2. In the Point layer parameter, select Sampled points
3. Set 5.0 as the Weighting power
4. In the Advanced parameters set rvalue_1 for the Z value from field parameter
5. Finally click on Run and wait until the algorithm ends

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6. Close the dialog

Here’s a comparison of the original dataset (left) to the one constructed from our sample points (right).
Yours may look different due to the random nature of the location of the sample points.

As you can see, 100 sample points aren’t really enough to get a detailed impression of the terrain. It
gives a very general idea, but it can be misleading as well.

7.4.8 Try Yourself Different interpolation methods

1. Use the processes shown above to create a new set of 10 000 random points.

Note: If the points amount is really big the processing time can take a long time.

2. Use these points to sample the original DEM.

3. Use the Grid (IDW with nearest neighbor searching) tool on this new dataset as above.
4. Set the Power and Smoothing to 5.0 and 2.0, respectively.
The results (depending on the positioning of your random points) will look more or less like this:

This is a much better representation of the terrain, due to the much greater density of sample points.
Remember, bigger samples give better results.

7.4.9 In Conclusion

QGIS allows many possibilities for analyzing the spatial statistical properties of datasets.

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7.4.10 What’s Next?

Now that we’ve covered vector analysis, why not see what can be done with rasters? That’s what we’ll
do in the next module!

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Module: Rasters

We’ve used rasters for digitizing before, but raster data can also be used directly. In this module, you’ll
see how it’s done in QGIS.

8.1 Lesson: Working with Raster Data

Raster data is quite different from vector data. Vector data has discrete features constructed out of
vertices, and perhaps connected with lines and/or areas. Raster data, however, is like any image. Although
it may portray various properties of objects in the real world, these objects don’t exist as separate objects;
rather, they are represented using pixels of various different color values.
During this module you’re going to use raster data to supplement your existing GIS analysis.
The goal for this lesson: To learn how to work with raster data in the QGIS environment.

8.1.1 Follow Along: Loading Raster Data

Raster data can be loaded with the same methods we used for vector data. However we suggest to use
the Browser Panel.
1. Open the Browser Panel and expand the exercise_data/raster folder.
2. Load all the data in this folder:
ˆ 3320C_2010_314_RGB_LATLNG.tif
ˆ 3320D_2010_315_RGB_LATLNG.tif
ˆ 3420B_2010_328_RGB_LATLNG.tif
ˆ 3420C_2010_327_RGB_LATLNG.tif
You should see the following map:

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There we have it - four aerial photographs covering our whole study area.

8.1.2 Follow Along: Create a Virtual Raster

Now as you can see from this, your solution layer lies across all four photographs. What this means is
that you’re going to have to work with four rasters all the time. That’s not ideal; it would be better to
have one file for one (composite) image, right?
Luckily, QGIS allows you to do exactly this, and without needing to actually create a new raster file,
which could take up a lot of space. Instead, you can create a Virtual Raster. This is also often called
a Catalog, which explains its function. It’s not really a new raster. Rather, it’s a way to organize your
existing rasters into one catalog: one file for easy access.
To make a catalog we will use the Processing → Toolbox.
1. Open the Build virtual raster algorithm from the GDAL → Raster miscellaneous ;
2. In the dialog that appears click on the . . . button next to the Input layers parameter and check
all the layers or use the Select All button;
3. Uncheck the Place each input file into a separate band parameter- Notice the text field below. What
this dialog is actually doing is that it’s writing that text for you. It’s a long command that QGIS
is going to run.

Note: Keep in mind that you can copy and paste the text in the OSGeo Shell (Windows user)
or Terminal (Linux and OSX users) to run the command. You can also create a script for each
GDAL command. This is very handy when the procedure is taking a long time or when you want to
schedule specific tasks. Use the Help button to get more help on the syntax of GDAL commands.

4. Finally click on Run.

Note: As you know from the previous modules, Processing creates temporary layers by default. To save
the file click on the . . . button.

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You can now remove the original four rasters from the Layers Panel and leave only the output virtual
catalog raster.

8.1.3 Transforming Raster Data

The above methods allow you to virtually merge datasets using a catalog, and to reproject them „on the
fly“. However, if you are setting up data that you’ll be using for quite a while, it may be more efficient
to create new rasters that are already merged and reprojected. This improves performance while using
the rasters in a map, but it may take some time to set up initially.

Reprojecting rasters
Open Warp (reproject) from GDAL → Raster projections.

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You can also reproject virtual rasters (catalogs), enable multithreaded processing, and more.

Merging rasters
If you need to create a new raster layer and save it to disk you can use the merge algorithm.

Note: Depending on how many raster files you are merging and their resolution, the new raster file
created can be really big. Consider instead to create a raster catalog as described in the Create a Virtual
Raster section.

1. Click on the Merge algorithm from the GDAL → Raster miscellaneous menu.
2. As we did for the Create a Virtual raster , use the . . . button to choose which layers you want to
merge.

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You can also specify a Virtual raster as input, and then all of the rasters that it consists of will be
processed.
3. If you know the GDAL library, you can also add your own options by opening the Advanced
parameters menu.

8.1.4 In Conclusion

QGIS makes it easy to include raster data into your existing projects.

8.1.5 What’s Next?

Next, we’ll use raster data that isn’t aerial imagery, and see how symbolization is useful in the case of
rasters as well.

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8.2 Lesson: Changing Raster Symbology

Not all raster data consists of aerial photographs. There are many other forms of raster data, and in
many of those cases, it’s essential to symbolize the data properly so that it becomes properly visible and
useful.
The goal for this lesson: To change the symbology for a raster layer.

8.2.1 Try Yourself

1. Use the Browser Panel to load the new raster dataset;

2. Load the dataset srtm_41_19_4326.tif, found under the directory exercise_data/raster/SRTM/
;
3. Once it appears in the Layers Panel, rename it to DEM;
4. Zoom to the extent of this layer by right-clicking on it in the Layer List and selecting Zoom to
Layer.
This dataset is a Digital Elevation Model (DEM). It’s a map of the elevation (altitude) of the terrain,
allowing us to see where the mountains and valleys are, for example.
While each pixel of dataset of the previous section contained color information, in a DEM file, each pixel
contains elevation values.
Once it’s loaded, you’ll notice that it’s a basic stretched grayscale representation of the DEM:

QGIS has automatically applied a stretch to the image for visualization purposes, and we will learn more
about how this works as we continue.

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8.2.2 Follow Along: Changing Raster Layer Symbology

You have basically two different options to change the raster symbology:
1. Within the Layer Properties dialog for the DEM layer by right-clicking on the layer in the Layer
tree and selecting Properties option. Then switch to the Symbology tab;

2. By clicking on the button right above the Layers Panel. This will open the Layer Styling anel
where you can switch to the Symbology tab.
Choose the method you prefer to work with.

8.2.3 Follow Along: Singleband gray

When you load a raster file, if it is not a photo image like the ones of the previous section, the default
style is set to a grayscale gradient.
Let’s explore some of the features of this renderer.

The default Color gradient is set to Black to white, meaning that low pixel values are black and while
high values are white. Try to invert this setting to White to black and see the results.
Very important is the Contrast enhancement parameter: by default it is set to Stretch to MinMax
meaning that the grayscale is stretched to the minimum and maximum values.
Look at the difference with the enhancement (left) and without (right):

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But what are the minimum and maximum values that should be used for the stretch? The ones that
are currently under Min / Max Value Settings. There are many ways that you can use to calculate the
minimum and maximum values and use them for the stretch:
1. User Defined: you choose both minimum and maximum values manually;
2. Cumulative count cut: this is useful when you have few extreme low or high values. It cuts the
2% (or the value you choose) of these values;
3. Min / max: the real minimum and maximum values of the raster;
4. Mean +/- standard deviation: the values will be calculated according to the mean value and
the standard deviation.

8.2.4 Follow Along: Singleband pseudocolor

Grayscales are not always great styles for raster layers. Let’s try to make the DEM layer more colorful.
ˆ Change the Render type to Singleband pseudocolor : if you don’t like the default colors loaded, click
on Color ramp and change them;
ˆ Click the Classify button to generate a new color classification;
ˆ If it is not generated automatically click on the OK button to apply this classification to the DEM.

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You’ll see the raster looking like this:

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This is an interesting way of looking at the DEM. You’ll now see that the values of the raster are again
properly displayed, with the darker colors representing valleys and the lighter ones, mountains.

8.2.5 Follow Along: Changing the transparency

Sometimes changing the transparency of the whole raster layer can help you to see other layers covered
by the raster itself and better understand the study area.
To change the transparency of the whole raster switch to the Transparency tab and use the slider of the
Global Opacity to lower the opacity:

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More interesting is changing the transparency of single pixels. For example in the raster we used you can
see an homogeneous color at the corners:

To set this values as transparent, the Custom Transparency Options menu in Transparency has some
useful methods:

ˆ By clicking on the button you can add a range of values and set the transparency percentage

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of each range chosen;

ˆ For single values the button is more useful;

ˆ Click on the button. The dialog disappearing and you can interact with the map;
ˆ Click on a corner of the raster file;
ˆ You will see that the transparency table will be automatically filled with the clicked values:

ˆ Click on OK to close the dialog and see the changes.

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See? The corners are now 100% transparent.

8.2.6 In Conclusion

These are only the basic functions to get you started with raster symbology. QGIS also allows you many
other options, such as symbolizing a layer using paletted/unique values, representing different bands with
different colors in a multispectral image or making an automatic hillshade effect (useful only with DEM
raster files).

8.2.7 Reference

The SRTM dataset was obtained from http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/

8.2.8 What’s Next?

Now that we can see our data displayed properly, let’s investigate how we can analyze it further.

8.3 Lesson: Terrain Analysis

Certain types of rasters allow you to gain more insight into the terrain that they represent. Digital
Elevation Models (DEMs) are particularly useful in this regard. In this lesson you will use terrain analysis
tools to find out more about the study area for the proposed residential development from earlier.
The goal for this lesson: To use terrain analysis tools to derive more information about the terrain.

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8.3.1 Follow Along: Calculating a Hillshade

We are going to use the same DEM layer as in the previous lesson. If you are starting this chapter from
scratch use the Browser panel and load the raster/SRTM/srtm_41_19.tif.
The DEM layer shows you the elevation of the terrain, but it can sometimes seem a little abstract. It
contains all the 3D information about the terrain that you need, but it doesn’t look like a 3D object. To
get a better look at the terrain, it is possible to calculate a hillshade, which is a raster that maps the
terrain using light and shadow to create a 3D-looking image.
We are going to use algorithms of Raster → Raster terrain analysis menu.
1. Click on the Hillshade menu
2. The algorithm allows you to specify where the position of the light source: the Azimuth parameter
has values from 0 (North) through 90 (East), 180 (South) and 270 (West) while the Vertical angle
sets how high the light is. We will leave the default values:

3. Save the file in a new folder raster_analysis within the folder exercise_data with the name
hillshade
4. Finally click on Run
You will now have a new layer called hillshade that looks like this:

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That looks nice and 3D, but can we improve on this? On its own, the hillshade looks like a plaster cast.
Can’t we use it together with our other, more colorful rasters somehow? Of course we can, by using the
hillshade as an overlay.

8.3.2 Follow Along: Using a Hillshade as an Overlay

A hillshade can provide very useful information about the sunlight at a given time of day. But it can
also be used for aesthetic purposes, to make the map look better. The key to this is setting the hillshade
to being mostly transparent.
1. Change the symbology of the original srtm_41_19 layer to use the Pseudocolor scheme as in the
previous exercise
2. Hide all the layers except the srtm_41_19 and hillshade layers
3. Click and drag the srtm_41_19 to be beneath the hillshade layer in the Layers panel
4. Set the hillshade layer to be transparent by clicking on the Transparency tab in the layer properties
5. Set the Global opacity to 50%.
You’ll get a result like this:

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6. Switch the hillshade layer off and back on in the Layers panel to see the difference it makes.
Using a hillshade in this way, it’s possible to enhance the topography of the landscape. If the effect doesn’t
seem strong enough to you, you can change the transparency of the hillshade layer; but of course, the
brighter the hillshade becomes, the dimmer the colors behind it will be. You will need to find a balance
that works for you.
Remember to save the project when you are done.

8.3.3 Follow Along: Calculating the Slope

Another useful thing to know about the terrain is how steep it is. If, for example, you want to build
houses on the land there, then you need land that is relatively flat.
To do this, you need to use the Slope algorithm of the Processing → Raster terrain analysis.
1. Open the algorithm
2. Choose srtm_41_19 as the Elevation layer
3. Save the output as a file with the name slope in the same folder as the hillshade
4. Click on Run
Now you’ll see the slope of the terrain, with black pixels being flat terrain and white pixels, steep terrain:

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8.3.4 Try Yourself Calculating the aspect

Aspect is the compass direction that the slope of the terrain faces. An aspect of 0 means that the slope
is North-facing, 90 East-facing, 180 South-facing, and 270 West-facing.
Since this study is taking place in the Southern Hemisphere, properties should ideally be built on a
north-facing slope so that they can remain in the sunlight.
Use the Aspect algorithm of the Processing → Raster terrain analysis to get the layer.
Check your results

8.3.5 Follow Along: Using the Raster Calculator

Think back to the estate agent problem, which we last addressed in the Vector Analysis lesson. Let’s
imagine that the buyers now wish to purchase a building and build a smaller cottage on the property.
In the Southern Hemisphere, we know that an ideal plot for development needs to have areas on it that
are north-facing, and with a slope of less than five degrees. But if the slope is less than 2 degrees, then
the aspect doesn’t matter.
Fortunately, you already have rasters showing you the slope as well as the aspect, but you have no way
of knowing where both conditions are satisfied at once. How could this analysis be done?
The answer lies with the Raster calculator.
QGIS has different raster calculators available:

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ˆ Raster → Raster Calculator

ˆ Processing → Raster Analysis → Raster calculator
ˆ Processing → GDAL → Raster miscellaneous → Raster calculator
ˆ SAGA → Raster calculus → Raster calculator
Each tool is leading to the same results, but the syntax may be slightly different and the availability of
operators may vary.
We will use Processing → Raster Analysis → Raster calculator.
1. Open the tool by double clicking on it.
ˆ The upper left part of the dialog lists all the raster layers loaded in the legend as name@N
where name is the name of the layer and N is the raster band used.
ˆ In the upper right part you will see a lot of different operators: stop for a moment to think
that a raster is an image, you should see it as a 2D matrix filled with numbers.
2. North is at 0 (zero) degrees, so for the terrain to face north, its aspect needs to be greater than
270 degrees and less than 90 degrees. Therefore the formula is:

aspect@1 <= 90 OR aspect@1 >= 270

3. You have now to set up the raster details, like the cell size, extent and CRS. This can be done
manually by filling or it can be automatically set by choosing a Reference layer. Choose this last
option by clicking on the . . . button next to the Reference layer(s) parameter.
4. In the dialog, choose the aspect layer because we want to obtain a layer with the same resolution.
5. Save the layer as aspect_north.
The dialog should look like:

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6. Finally click on Run.

Your result will be this:

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The output values are 0 or 1. What does it mean? The formula we wrote contains the conditional operator
OR: therefore the final result will be False (0) and True (1).

8.3.6 Try Yourself More slopes

Now that you’ve done the aspect, create two separate new analyses of the DEM layer.
ˆ The first will be to identify all areas where the slope is less than or equal to 2 degrees.
ˆ The second is similar, but the slope should be less than or equal to 5 degrees.
ˆ Save them under exercise_data/raster_analysis as slope_lte2.tif and slope_lte5.tif.
Check your results

8.3.7 Follow Along: Combining Raster Analysis Results

Now you have three new analysis rasters of the DEM layer:
ˆ aspect_north : the terrain faces north
ˆ slope_lte2 : the slope is at or below 2 degrees
ˆ slope_lte5 : the slope is at or below 5 degrees

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Where the conditions of these layers are met, they are equal to 1. Elsewhere, they are equal to 0.
Therefore, if you multiply one of these rasters by another one, you will get the areas where both of them
are equal to 1.
The conditions to be met are: at or below 5 degrees of slope, the terrain must face north; but at or below
2 degrees of slope, the direction that the terrain faces in does not matter.
Therefore, you need to find areas where the slope is at or below 5 degrees AND the terrain is facing north,
OR the slope is at or below 2 degrees. Such terrain would be suitable for development.
To calculate the areas that satisfy these criteria:
1. Open your Raster calculator again
2. Use the Layer panel, the Operators buttons, and your keyboard to build this expression in the
Expressions text area:
( aspect_north@1 = 1 AND slope_lte5@1 = 1 ) OR slope_lte2@1 = 1

3. Set the Reference layer(s) parameter as the aspect_north (it does not matter if you choose another
one given that all the layers have been calculated from srtm_41_19 )
4. Save the output under exercise_data/raster_analysis/ as all_conditions.tif
5. Click Run
Your results:

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8.3.8 Follow Along: Simplifying the Raster

As you can see from the image above, the combined analysis has left us with many, very small areas
where the conditions are met. But these aren’t really useful for our analysis, since they’re too small to
build anything on. Let’s get rid of all these tiny unusable areas.
1. Open the Sieve tool Processing → GDAL → Raster Analysis
2. Set the Input file to all_conditions, and the Sieved to all_conditions_sieve.tif (under
exercise_data/raster_analysis/).
3. Set both the Threshold to 8 and check Use 8-connectedness.

Once processing is done, the new layer will load into the canvas.

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What’s going on? The answer lies in the new raster file’s metadata.
4. View the metadata under the Information tab of the Layer Properties dialog. Look the
STATISTICS_MINIMUM value:

Whereas this raster, like the one it’s derived from, should only feature the values 1 and 0 while it
has also a very large negative number. Investigation of the data shows that this number acts as a

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null value. Since we’re only after areas that weren’t filtered out, let’s set these null values to zero.
5. Open the Raster Calculator again, and build this expression:

(all_conditions_sieve@1 <= 0) = 0

This will maintain all existing zero values, while also setting the negative numbers to zero; which
will leave all the areas with value 1 intact.
6. Save the output under exercise_data/raster_analysis/ as all_conditions_simple.tif.
Your output looks like this:

This is what was expected: a simplified version of the earlier results. Remember that if the results you
get from a tool aren’t what you expected, viewing the metadata (and vector attributes, if applicable)
can prove essential to solving the problem.

8.3.9 Follow Along: Reclassifying the Raster

We use the Raster calculator tool to make some calculation on raster layer. There is another powerful
tool that we can use to better extract information from existing layers.
Back to the aspect layer: we know now that it has numeric values within a range from 0 through 360.
What we want to do is to reclassify this layer with other discrete values (from 1 to 4) depending on the
aspect:
ˆ 1 = North (from 0 to 45 and from 315 to 360);
ˆ 2 = East (from 45 to 135)
ˆ 3 = South (from 135 to 225)
ˆ 4 = West (from 225 to 315)

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This operation could be achieved with the raster calculator but the formula would become very very
large.
The alternative tool is the Reclassify by table tool within Processing → Raster analysis.
1. Open the tool
2. Choose aspect as the Input raster layer
3. Click on the . . . of the Reclassification table parameter. A table like dialog will pop up where you
can choose the minimum, maximum and new values for each class.
4. Click on the Add row button and add 5 rows. Fill each row as the following picture and click OK :

The method used by the algorithm to treat the threshold values of each class is defined by the
Range boundaries parameter.
5. Save the layer as reclassified in the exercise_data/raster_analysis/ folder

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6. Click on Run
If you compare the native aspect layer with the reclassified one, there are not big differences. But giving
a look at the legend you can see that the values go from 1 to 4.
Let’s give this layer a better style.
1. Open the Layer Styling panel
2. Choose Paletted/Unique values instead of Singleband gray
3. Click on the Classify button to automatically fetch the values and assign them random colors:

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The output should look like this (you can have different colors given that they have been randomly
generated):

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With this reclassification and the paletted style applied to the layer you can immediately see the aspect
areas. Cool isn’t it?!

8.3.10 Follow Along: Querying the raster

Unlike vectors, raster layers don’t have an attribute table: each pixel contains one or more numerical
values, depending if the raster is singleband or multiband.
All the raster layers we used in this exercise are made by just a single band: depending on the layer,
pixel numbers will represent elevation, aspect or slope values.

How can we query the raster layer to know the value of a single pixel? We can use the button to
extract this information.
1. Select the tool from the upper toolbar
2. Click on a random location of the srtm_41_19 layer. The Identify Results will appear with the
value of the band at the clicked location:

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3. You can change the output of the Identify Results panel from the current tree mode to a table
one by selecting Table in the View menu at the bottom of the panel:

Clicking each pixel to get the value of the raster could become annoying after a while. We can use the
Value Tool plugin to solve this problem.
1. Go to Plugins → Manage/Install Plugins. . .
2. In the All tab, type Value Tool in the search box

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3. Select the Value Tool plugin, press Install Plugin and then Close the dialog.

The new Value Tool panel will appear.

Tip: If you close the panel you can reopen it by enabling it in the View → Panels → Value Tool
or by clicking on the new icon of the toolbar.

4. To use the plugin just check the Enable checkbox and be sure that the srtm_41_19 layer is active
(checked) in the Layers panel.
5. Move the cursor on the map to immediately know the value of the pixel

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6. But there is more. The Value Tool plugin allows to query all the active raster layers in the Layers
panel. Set the aspect and slope layers active again and hover the mouse on the map:

8.3.11 In Conclusion

You’ve seen how to derive all kinds of analysis products from a DEM. These include hillshade, slope and
aspect calculations. You’ve also seen how to use the raster calculator to further analyze and combine
these results. Finally you learned how to reclassify a layer and how to query the results.

8.3.12 What’s Next?

Now you have two analyses: the vector analysis which shows you the potentially suitable plots, and the
raster analysis that shows you the potentially suitable terrain. How can these be combined to arrive at
a final result for this problem? That’s the topic for the next lesson, starting in the next module.

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Module: Completing the Analysis

You now have two halves of an analysis: a vector and a raster part. In this module, you’ll see how to
combine them. You will conclude the analysis and present the final results.

9.1 Lesson: Raster to Vector Conversion

Converting between raster and vector formats allows you to make use of both raster and vector data
when solving a GIS problem, as well as using the various analysis methods unique to these two forms
of geographic data. This increases the flexibility you have when considering data sources and processing
methods for solving a GIS problem.
To combine a raster and vector analysis, you need to convert the one type of data to the other. Let’s
convert the raster result of the previous lesson to a vector.
The goal for this lesson: To get the raster result into a vector that can be used to complete the
analysis.

9.1.1 Follow Along: The Raster to Vector Tool

Start with the map from the last module, raster_analysis.qgs. There you should have the
all_conditions_simple.tif calculated during the previous exercises.
ˆ Click on Raster → Conversion → Polygonize (Raster to Vector). The tool dialog will appear.
ˆ Set it up like this:

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ˆ Change the field name (describing the values of the raster) to suitable.
ˆ Save the layer under exercise_data/residential_development as all_terrain.shp.
Now you have a vector file which contains all the values of the raster, but the only areas you’re interested
in are those that are suitable; i.e., those polygons where the value of suitable is 1. You can change the
style of this layer if you want to have a clearer visualization of it.

9.1.2 Try Yourself

Refer back to the module on vector analysis.

ˆ Create a new vector file that contains only the polygons where suitable has the value of 1.
ˆ Save the new file as exercise_data/residential_development/ as suitable_terrain.shp.
Check your results

9.1.3 Follow Along: The Vector to Raster Tool

Although unnecessary for our current problem, it’s useful to know about the opposite conversion from
the one performed above. Convert to raster the suitable_terrain.shp vector file you just created in
previous step.
ˆ Click on Raster → Conversion → Rasterize (Vector to Raster) to start this tool, then set it up as
in the screenshot below:

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ˆ Input file is all_terrain.

ˆ Output file. . . is exercise_data/residential_development/raster_conversion.tif.
ˆ Width and Height are 837 and 661, respectively.

Note: The size of the output image is specified here to be the same as the original raster which
was vectorized. To view the dimensions of an image, open its metadata (Metadata tab in the Layer
Properties ).

ˆ Click OK on the dialog to begin the conversion process.

ˆ When it is complete, gauge its success by comparing the new raster with the original one. They
should match up exactly, pixel for pixel.

9.1.4 In Conclusion

Converting between raster and vector formats allows you to widen the applicability of data, and need
not lead to data degradation.

9.1.5 What’s Next?

Now that we have the results of the terrain analysis available in vector format, they can be used to solve
the problem of which buildings we should consider for the residential development.

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9.2 Lesson: Combining the Analyses

Using the vectorized results of the raster analysis will allow you to select only those buildings on suitable
terrain.
The goal for this lesson: To use the vectorized terrain results to select suitable plots.

9.2.1 Try Yourself

ˆ Save your current map (raster_analysis.qgs).

ˆ Open the map in which you created during the vector analysis earlier (you should have saved the
file as analysis.qgs).
ˆ In the Layers panel, enable these layers:
– hillshade,
– solution (or buildings_over_100 )
ˆ In addition to these layers, which should already be loaded in the map from when you worked on
it before, also add the suitable_terrain.shp dataset.
ˆ If you are missing some layers, you should find them in exercise_data/
residential_development/
ˆ Use the Intersect tool (Vector → Geoprocessing Tools ) to create a new vector layer called
new_solution.shp which contains only those buildings which intersect the suitable_terrain
layer.
You should now have a layer showing certain buildings as your solution, for example:

Note: If you find that the Intersect tool does not produce any results, check the CRS settings of each of
your layers. The CRS must be the same for both the layers you are comparing. You may need to reproject
one layer by saving the layer as a new file with the required CRS. In our example, the suitable_terrain
layer was reprojected to WGS 84 / UTM 34S and named suitable_terrain_34S.shp.

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9.2.2 Try Yourself Inspecting the Results

Look at each of the buildings in your new_solution layer. Compare them with the suitable_terrain layer
by changing the symbology for the new_solution layer so that it has outlines only. What do you notice
about some of the buildings? Are they all suitable just because they intersect with the suitable_terrain
layer? Why or why not? Which ones would you deem to be unsuitable?
Check your results

9.2.3 Try Yourself Refining the Analysis

You can see from the results that some buildings which were included were not really suitable, so we can
now refine the analysis.
We want to ensure that our analysis returns only those buildings which fall entirely within the
suitable_terrain layer. How would you achieve this? Use one or more Vector Analysis tools and
remember that our buildings are all over 100m squared in size.
Check your results

9.2.4 In Conclusion

You have now answered the original research question, and can offer an opinion (with reasons, backed
by analysis) for a recommendation regarding which property to develop.

9.2.5 What’s Next?

Next you will present these results as part of your second assignment.

9.3 Assignment
Using the print layout, make a new map representing the results of your analysis. Include these layers:
ˆ places (with labels),
ˆ hillshade,
ˆ solution (or new_solution ),
ˆ roads and
ˆ either aerial_photos or DEM.
Write a short explanatory text to accompany it. Include in this text the criteria that were
used in considering a house for purchase and subsequent development, as well as explaining your
recommendations for which buildings are suitable.

9.4 Lesson: Supplementary Exercise

In this lesson, you will be guided through a complete GIS analysis in QGIS.

Note: Lesson developed by Linfiniti and S Motala (Cape Peninsula University of Technology)

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9.4.1 Problem Statement

You are tasked with finding areas in and around the Cape Peninsula that are a suitable habitat for a
rare fynbos plant species. The extent of your area of investigation in the Cape Peninsula is: south of
Melkbosstrand, west of Strand. Botanists have provided you with the following preferences exhibited by
the species in question:
ˆ It grows on east facing slopes.
ˆ It grows on slopes with a gradient between 15% and 60%.
ˆ It grows in areas that have a total annual rainfall of > 1200 mm.
ˆ It will only be found at least 250 m away from any human settlement.
ˆ The area of vegetation in which it occurs should be at least 6000m2 in area.
As a volunteer for Cape Nature, you have agreed to search for the plant on the closest suitable piece of
land to your house. Use your GIS skills to determine where you should go to look.

9.4.2 Solution Outline

In order to solve this problem, you will have to download data from https://www.dropbox.com/s/
q5evvkizuunrcs0/more_analysis.zip?dl=0 and place it under exercise_data/more_analysis folder.
You will use it to find the candidate area that is closest to your house. If you don’t live in Cape Town
(where this problem is based) you can choose any house in the Cape Town region. The solution will
involve:
1. analysing the DEM to find the east facing slopes and the slopes with the correct gradients;
2. analysing the rainfall raster to find the areas with the correct amount of rainfall;
3. analysing the Zoning vector layer to find areas that are away from human settlement and are of
the correct size.

9.4.3 Setting up the Map

1. Click on the „CRS status“ button in the extreme lower right corner of the screen. Under the CRS
tab of the screen that appears, you will see the box Coordinate reference systems of the world.
2. In this box, navigate to Projected Coordinate Systems → Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM).
3. Select the entry WGS 84 / UTM zone 33S (with the EPSG code 32733).
4. Click OK. The map is now in the UTM33S coordinate reference system.
5. Save the map by clicking on the Save Project As toolbar button, or use the File → Save Project
As. . . menu item.
6. Save the map in a directory called Rasterprac that you should create somewhere on your computer.
You will save whatever layers you create in this directory as well.

9.4.4 Loading Data into the Map

In order to process the data, you will need to load the necessary layers (street names, zones, rainfall,
DEM) into the map canvas.

For vectors. . .

1. Click on the Open Data Source Manager button and enable the Vector tab in the dialog that
appears, or use the Layer → Add Layer → Add Vector Layer. . . menu item.

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2. Ensure that the File radio button is selected.

3. Click on the . . . button to browse for Vector dataset(s).
4. In the dialog that appears, open the exercise_data/more_analysis/streets directory.
5. Select the file Street_Names_UTM33S.shp.
6. Click Open.
The dialog closes and shows the original dialog, with the file path specified in the text field next to
the Vector dataset(s) button. This allows you to ensure that the correct file is selected. It is also
possible to enter the file path in this field manually, should you wish to do so.
7. Click Add. The vector layer will load in your map. Its color is automatically assigned. It will be
changed later.
8. Rename the layer to Streets.
(а) Right-click on it in the Layers panel (by default, the pane along the left-hand side of the
screen).
(б) Click Rename in the dialog that appears and rename it, pressing the Enter key when done.
9. Repeat the vector adding process, but this time select the
Generalised_Zoning_Dissolve_UTM33S.shp file in the Zoning directory.
10. Rename it to Zoning.

For rasters. . .

1. Click on the Open Data Source Manager button and enable the Raster tab in the dialog that
appears, or use the Layer → Add Layer → Add Raster Layer. . . menu item.
2. Ensure that the File radio button is selected.
3. Navigate to the appropriate file, select it, and click Open.
4. Do this for each of the two raster files. The files you want are DEM/reproject/DEM and Rainfall/
reprojected/rainfall.tif.
5. Rename the rainfall raster to Rainfall (with an initial capital). Initially when you load them, the
images will be gray rectangles. Don’t worry, this will be changed later.
6. Save the map.
In order to properly see what’s going on, the symbology for the layers needs to be changed.

9.4.5 Changing the symbology of vector layers

1. In the Layers panel, right-click on the Streets layer.

2. Select Properties from the menu that appears.
3. Switch to the Symbology tab in the dialog that appears.
4. Click on the button labelled Change, with a square showing the current color of the Streets layer.
5. Select a new color in the dialog that appears.
6. Click OK.
7. Click OK again in the Layer Properties dialog. This will change the color of the Streets layer.
8. Follow a similar process for the Zoning layer and choose an appropriate color for it.

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9.4.6 Changing the symbology of raster layers

Raster layer symbology is somewhat different.

1. Open the Properties dialog for the Rainfall raster.
2. Switch to the Symbology tab. You’ll notice that this dialog is very different from the version used
for vector layers.
3. Ensure that the button Use standard deviation is selected.
4. Change the value in the associated box to 2.00 (it should be set to 0.00 by default).
5. Under the heading Contrast enhancement, change the value of the Current dropdown list to Stretch
to MinMax.
6. Click OK. The „Rainfall“ raster, if visible, should change colors, allowing you to see different
brightness values for each pixel.
7. Repeat this process for the DEM, but set the standard deviations used for stretching to 4.00.

9.4.7 Changing the layer order

1. In the Layers panel, click and drag layers up and down to change the order they appear in on the
map.
2. Newer versions of QGIS may have a Control rendering order checkbox beneath the Layers panel.
Ensure that it is checked.
Now that all the data is loaded and properly visible, the analysis can begin. It is best if the clipping
operation is done first. This is so that no processing power is wasted on computing values in areas that
aren’t going to be used anyway.

9.4.8 Find the Correct Districts

1. Load the vector layer admin_boundaries/Western_Cape_UTM33S.shp into your map.

2. Rename it to Districts.
3. Right-click on the Districts layer in the Layers panel.
4. In the menu that appears, select the Query. . . menu item. The Query Builder dialog appears.
You will now build a query to select only the following list of districts:
ˆ Bellville
ˆ Cape
ˆ Goodwood
ˆ Kuils River
ˆ Mitchells Plain
ˆ Simons Town and
ˆ Wynberg.
1. In the Fields list, double-click on the NAME_2 field. It appears in the SQL where clause text field
below.
2. Click the = button; an = sign is added to the SQL query.
3. Click the All button below the (currently empty) Values list. After a short delay, this will populate
the Values list with the values of the selected field (NAME_2 ).
4. Double-click the value Bellville in the Values list. As before, this will be added to the SQL query.

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In order to select more than one district, you’ll need to use the OR boolean operator.
1. Click the OR button and it will be added to the SQL query.
2. Using a process similar to the above, add the following to the existing SQL query:

"NAME_2" = 'Cape'

3. Add another OR operator, then work your way through the list of districts above in a similar
fashion.
The final query should be

"NAME_2" = 'Bellville' OR "NAME_2" = 'Cape' OR "NAME_2" = 'Goodwood' OR

"NAME_2" = 'Kuils River' OR "NAME_2" = 'Mitchells Plain' OR "NAME_2" =
'Simons Town' OR "NAME_2" = 'Wynberg'

4. Click OK. The districts shown in your map are now limited to those in the list above.

9.4.9 Clip the Rasters

Now that you have an area of interest, you can clip the rasters to this area.
1. Ensure that the only layers that are visible are the DEM, Rainfall and Districts layers.
2. Districts must be on top so that they are visible.
3. Open the clipping dialog by selecting the menu item Raster → Extraction → Clipper.
4. In the Input file (raster) dropdown list, select the DEM layer.
5. Specify an output location in the Output file text field by clicking the Select. . . button.
6. Navigate to your Rasterprac directory.
7. Enter a file name.
8. Save the file. Leave the No data value checkbox unchecked.
9. Use the Extent clipping mode by ensuring the correct radio button is selected.
10. Click and drag an area in the canvas, so that the area which includes the districts is selected.
11. Check the Open output file after running algorithm box.
12. Click Run.
13. After the clipping operation is completed, DO NOT CLOSE the Clipper dialog. (Doing so would
cause you to lose the clipping area that you have already defined.)
14. Select the Rainfall raster in the Input file (raster) dropdown list and choose a different output file
name.
15. Do not change any other options. Do not alter the existing clipping area which you drew previously.
Leave everything the same and click Run.
16. After the second clipping operation has completed, you may close the Clipper dialog.
17. Save the map.

9.4.10 Clean up the map

1. Remove the original Rainfall and DEM layers from the Layers panel:

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2. Right-click on these layers and select Remove.

Note: This will not remove the data from your storage device, it will merely take it out of your
map.

3. Deactivate the labels on the Streets layer:

(а) Click the Labeling button.
(б) Uncheck the Label this layer with box.
(в) Click OK.
4. Show all the Streets again:
(а) Right-click on the layer in the Layers panel.
(б) Select Query.
(в) In the Query dialog that appears, click the Clear button, then click OK.
(г) Wait while the data is loaded. All the streets will now be visible.
5. Change the raster symbology as before (see Changing the symbology of raster layers ).
6. Save the map.
7. You can now hide the vector layers by unchecking the box next to them in the Layers panel. This
will make the map render faster and will save you some time.
In order to create the hillshade, you will need to use an algorithm that was written for this purpose.

9.4.11 Create the hillshade

1. In the Layers panel, ensure that the DEM is the active layer (i.e., it is highlighted by having been
clicked on).
2. Click on the Raster → Analysis → Hillshade menu item to open the Hillshade dialog.
3. Specify an appropriate location for the output layer and call it hillshade.
4. Check the Open output file after running algorithm box.
5. Click Run.
6. Wait for it to finish processing.
The new hillshade layer has appeared in your Layers list.
1. Right-click on the hillshade layer in your Layers list and bring up the Properties dialog.
2. Click on the Transparency tab and set the transparency slider to 80%.
3. Click Run on the dialog.
4. Note the effect when the transparent hillshade is superimposed over the clipped DEM.

9.4.12 Slope

1. Click on the menu item Raster → Terrain analysis.

2. Select the Slope analysis type, with the clipped DEM as the input layer.
3. Specify an appropriate file name and location for output purposes.
4. Check the Open output file after running algorithm box.
5. Click Run.

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The slope image has been calculated and added to the map. However, as usual it is just a gray rectangle.
To properly see what’s going on, change the symbology as follows.
1. Open the layer Properties dialog (as usual, via the right-click menu of the layer).
2. Click on the Symbology tab.
3. Where it says Grayscale (in the Color map dropdown menu), change it to Pseudocolor.
4. Ensure that the Use standard deviation radio button is selected.

9.4.13 Aspect

Use the same approach as for calculating the slope, but select Aspect in the initial dialog box.
Remember to save the map periodically.

9.4.14 Reclassifying rasters

1. Click the menu item Raster → Raster calculator.

2. Specify your Rasterprac directory as the location for the output layer.
3. Ensure that the Open output file after running algorithm box is selected.
In the Raster bands list on the left, you will see all the raster layers in your Layers panel. If your Slope
layer is called slope, it will be listed as slope@1.
The slope needs to be between 15 and 60 degrees. Everything less than 15 or greater than 60 must
therefore be excluded.
1. Using the list items and buttons in the interface, build the following expression:

((slope@1 < 15) OR (slope@1 > 60)) = 0

2. Set the Output layer field to an appropriate location and file name.
3. Click Run.
Now find the correct aspect (east-facing: between 45 and 135 degrees) using the same approach.
1. Build the following expression:

((aspect@1 < 45) OR (aspect@1 > 135)) = 0

2. Find the correct rainfall (greater than 1200mm) the same way. Build the following expression:

(rainfall@1 < 1200) = 0

Having reclassified all the rasters, you will now see them displayed as gray rectangles in your map
(assuming that they have been added to the map correctly). To properly display raster data with only
two classes (1 and 0, meaning true or false), you will need to change their symbology.

9.4.15 Setting the style for the reclassified layers

1. Open the Symbology tab in the layer’s Properties dialog as usual.

2. Under the heading Load min / max values from band, select the Actual (slower) radio button.
3. Click the Load button.
The Custom min / max values fields should now populate with 0 and 1, respectively. (If they do not,
then there was a mistake with your reclassification of the data, and you will need to go over that part
again.)

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1. Under the heading Contrast enhancement, set the Current dropdown list to Stretch To MinMax.
2. Click OK.
3. Do this for all three reclassified rasters, and remember to save your work!
The only criterion that remains is that the area must be 250m away from urban areas. We will satisfy
this requirement by ensuring that the areas we compute are 250m or more from the edge of a rural area.
Hence, we need to find all rural areas first.

9.4.16 Finding rural areas

1. Hide all layers in the Layers panel.

2. Unhide the Zoning vector layer.
3. Right-click on it and bring up the Query dialog.
4. Build the following query:

"Gen_Zoning" = 'Rural'

See the earlier instructions for building the Streets query if you get stuck.
5. When you’re done, close the Query dialog.
You should see a collection of polygons from the Zoning layer. You will need to save these to a new layer
file.
1. On the right-click menu for Zoning, select Save as. . . .
2. Save your layer under the Zoning directory.
3. Name the output file rural.shp.
4. Click OK.
5. Add the layer to your map.
6. Click the menu item Vector → Geoprocessing Tools → Dissolve.
7. Select the rural layer as your input vector layer, while leaving the Use only selected features box
unchecked.
8. Leave empty the Dissolve field(s) option to combine all selected features in a single one.
9. Save your layer under the Zoning directory.
10. Check the Open output file after running algorithm box.
11. Click Run.
12. Close the Dissolve dialog.
13. Remove the rural and Zoning layers.
14. Save the map.
Now you need to exclude the areas that are within 250m from the edge of the rural areas. Do this by
creating a negative buffer, as explained below.

9.4.17 Creating a negative buffer

1. Click the menu item Vector → Geoprocessing Tools → Buffer(s).

2. In the dialog that appears, select the rural_dissolve layer as your input vector layer (Use only
selected features should not be checked).

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3. Select the Buffer distance button and enter the value -250 into the associated field; the negative
value means that the buffer must be an internal buffer.
4. Check the Dissolve buffer results box.
5. Set the output file to the same directory as the other rural vector files.
6. Name the output file rural_buffer.shp.
7. Click Save.
8. Click OK and wait for the processing to complete.
9. Select Yes on the dialog that appears.
10. Close the Buffer dialog.
11. Remove the rural_dissolve layer.
12. Save the map.
In order to incorporate the rural zones into the same analysis with the three existing rasters, it will need
to be rasterized as well. But in order for the rasters to be compatible for analysis, they will need to be
the same size. Therefore, before you can rasterize, you’ll need to clip the vector to the same area as the
three rasters. A vector can only be clipped by another vector, so you will first need to create a bounding
box polygon the same size as the rasters.

9.4.18 Creating a bounding box vector

1. Click on the menu item Layer → New → New Shapefile Layer. . . .

2. Under the Type heading, select the Polygon button.
3. Click Specify CRS and set the coordinate reference system WGS 84 / UTM zone 33S : EPSG:32733.
4. Click OK.
5. Click OK on the New Vector Layer dialog as well.
6. Save the vector in the Zoning directory.
7. Name the output file bbox.shp.
8. Hide all layers except the new bbox layer and one of the reclassified rasters.
9. Ensure that the bbox layer is highlighted in the Layers panel.
10. Navigate to the View > Toolbars menu item and ensure that Digitizing is selected. You should
then see a toolbar icon with a pencil or koki on it. This is the Toggle editing button.
11. Click the Toggle editing button to enter edit mode. This allows you to edit a vector layer.
12. Click the Add feature button, which should be nearby the Toggle editing button. It may be hidden
behind a double arrow button; if so, click the double arrows to show the Digitizing toolbar’s hidden
buttons.
13. With the Add feature tool activated, left-click on the corners of the raster. You may need to zoom
in with the mouse wheel to ensure that it is accurate. To pan across the map in this mode, click
and drag in the map with the middle mouse button or mouse wheel.
14. For the fourth and final point, right-click to finalize the shape.
15. Enter any arbitrary number for the shape ID.
16. Click OK.
17. Click the Save edits button.
18. Click the Toggle editing button to stop your editing session.
19. Save the map.

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Now that you have a bounding box, you can use it to clip the rural buffer layer.

9.4.19 Clipping a vector layer

1. Ensure that only the bbox and rural_buffer layers are visible, with the latter on top.
2. Click the menu item Vector > Geoprocessing Tools > Clip.
3. In the dialog that appears, set the input vector layer to rural_buffer and the clip layer to bbox,
with both Use only selected features boxes unchecked.
4. Put the output file under the Zoning directory.
5. Name the output file rural_clipped.
6. Click OK.
7. When prompted to add the layer to the TOC, click Yes.
8. Close the dialog.
9. Compare the three vectors and see the results for yourself.
10. Remove the bbox and rural_buffer layers, then save your map.
Now it’s ready to be rasterized.

9.4.20 Rasterizing a vector layer

You’ll need to specify a pixel size for a new raster that you create, so first you’ll need to know the size
of one of your existing rasters.
1. Open the Properties dialog of any of the three existing rasters.
2. Switch to the Metadata tab.
3. Make a note of the X and Y values under the heading Dimensions in the Metadata table.
4. Close the Properties dialog.
5. Click on the Raster → Conversion → Rasterize menu item. You may receive a warning about a
dataset being unsupported. Click it away and ignore it.
6. Select rural_clipped as your input layer.
7. Set an output file location inside the Zoning directory.
8. Name the output file rural_raster.tif.
9. Check the New size box and enter the X and Y values you made a note of earlier.
10. Check the Load into canvas box.
11. Click the pencil icon next to the text field which shows the command that will be run. At the end
of the existing text, add a space and then the text -burn 1. This tells the Rasterize function to
„burn“ the existing vector into the new raster and give the areas covered by the vector the new
value of 1 (as opposed to the rest of the image, which will automatically be 0).
12. Click OK.
13. The new raster should show up in your map once it has been computed.
14. The new raster will look like a grey rectangle – you may change the display style as you did for
the reclassified rasters.
15. Save your map.

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Now that you have all four criteria each in a separate raster, you need to combine them to see which
areas satisfy all the criteria. To do so, the rasters will be multiplied with each other. When this happens,
all overlapping pixels with a value of 1 will retain the value of 1, but if a pixel has the value of 0 in any
of the four rasters, then it will be 0 in the result. In this way, the result will contain only the overlapping
areas.

9.4.21 Combining rasters

1. Click the Raster → Raster calculator menu item.

2. Build the following expression (with the appropriate names for your layers, depending on what you
called them):

[Rural raster] * [Reclassified aspect] * [Reclassified slope] *

[Reclassified rainfall]

3. Set the output location to the Rasterprac directory.

4. Name the output raster cross_product.tif.
5. Ensure that the Open output file after running algorithm box is checked.
6. Click Run.
7. Change the symbology of the new raster in the same way as you set the style for the other reclassified
rasters. The new raster now properly displays the areas where all the criteria are satisfied.
To get the final result, you need to select the areas that are greater than 6000m^2. However, computing
these areas accurately is only possible for a vector layer, so you will need to vectorize the raster.

9.4.22 Vectorizing the raster

1. Click on the menu item Raster → Conversion → Polygonize.

2. Select the cross_product.tif raster.
3. Set the output location to Rasterprac.
4. Name the file candidate_areas.shp.
5. Ensure that Open output file after running algorithm is checked.
6. Click Run.
7. Close the dialog when processing is complete.
All areas of the raster have been vectorized, so you need to select only the areas that have a value of 1.
1. Open the Query dialog for the new vector.
2. Build this query:

"DN" = 1

3. Click OK.
4. Create a new vector file from the results by saving the candidate_areas vector after the query is
complete (and only the areas with a value of 1 are visible). Use the Save as. . . function in the
layer’s right-click menu for this.
5. Save the file in the Rasterprac directory.
6. Name the file candidate_areas_only.shp.
7. Save your map.

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9.4.23 Calculating the area for each polygon

1. Open the new vector layer’s right-click menu.

2. Select Open attribute table.
3. Click the Toggle editing mode button along the bottom of the table, or press Ctrl+E.
4. Click the Open field calculator button along the bottom of the table, or press Ctrl+I.
5. Under the New field heading in the dialog that appears, enter the field name area. The output
field type should be an integer, and the field width should be 10.
6. In Field calculator expression, type:

$area

This means that the field calculator will calculate the area of each polygon in the vector layer and
will then populate a new integer column (called area ) with the computed value.
7. Click OK.
8. Do the same thing for another new field called id. In Field calculator expression, type:

$id

This ensures that each polygon has a unique ID for identification purposes.
9. Click Toggle editing mode again, and save your edits if prompted to do so.

9.4.24 Selecting areas of a given size

Now that the areas are known:

1. Build a query (as usual) to select only the polygons larger than 6000m^2. The query is:

"area" > 6000

2. Save the selection as a new vector layer called solution.shp.

You now have your solution areas, from which you will pick the one nearest to your house.

9.4.25 Digitize your house

1. Create a new vector layer as before, but this time, select the Type value as being a Point.
2. Ensure that it is in the correct CRS!
3. Name the new layer house.shp.
4. Finish creating the new layer.
5. Enter edit mode (while the new layer is selected).
6. Click the point where your house or other current place of residence is, using the streets as a guide.
You might have to open other layers to help you find your house. If you don’t live anywhere nearby,
just click somewhere among the streets where a house could conceivably be.
7. Enter any arbitrary number for the shape ID.
8. Click OK.
9. Save your edits and exit edit mode.
10. Save the map.

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You will need to find the centroids („centers of mass“) for the solution area polygons in order to decide
which is closest to your house.

9.4.26 Calculate polygon centroids

1. Click on the Vector → Geometry Tools → Centroids menu item.

2. Specify the input layer as solution.shp.
3. Provide the output location as Rasterprac.
4. Call the destination file solution_centroids.shp.

5. Check Open output file after running algorithm to add the result to the TOC (Layers panel).
6. Click Run and close the dialog.
7. Drag the new layer to the top of the layer order so that you can see it.

9.4.27 Calculate which centroid is closest to your house

1. Click on the menu item Vector → Analysis Tools → Distance matrix.

2. The input layer should be your house, and the target layer solution_centroids. Both of these should
use the id field as their unique ID field.
3. The output matrix type should be linear.
4. Set an appropriate output location and name.
5. Click OK.
6. Open the file in a text editor (or import it into a spreadsheet). Note which target ID is associated
with the shortest Distance. There may be more than one at the same distance.
7. Build a query in QGIS to select only the solution areas closest to your house (selecting it using the
id field).
This is the final answer to the research question.
For your submission, include the semi-transparent hillshade layer over an appealing raster of your choice
(such as the DEM or the slope raster, for example). Also include the polygon of the closest solution
area(s), as well as your house. Follow all the best practices for cartography in creating your output map.

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 Глава 10

Module: Plugins

Plugins allow you to extend the functionality QGIS offers. In this module, you’ll be shown how to activate
and use plugins.

10.1 Lesson: Installing and Managing Plugins

To begin using plugins, you need to know how to download, install and activate them. To do this, you
will learn how to use the Plugin Installer and Plugin Manager.
The goal for this lesson: To understand and use QGIS‘ plugin system.

10.1.1 Follow Along: Managing Plugins

ˆ To open the Plugin Manager, click on the menu item Plugins → Manage and Install Plugins.
ˆ In the dialog that opens, find the Processing plugin:

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ˆ Click in the box next to this plugin and uncheck it to deactivate it.
ˆ Click Close.
ˆ Looking at the menu, you will notice that the Processing menu is is now gone. This means that
many of the processing functions you have been using before have disappeared! This is because
they are part of the Processing plugin, which needs to be activated to use them.
ˆ Open the Plugin Manager again and reactivate the Processing plugin by clicking in the checkbox
next to it and clicking Close..
ˆ The Processing menu should be available again.

10.1.2 Follow Along: Installing New Plugins

The list of plugins that you can activate and deactivate draws from the plugins that you currently have
installed.
ˆ To install new plugins, select the Not Installed option in the Plugin Manager dialog. The plugins
available for you to install will be listed here. This list will vary depending on your existing system
setup.

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ˆ You can find information about each plugin by selecting it in the list of plugins displayed.

ˆ A plugin can be installed by clicking the Install Plugin button below the plugin information panel.

Note: if the plugin has some error it will be listed in the Invalid tab. You can then contact the plugin
owner to fix the problem.

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10.1.3 Follow Along: Configuring Additional Plugin Repositories

The plugins that are available to you for installation depend on which plugin repositories you are
configured to use.
QGIS plugins are stored online in repositories. By default, only the official repositories are active, meaning
that you can only access official plugins. These are usually the first plugins you want, because they have
been tested thoroughly and are often included in QGIS by default.
It is possible, however, to try out more plugins than the default ones. First, you want to configure
additional repositories. To do this:
ˆ Open the Settings tab in the Plugin Manager dialog:

ˆ Click Add to find and add a new repository.

ˆ Provide a Name and URL for the new repository you want to configure and make sure the Enabled
checkbox is selected.

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ˆ You will now see the new plugin repo listed in the list of configured Plugin Repositories

ˆ You can also select the option to display Experimental Plugins by selecting the Show also
experimental plugins checkbox.
ˆ If you now switch back to the Not Installed tab, you will see that additional plugins are now
available for installation.
ˆ To install a plugin, simply click on it in the list and then click the Install plugin button.

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10.1.4 In Conclusion

Installing plugins in QGIS is simple and effective!

10.1.5 What’s Next?

Next we’ll introduce you to some useful plugins as examples.

10.2 Lesson: Useful QGIS Plugins

Now that you can install, enable and disable plugins, let’s see how this can help you in practice by looking
at some examples of useful plugins.
The goal for this lesson: To familiarize yourself with the plugin interface and get acquainted with
some useful plugins.

10.2.1 Follow Along: The QuickMapServices Plugin

The QuickMapServices plugin is a simple and easy to use plugin that adds base maps to your QGIS
project. It has many different options and settings, let’s start to explore some of its features.
1. Start a new map and add the roads layer from the training_data Geopackage.
2. Install the QuickMapServices plugin.
3. Open the plugin’s search tab by clicking on Web → QuickMapServices → Search QMS. This option
of the plugin allows you to filter the available base maps by the current extent of the map canvas.
4. Click on the Filter by extent and you should see one service available.
5. Click on the Add button next to the map to load it.
6. The base map will be loaded and you will have a satellite background for the map.

The QuickMapServices plugin makes a lot of base maps available.

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1. Close the Search QMS panel we opened before

2. Click again on Web → QuickMapServices. The first menu lists different map providers with available
maps:

But there is more.

If the default maps are not enough for you, you can add other map providers.
1. Click on Web → QuickMapServices → Settings and go to the More services tab.
2. Read carefully the message of this tab and if you agree click on the Get Contributed pack button.
If you now open the Web → QuickMapServices menu you will see that more providers are available.
Choose the one that best fits your needs!

10.2.2 Follow Along: The QuickOSM Plugin

With an incredible simple interface, the QuickOSM plugin allows you to download OpenStreetMap data.
1. Start a new empty project and add the roads layer from the training_data GeoPackage.
2. Install the QuickOSM plugin. The plugin adds two new buttons in the QGIS Toolbar and is
accessible in the Vector → QuickOSM menu.
3. Open the QuickOSM dialog. The plugin has many different tabs: we will use the Quick Query one.
4. You can download specific features by selecting a generic Key or be more specific and choose a
specific Key and Value pair.

Tip: if you are not familiar with the Key and Value system, click on the Help with key/value
button. It will open a web page with a complete description of this concept of OpenStreetMap.

5. Look for railway in the Key menu and let the Value be empty: so we are downloading all the
railway features without specifying any values.
6. Select Layer Extent in the next drop-down menu and choose roads.

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7. Click on the Run query button.

After some seconds the plugin will download all the features tagged in OpenStreetMap as railway and
load them directly into the map.
Nothing more! All the layers are loaded in the legend and are shown in the map canvas.

Warning: QuickOSM creates temporary layer when downloading the data. If you want to save them
permanently, click on the icon next to the layer and choose the options you prefer. Alternatively
you can open the Advanced menu in QuickOSM and choose where to save the data in the Directory
menu.

10.2.3 Follow Along: The QuickOSM Query engine

The quickest way to download data from QuickOSM plugin is using the Quick query tab and set some
small parameters. But if you need some more specific data?
If you are an OpenStreetMap query master you can use QuickOSM plugin also with your personal queries.
QuickOSM has an incredible data parser that, together with the amazing query engine of Overpass, lets
you download data with your specific needs.

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For example: we want to download the mountain peaks that belongs into a specific mountain area known
as Dolomites.
You cannot achieve this task with the Quick query tab, you have to be more specific and write your own
query. Let’s try to do this.
1. Start a new project.
2. Open the QuickOSM plugin and click on the Query tab.
3. Copy and paste the following code into the query canvas:

<!--
This shows all mountains (peaks) in the Dolomites.
You may want to use the "zoom onto data" button. =>
-->
<osm-script output="json">
<!-- search the area of the Dolomites -->
<query type="area">
<has-kv k="place" v="region"/>
<has-kv k="region:type" v="mountain_area"/>
<has-kv k="name:en" v="Dolomites"/>
</query>
<print mode="body" order="quadtile"/>
<!-- get all peaks in the area -->
<query type="node">
<area-query/>
<has-kv k="natural" v="peak"/>
</query>
<print mode="body" order="quadtile"/>
<!-- additionally, show the outline of the area -->
<query type="relation">
<has-kv k="place" v="region"/>
<has-kv k="region:type" v="mountain_area"/>
<has-kv k="name:en" v="Dolomites"/>
</query>
<print mode="body" order="quadtile"/>
<recurse type="down"/>
<print mode="skeleton" order="quadtile"/>
</osm-script>

Note: This query is written in a xml like language. If you are more used to the Overpass QL you
can write the query in this language.

4. And click on Run Query :

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The mountain peaks layer will be downloaded and shown in QGIS:

You can write complex queries using the Overpass Query language. Take a look at some example and
try to explore the query language.

10.2.4 Follow Along: The DataPlotly Plugin

The DataPlotly plugin allows you to create D3 plots of vector attributes data thanks to the plotly
library.
1. Start a new project

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2. Load the sample_points layer from the exercise_data/plugins folder

3. Install the plugin following the guidelines described in Follow Along: Installing New Plugins
searching Data Plotly
4. Open the plugin by clicking on the new icon in the toolbar or in the Plugins → Data Plotly menu
In the following example we are creating a simple Scatter Plot of two fields of the sample_points layer.
In the DataPlotly Panel:
1. Choose sample_points in the Layer filter, cl for the X Field and mg for the Y Field :

2. If you want you can change the colors, the marker type, the transparency and many other settings:
try to change some parameters to create the plot below.

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3. Once you have set all the parameters, click on the Create Plot button to create the plot.
The plot is interactive: this means you can use all the upper buttons to resize, move, or zoom in/out the
plot canvas. Moreover, each element of the plot is interactive: by clicking or selecting one or more point
on the plot, the corresponding point(s) will be selected in the plot canvas.

You can save the plot as a png static image or as an html file by clicking on the or on the button
in the lower right corner of the plot.
There is more. Sometimes it can be useful to have two (or more) plots showing different plot types with
different variables on the same page. Let’s do this!

1. Go back to the main plot settings tab by clicking on the button in the upper left corner of
the plugin panel
2. Change the Plot Type to Box Plot

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3. Choose group as Grouping Field and ph as Y Field

4. In the lower part of the panel, change the Type of Plot from SinglePlot to SubPlots and let the
default option Plot in Rows selected.

5. Once done click on the Create Plot button to draw the plot

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Now both scatter plot and box plot are shown in the same plot page. You still have the chance to click
on each plot item and select the corresponding features in the map canvas.

Tip: Each plot has its own manual page available in the tab. Try to explore all the plot types and
see all the other settings available.

10.2.5 In Conclusion

There are many useful plugins available for QGIS. Using the built-in tools for installing and managing
these plugins, you can find new plugins and make optimum use of them.

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10.2.6 What’s Next?

Next we’ll look at how to use layers that are hosted on remote servers in real time.

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 Глава 11

Module: Online Resources

When considering data sources for a map, there is no need to be restricted to data which you have saved
on the computer you’re working on. There are online data sources which you can load data from as long
as you are connected to the Internet.
In this module, we’ll cover two kinds of web-based GIS services: Web Mapping Services (WMS) and Web
Feature Services (WFS).

11.1 Lesson: Web Mapping Services

A Web Mapping Service (WMS) is a service hosted on a remote server. Similar to a website, you can
access it as long as you have a connection to the server. Using QGIS, you can load a WMS directly into
your existing map.
From the lesson on plugins, you will remember that it’s possible to load a new raster image from Google,
for example. However, this is a once-off transaction: once you have downloaded the image, it doesn’t
change. A WMS is different in that it’s a live service that will automatically refresh its view if you pan
or zoom on the map.
The goal for this lesson: To use a WMS and understand its limitations.

11.1.1 Follow Along: Loading a WMS Layer

For this exercise, you can either use the basic map you made at the start of the course, or just start a
new map and load some existing layers into it. For this example, we used a new map and loaded the
original places, landuse and protected_areas layers and adjusted the symbology:

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1. Load these layers into a new map, or use your original map with only these layers visible.
2. Before starting to add the WMS layer, deactivate „on the fly“ projection (Project → Properties. . .
→ CRS tab, check No projection (or unknown/non-Earth projection). This may cause the layers
to no longer overlap properly, but don’t worry: we’ll fix that later.

3. To add WMS layers, click on the button to open the Data Source Manager dialog and enable
the WMS/WMTS tab.

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Remember how you connected to a SpatiaLite or GeoPackage database at the beginning of the
course. The landuse, buildings, and roads layers are stored in a database. To use those layers, you
first needed to connect to the database. Using a WMS is similar, with the exception that the layers
are on a remote server.
4. To create a new connection to a WMS, click on the New button.
You’ll need a WMS address to continue. There are several free WMS servers available on the
Internet. One of these is terrestris, which makes use of the OpenStreetMap dataset.
5. To make use of this WMS, set it up in your current dialog, like this:

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ˆ The value of the Name field should be terrestris.

ˆ The value of the URL field should be https://ows.terrestris.de/osm/service.
6. Click OK. You should see the new WMS server listed:

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7. Click Connect. In the list below, you should now see these new entries loaded:

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These are all the layers hosted by this WMS server.

8. Click once on the OSM-WMS layer. This will display its Coordinate Reference System :

Since we’re not using WGS 84 for our map, let’s see all the CRSs we have to choose from.
(а) Click the Change. . . button. You will see a standard Coordinate Reference System Selector
dialog.
(б) We want a projected CRS, so let’s choose WGS 84 / Pseudo Mercator.
i. Enter the value pseudo in the Filter field:
ii. Choose WGS 84 / Pseudo Mercator from the list.

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iii. Click OK. The Coordinate Reference System associated with the entry has changed.
9. Click Add and the new layer will appear in your map as OpenStreetMap WMS - by terrestris.
10. Close the :guilabel;‘Data Source Manager‘ dialog if not done automatically
11. In the Layers panel, click and drag it to the bottom of the list.
12. Zoom out in order to get a global view of the layers. You will notice that your layers aren’t located
correctly (near west of Africa). This is because „on the fly“ projection is disabled.

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13. Let’s enable the reprojection again, but using the same projection as the OpenStreetMap WMS
layer, which is WGS 84 / Pseudo Mercator.
(а) Open the Project → Properties. . . → CRS tab
(б) Uncheck No projection (or unknown/non-Earth projection)
(в) Choose WGS 84 / Pseudo Mercator from the list.

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(г) Click OK.

14. Now right-click on one of your own layers in the Layers panel and click Zoom to layer extent. You
should see the Swellendam area:

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Note how the WMS layer’s streets and our own streets overlap. That’s a good sign!

The nature and limitations of WMS

By now you may have noticed that this WMS layer actually has many features in it. It has streets, rivers,
nature reserves, and so on. What’s more, even though it looks like it’s made up of vectors, it seems to
be a raster, but you can’t change its symbology. Why is that?
This is how a WMS works: it’s a map, similar to a normal map on paper, that you receive as an image.
What usually happens is that you have vector layers, which QGIS renders as a map. But using a WMS,
those vector layers are on the WMS server, which renders it as a map and sends that map to you as an
image. QGIS can display this image, but can’t change its symbology, because all that is handled on the
server.
This has several advantages, because you don’t need to worry about the symbology. It’s already worked
out, and should be nice to look at on any competently designed WMS.
On the other hand, you can’t change the symbology if you don’t like it, and if things change on the WMS
server, then they’ll change on your map as well. This is why you sometimes want to use a Web Feature
Service (WFS) instead, which gives you vector layers separately, and not as part of a WMS-style map.
This will be covered in the next lesson, however. First, let’s add another WMS layer from the terrestris
WMS server.

11.1.2 Try Yourself

1. Hide the OSM-WSM layer in the Layers panel.

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2. Add the „ZAF CGS 1M Bedrock Lithostratigraphy“ WMS server at this URL: http://196.33.
85.22/cgi-bin/ZAF_CGS_Bedrock_Geology/wms
3. Load the BEDROCKGEOLOGY layer into the map (you can also use the Layer → Add Layer →
Add Layer WMS/WMTS Layer. . . button to open the Data Source Manager dialog). Remember
to check that it’s in the same WGS 84 / World Mercator projection as the rest of your map!
4. You might want to set its Encoding to JPEG and its Tile size option to 200 by 200, so that it
loads faster:

Check your results

11.1.3 Try Yourself

1. Hide all other WMS layers to prevent them from rendering unnecessarily in the background.
2. Add the „OGC“ WMS server at this URL: http://ogc.gbif.org:80/wms
3. Add the bluemarble layer.
Check your results

11.1.4 Try Yourself

Part of the difficulty of using WMS is finding a good (free) server.

ˆ Find a new WMS at directory.spatineo.com (or elsewhere online). It must not have associated fees
or restrictions, and must have coverage over the Swellendam study area.
Remember that what you need in order to use a WMS is only its URL (and preferably some sort
of description).
Check your results

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11.1.5 In Conclusion

Using a WMS, you can add inactive maps as backdrops for your existing map data.

11.1.6 Further Reading

ˆ Spatineo Directory
ˆ Geopole.org
ˆ OpenStreetMap.org list of WMS servers

11.1.7 What’s Next?

Now that you’ve added an inactive map as a backdrop, you’ll be glad to know that it’s also possible to
add features (such as the other vector layers you added before). Adding features from remote servers is
possible by using a Web Feature Service (WFS). That’s the topic of the next lesson.

11.2 Lesson: Web Feature Services

A Web Feature Service (WFS) provides its users with GIS data in formats that can be loaded directly
in QGIS. Unlike a WMS, which provides you only with a map which you can’t edit, a WFS gives you
access to the features themselves.
The goal for this lesson: To use a WFS and understand how it differs from a WMS.

11.2.1 Follow Along: Loading a WFS Layer

ˆ Start a new map. This is for demo purposes and won’t be saved.
ˆ Ensure that „on the fly“ re-projection is switched off.
ˆ Click the Add WFS Layer button:

ˆ Click the New button.

ˆ In the dialog that appears, enter the Name as nsidc.org and the URL as https://nsidc.org/
cgi-bin/atlas_south?version=1.1.0.

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ˆ Click OK, and the new connection will appear in your Server connections.
ˆ Click the Connect. A list of the available layers will appear:

ˆ Find the layer south_poles_wfs.

ˆ Click on the layer to select it:

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ˆ Click Add.
It may take a while to load the layer. When it has loaded, it will appear in the map. Here it is over the
outlines of Antarctica (available on the same server, and by the name of antarctica_country_border ):

How is this different from having a WMS layer? That will become obvious when you see the layers‘
attributes.
ˆ Open the south_poles_wfs layer’s attribute table. You should see this:

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Since the points have attributes, we are able to label them, as well as change their symbology. Here’s an
example:

ˆ Add labels to your layer to take advantage of the attribute data in this layer.

Differences from WMS layers

A Web Feature Service returns the layer itself, not just a map rendered from it. This gives you direct
access to the data, meaning that you can change its symbology and run analysis functions on it. However,
this is at the cost of much more data being transmitted. This will be especially obvious if the layers you’re
loading have complicated shapes, a lot of attributes, or many features; or even if you’re just loading a
lot of layers. WFS layers typically take a very long time to load because of this.

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11.2.2 Follow Along: Querying a WFS Layer

Although it is of possible to query a WFS layer after having loaded it, it’s often more efficient to query
it before you load it. That way, you’re only requesting the features you want, meaning that you use far
less bandwidth.
For example, on the WFS server we’re currently using, there is a layer called countries (excluding
Antarctica). Let’s say that we want to know where South Africa is relative to the south_poles_wfs
layer (and perhaps also the antarctica_country_border layer) that’s already been loaded.
There are two ways to do this. You can load the whole countries . . . layer, and then build a query as
usual once it’s loaded. However, transmitting the data for all the countries in the world and then only
using the data for South Africa seems a bit wasteful of bandwidth. Depending on your connection, this
dataset can take several minutes to load.
The alternative is to build the query as a filter before even loading the layer from the server.
ˆ In the Add WFS Layer . . . dialog, connect to the server we used before and you should see the list
of available layers.
ˆ Double-click next to the countries . . . layer in the Filter field, or click Build query :

ˆ In the dialog that appears, build the query "Countryeng- 'South Africa':

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ˆ It will appear as the Filter value:

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ˆ Click Add with the countries layer selected as above. Only the country with the Countryeng value
of South Africa will load from that layer:

You don’t have to, but if you tried both methods, you’ll notice that this is a lot faster than loading all
the countries before filtering them!

Notes on WFS availability

It is rare to find a WFS hosting features you need, if your needs are very specific. The reason why Web
Feature Services are relatively rare is because of the large amounts of data that must be transmitted to
describe a whole feature. It is therefore not very cost-effective to host a WFS rather than a WMS, which

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sends only images.

The most common type of WFS you’ll encounter will therefore probably be on a local network or even
on your own computer, rather than on the Internet.

11.2.3 In Conclusion

WFS layers are preferable over WMS layers if you need direct access to the attributes and geometries of
the layers. However, considering the amount of data that needs to be downloaded (which leads to speed
problems and also a lack of easily available public WFS servers) it’s not always possible to use a WFS
instead of a WMS.

11.2.4 What’s Next?

Next, you’ll see how to use QGIS Server to provide OGC services.

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 Глава 12

Module: QGIS Server

Module contributed by Tudor Bărăscu.

In this module, we’ll cover how to install and use QGIS Server.
For an introduction to what QGIS Server is (see the label_qgisserver section)

12.1 Lesson: Install QGIS Server

The goal for this lesson: To learn how to install QGIS Server on Debian Stretch. With negligible
variations you can also follow it for any Debian based distribution like Ubuntu and its derivatives.

Note: In Ubuntu you can use your regular user, prepending sudo to commands requiring admin
permissions. In Debian you can work as admin (root), without using sudo.

12.1.1 Follow Along: Install from packages

In this lesson we’re going to do only the install from packages as shown here .
Install QGIS Server with:
apt-get install qgis-server
# if you want to install server plugins, also:
apt-get install python-qgis

QGIS Server should be used in production without QGIS Desktop (with the accompagning X Server)
installed on the same machine.

12.1.2 Follow Along: QGIS Server Executable

The QGIS Server executable is qgis_mapserv.fcgi. You can check where it has been installed by
running find / -name 'qgis_mapserv.fcgi' which should output something like /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
qgis_mapserv.fcgi.

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Optionally, if you want to do a command line test at this time you can run the /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
qgis_mapserv.fcgi command which should output something like:
QFSFileEngine::open: No file name specified
Warning 1: Unable to find driver ECW to unload from GDAL_SKIP environment variable.
Warning 1: Unable to find driver ECW to unload from GDAL_SKIP environment variable.
Warning 1: Unable to find driver JP2ECW to unload from GDAL_SKIP environment variable.
Warning 1: Unable to find driver ECW to unload from GDAL_SKIP environment variable.
Warning 1: Unable to find driver JP2ECW to unload from GDAL_SKIP environment variable.
Content-Length: 206
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8

<ServiceExceptionReport version="1.3.0" xmlns="https://www.opengis.net/ogc">

<ServiceException code="Service configuration error">Service unknown or unsupported</
˓→ServiceException>

</ServiceExceptionReport>

This is a good thing, it tells you we’re on the right track as the server is saying that we haven’t asked
for a supported service. We’ll see later on how to make WMS requests.

12.1.3 Follow Along: HTTP Server Configuration

In order to access on the installed QGIS server from an Internet Browser we need to use an HTTP server.
In this lesson we’re going to use the Apache HTTP server, colloquially called Apache.
First we need to install Apache by running the following command in a terminal: apt-get install
apache2 libapache2-mod-fcgid.
You can run QGIS server on your default website, or configure a virtualhost specifically for this, as
follows.
In the /etc/apache2/sites-available directory let’s create a file called qgis.demo.conf, with this
content:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
ServerName qgis.demo

DocumentRoot /var/www/html

# Apache logs (different than QGIS Server log)

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/qgis.demo.error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/qgis.demo.access.log combined

# Longer timeout for WPS... default = 40

FcgidIOTimeout 120

FcgidInitialEnv LC_ALL "en_US.UTF-8"

FcgidInitialEnv PYTHONIOENCODING UTF-8
FcgidInitialEnv LANG "en_US.UTF-8"

# QGIS log (different from apache logs) see https://docs.qgis.org/testing/en/docs/user_

˓→manual/working_with_ogc/ogc_server_support.html#qgis-server-logging
FcgidInitialEnv QGIS_SERVER_LOG_FILE /var/log/qgis/qgisserver.log
FcgidInitialEnv QGIS_SERVER_LOG_LEVEL 0

FcgidInitialEnv QGIS_DEBUG 1

# default QGIS project

SetEnv QGIS_PROJECT_FILE /home/qgis/projects/world.qgs

# QGIS_AUTH_DB_DIR_PATH must lead to a directory writeable by the Server's FCGI process user

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FcgidInitialEnv QGIS_AUTH_DB_DIR_PATH "/home/qgis/qgisserverdb/"

FcgidInitialEnv QGIS_AUTH_PASSWORD_FILE "/home/qgis/qgisserverdb/qgis-auth.db"

# See https://docs.qgis.org/testing/en/docs/user_manual/working_with_vector/supported_data.
˓→html#pg-service-file
SetEnv PGSERVICEFILE /home/qgis/.pg_service.conf
FcgidInitialEnv PGPASSFILE "/home/qgis/.pgpass"

# Tell QGIS Server instances to use a specific display number

FcgidInitialEnv DISPLAY ":99"

# if qgis-server is installed from packages in debian based distros this is usually /usr/lib/
˓→cgi-bin/
# run "locate qgis_mapserv.fcgi" if you don't know where qgis_mapserv.fcgi is
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
<Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin/">
AllowOverride None
Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews -SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
Require all granted
</Directory>

<IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
FcgidMaxRequestLen 26214400
FcgidConnectTimeout 60
</IfModule>

</VirtualHost>

You can do the above in a linux Desktop system by pasting and saving the above configuration after
doing nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/qgis.demo.conf.

Note: See some of the configuration options are explained in the Server server_env_variables section.

Let’s now create the directories that will store the QGIS Server logs and the authentication database:

mkdir /var/log/qgis/
chown www-data:www-data /var/log/qgis

mkdir /home/qgis/qgisserverdb
chown www-data:www-data /home/qgis/qgisserverdb

Note: www-data is the Apache user on Debian based systems and we need Apache to have access to those
locations or files. The chown www-data... commands changes the owner of the respective directories
and files to www-data.

We can now enable the virtual host, enable the fcgid mod if it’s not already enabled and restart the
apache2 service:
a2enmod fcgid
a2ensite qgis.demo
service apache2 restart

Note: If you installed QGIS Server without running an X Server (included in Linux Desktop) and if you
also want to use the GetPrint command then you should install a fake X Server and tell QGIS Server
to use it. You can do that by running the following commands.

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Install xvfb:

apt-get install xvfb

Create the service file:

sh -c \
"echo \
'[Unit]
Description=X Virtual Frame Buffer Service
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/Xvfb :99 -screen 0 1024x768x24 -ac +extension GLX +render -noreset

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target' \
> /etc/systemd/system/xvfb.service"

Enable, start and check the status of the xvfb.service:

systemctl enable xvfb.service
systemctl start xvfb.service
systemctl status xvfb.service

In the above configuration file there’s a FcgidInitialEnv DISPLAY ":99" that tells QGIS Server
instances to use display no. 99. If you’re running the Server in Desktop then there’s no need to install
xvfb and you should simply comment with # this specific setting in the configuration file. More info at
https://www.itopen.it/qgis-server-setup-notes/.
Now that Apache knows that he should answer requests to http://qgis.demo we also need to setup
the client system so that it knows who qgis.demo is. We do that by adding 127.0.0.1 qgis.demo
in the hosts file. We can do it with sh -c "echo '127.0.0.1 qgis.demo' >> /etc/hosts". Replace
127.0.0.1 with the IP of your server.

Note: Remember that both the myhost.conf and /etc/hosts files should be configured for our setup to
work. You can also test the access to your QGIS Server from other clients on the network (e.g. Windows
or Macos machines) by going to their /etc/hosts file and point the myhost name to whatever IP the
server machine has on the network. You can be sure that that specific IP is not 127.0.0.1 as that’s the
local IP, only accessible from the local machine. On *nix machines the hosts file is located in /etc,
while on Windows it’s under the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc directory. Under Windows you
need to start your text editor with administrator privileges before opening the hosts file.

We can test one of the installed qgis servers with a http request from command line with curl http:/
/qgis.demo/cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi which should output:
<ServiceExceptionReport version="1.3.0" xmlns="https://www.opengis.net/ogc">
<ServiceException code="Service configuration error">Service unknown or unsupported</
˓→ServiceException>

</ServiceExceptionReport>

Note: curl can be installed with apt-get install curl.

Apache is now configured.

Also, from your web browser you can check the capabilities of the server:
http://qgis.demo/cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi?SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.3.0&REQUEST=
GetCapabilities

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12.1.4 Follow Along: Create another virtual host

Let’s create another Apache virtual host pointing to QGIS Server. You can choose whatever name you
like (coco.bango, super.duper.training, example.com, etc.) but for simplicity sake we’re going to use
myhost.
ˆ Let’s set up the myhost name to point to the localhost IP by adding 127.0.0.1 x to the /etc/
hosts with the following command: sh -c "echo '127.0.0.1 myhost' >> /etc/hosts" or by
manually editing the file with gedit /etc/hosts.
ˆ We can check that myhost points to the localhost by running in the terminal the ping myhost
command which should output:

qgis@qgis:~$ ping myhost

PING myhost (127.0.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from localhost (127.0.0.1): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.024 ms
64 bytes from localhost (127.0.0.1): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.029 ms

ˆ Let’s try if we can access QGIS Server from the myhost site by doing: curl http://myhost/
cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi or by accessing the url from your Debian box browser. You will
probably get:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">

<html><head>
<title>404 Not Found</title>
</head><body>
<h1>Not Found</h1>
<p>The requested URL /cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi was not found on this server.</p>
<hr>
<address>Apache/2.4.25 (Debian) Server at myhost Port 80</address>
</body></html>

ˆ Apache doesn’t know that he’s supposed to answer requests pointing to the server named myhost.
In order to setup the virtual host the simplest way would be to make a myhost.conf file in the
/etc/apache2/sites-available directory that has the same content as qgis.demo.conf except
for the ServerName line that should be ServerName myhost. You could also change where the logs
go as otherwise the logs for the two virtual hosts would be shared but this is optional.
ˆ Let’s now enable the virtual host with a2ensite myhost.conf and then reload the Apache service
with service apache2 reload.
ˆ If you try again to access the http://myhost/cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi url you’ll notice everything
is working now!

12.1.5 In Conclusion

You learned how to install different QGIS Server versions from packages, how to configure Apache with
QGIS Server, on Debian based Linux distros.

12.1.6 What’s Next?

Now that you’ve installed QGIS Server and it’s accesible through the HTTP protocol, we need to learn
how to access some of the services it can offer. The topic of the next lesson is to learn how to access
QGIS Server WMS services.

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12.2 Lesson: Serving WMS

Let’s download the Training demo data and unzip the files in the qgis-server-tutorial-data
subdirectory to any directory. We recommend that you simply create a /home/qgis/projects directory
and put your files there in order to avoid possible permissions problems.
The demo data contains a QGIS project named world.qgs that is already prepared to be served with
QGIS Server. If you want to use your own project or you want to learn how a project is prepared see the
Creatingwmsfromproject section.

Note: This module presents the URLs so that the audience can easily distinguish the parameters and
parameters values. While the normal format is:

...&field1=value1&field2=value2&field3=value3

this tutorial uses:

&field1=value1
&field2=value2
&field3=value3

Pasting them into Mozilla Firefox works properly but other web browsers like Chrome may add unwanted
spaces between the field:parameter pairs. So, if you encounter this issue you can either use Firefox or
modify the URLs so that they’re in one line format.

Let’s make a WMS GetCapabilities request in the web browser or with curl:

http://qgisplatform.demo/cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi
?SERVICE=WMS
&VERSION=1.3.0
&REQUEST=GetCapabilities
&map=/home/qgis/projects/world.qgs

In the Apache config from the previous lesson the QGIS_PROJECT_FILE variable sets the default project
to /home/qgis/projects/world.qgs. However, in the above request we made use of the map parameter
to be explicit and to show it can be used to point at any project. If you delete the map parameter from
the above request QGIS Server will output the same response.
By pointing any WMS client to the GetCapabilities URL, the client gets in response an XML document
with metadata of the Web Map Server’s information, e.g. what layers does it serve, the geographical
coverage, in what format, what version of WMS etc.
As QGIS is also a ogc-wms you can create a new WMS server connection with the help of the above
GetCapabilities url. See the Lesson: Web Mapping Services or the ogc-wms-servers section on how to do
it.
By adding the countries WMS layer to your QGIS project you should get an image like the one below:

Note: QGIS Server serves layers that are defined in the world.qgs project. By opening the project
with QGIS you can see there are multiple styles for the countries layer. QGIS Server is also aware of
this and you can choose the style you want in your request. The classified_by_population style was
chosen in the above image.

12.2.1 Logging

When you’re setting up a server, the logs are always important as they show you what’s going on. We
have setup in the *.conf file the following logs:

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Fig. 12.1: QGIS Desktop consuming the QGIS Server countries layer WMS service

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ˆ QGIS Server log at /logs/qgisserver.log

ˆ qgisplatform.demo Apache access log at qgisplatform.demo.access.log
ˆ qgisplatform.demo Apache error log at qgisplatform.demo.error.log
The log files are simply text files so you can use a text editor to check them out. You can also use the
tail command in a terminal: sudo tail -f /logs/qgisserver.log.
This will continuously output in the terminal what’s written in that log file. You can also have three
terminals opened for each of the log files like so:

Fig. 12.2: Using the tail command to visualise QGIS Server logs output

When you use QGIS Desktop to consume the QGIS Server WMS services you will see all the requests
QGIS sends to the Server in the access log, the errors of QGIS Server in the QGIS Server log etc.

Note:
ˆ If you look at the logs in the following sections you should get a better understanding on what’s
happening.
ˆ By restarting Apache while looking in the QGIS Server log you can find some extra pointers on
how things work.

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12.2.2 GetMap requests

In order to display the countries layer, QGIS Desktop, like any other WMS client, is using GetMap
requests.
A simple request looks like:

http://qgisplatform.demo/cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi
?MAP=/home/qgis/projects/world.qgs
&SERVICE=WMS
&VERSION=1.3.0
&REQUEST=GetMap
&BBOX=-432786,4372992,3358959,7513746
&SRS=EPSG:3857
&WIDTH=665
&HEIGHT=551
&LAYERS=countries
&FORMAT=image/jpeg

The above request should output the following image:

Figure: simple GetMap request to QGIS Server

Fig. 12.3: Qgis Server response after a simple GetMap request

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12.2.3 Try Yourself Change the Image and Layers parameters

Based on the request above, let’s replace the countries layer with another.
In order to see what other layers are available you could open up the world.qgs project in QGIS and
look at its contents. Keep in mind though that the WMS clients don’t have access to the QGIS project,
they just look at the capabilities document contents.
Also, there’s a configuration option so that some of the layers existing in the QGIS project are ignored
by QGIS when serving the WMS service.
So, you could look at the layer list when you point QGIS Desktop to the GetCapabilities URL or you
could try yourself finding other layer names in the GetCapabilities XML response.
One of the layer names that you could find and works is countries_shapeburst. You may find others
but keep in mind some may not be visible at such a small scale so you could get a blank image as
response.
You can also play around with others parameters from above, like changing the returned image type to
image/png.

12.2.4 Follow Along: Use Filter, Opacities and Filter parameters

Let’s do another request that adds another layer, some of the extra-getmap-parameters, FILTER and
OPACITIES, but also uses the standard STYLES parameter.
http://qgisplatform.demo/cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi
?MAP=/home/qgis/projects/world.qgs
&SERVICE=WMS
&VERSION=1.3.0
&REQUEST=GetMap
&BBOX=-432786,4372992,3358959,7513746
&SRS=EPSG:3857
&WIDTH=665
&HEIGHT=551
&FORMAT=image/jpeg
&LAYERS=countries,countries_shapeburst
&STYLES=classified_by_name,blue
&OPACITIES=255,30
&FILTER=countries:"name" IN ( 'Germany' , 'Italy' )

The above request should output the following image:

As you can see from the above image, among other things, we told QGIS Server to render only Germany
and Italy from the countries layer.

12.2.5 Follow Along: Use Redlining

Let’s do another GetMap request that makes use of the qgisserver-redlining feature and of the
SELECTION parameter detailed in the extra-getmap-parameters section:
http://qgisplatform.demo/cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi
?MAP=/home/qgis/projects/world.qgs
&SERVICE=WMS
&VERSION=1.3.0
&REQUEST=GetMap
&BBOX=-432786,4372992,3358959,7513746
&SRS=EPSG:3857

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Fig. 12.4: Response to a GetMap request with FILTER and OPACITIES parameters

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&WIDTH=665
&HEIGHT=551
&LAYERS=countries,countries_shapeburst
&FORMAT=image/jpeg
&HIGHLIGHT_GEOM=POLYGON((590000 6900000, 590000 7363000, 2500000 7363000, 2500000 6900000,␣
˓→590000 6900000))

&HIGHLIGHT_SYMBOL=<StyledLayerDescriptor><UserStyle><Name>Highlight</Name><FeatureTypeStyle>
˓→<Rule><Name>Symbol</Name><LineSymbolizer><Stroke><SvgParameter name="stroke">%233a093a</

˓→SvgParameter><SvgParameter name="stroke-opacity">1</SvgParameter><SvgParameter name="stroke-

˓→width">1.6</SvgParameter></Stroke></LineSymbolizer></Rule></FeatureTypeStyle></UserStyle></

˓→StyledLayerDescriptor>

&HIGHLIGHT_LABELSTRING=QGIS Tutorial
&HIGHLIGHT_LABELSIZE=30
&HIGHLIGHT_LABELCOLOR=%23000000
&HIGHLIGHT_LABELBUFFERCOLOR=%23FFFFFF
&HIGHLIGHT_LABELBUFFERSIZE=3
&SELECTION=countries:171,65

Pasting the above request in your web browser should output the following image:

Fig. 12.5: Response to a request with the REDLINING feature and SELECTION parameter

You can see from the above image that the countries with the 171 and 65 ids were highlighted in yellow
(Romania and France) by using the SELECTION parameter and we used the REDLINING feature
to overlay a rectangle with the QGIS Tutorial label.

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12.2.6 GetPrint requests

One very nice feature of QGIS Server is that it makes use of the QGIS Desktop print layouts. You can
learn about it in the server_getprint section.
If you open the world.qgs project with QGIS Desktop you will find a print layout named Population
distribution. A simplified GetPrint request that exemplifies this amazing feature is:
http://qgisplatform.demo/cgi-bin/qgis_mapserv.fcgi
?map=/home/qgis/projects/world.qgs
&SERVICE=WMS
&VERSION=1.3.0&
REQUEST=GetPrint
&FORMAT=pdf
&TRANSPARENT=true
&SRS=EPSG:3857
&DPI=300
&TEMPLATE=Population distribution
&map0:extent=-432786,4372992,3358959,7513746
&LAYERS=countries

Fig. 12.6: Shows the pdf resulted from the above GetPrint request

Naturally, it’s hard to write your GetMap, GetPrint etc. requests.

QGIS Web Client or QWC is a Web client project that can work alongside QGIS Server so that you can
publish your projects on the Web or help you create QGIS Server requests for a better understanding
about the possibilities.
You can install it like this:
ˆ As user qgis go to the home directory with cd /home/qgis.
ˆ Download the QWC project from here and unzip it.

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ˆ Make a symbolic link to the /var/www/html directory as it’s the DocumentRoot that we’ve
setup in the virtual host configuration. If you unzipped the archive under /home/qgis/
Downloads/QGIS-Web-Client-master we can do that with sudo ln -s /home/qgis/Downloads/
QGIS-Web-Client-master /var/www/html/.
ˆ Access http://qgisplatform.demo/QGIS-Web-Client-master/site/qgiswebclient.html?map=
/home/qgis/projects/world.qgs from your Web browser.
Now you should be able to see the Map as in the following figure:

Fig. 12.7: QGIS Web Client consuming the world.qgs project

If you click the Print button in QWC you can interactively create GetPrint requests. You can also click
the ? icon in the QWC to access the available help so that you can better discover the QWC possibilities.

12.2.7 In Conclusion

You learned how use QGIS Server to provide WMS Services.

12.2.8 What’s Next?

Next, you’ll see how to use QGIS as a frontend for the famous GRASS GIS.

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 Глава 13

Module: GRASS

GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System) is a well-known open source GIS with a wide
array of useful GIS functions. It was first released in 1984, and has seen much improvement and additional
functionality since then. QGIS allows you to make use of GRASS‘ powerful GIS tools directly.

13.1 Lesson: GRASS Setup

Using GRASS in QGIS requires you to think of the interface in a slightly different way. Remember that
you’re not working in QGIS directly, but working in GRASS via QGIS. Hence, make sure you have
installed QGIS Desktop with Grass support.
The goal for this lesson: To begin a GRASS project in QGIS.

13.1.1 Follow Along: Start a New GRASS Session

To launch GRASS from within QGIS, you need to activate it as with any other plugin
1. First, open a new QGIS project.
2. In the Plugin Manager, enable GRASS in the list:

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The GRASS toolbar and the GRASS panel will appear:

Fig. 13.1: GRASS toolbar

The GRASS panel is not active because, before you can use GRASS, you need to create a Mapset.
GRASS always works in a database environment, which means that you need to import all the data you
want to use into a GRASS database.
The GRASS database has a straightforward structure, even if at a first look it seems very complicated.
The most important thing you should know is that the upper level of the database is the Location. Each
Location can contain different Mapset: in every Mapset you will find the PERMANENT Mapset because
it is created by default by GRASS. Each Mapset contains the data (raster, vector, etc) in a particular
structure, but don’t worry, GRASS will take care of this for you.
Just remember: Location contains Mapset that contains the data. For more information visit the GRASS
website.

13.1.2 Follow Along: Start a New GRASS Project

1. Click on the Plugins –> GRASS –> New Mapset menu:

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Fig. 13.2: GRASS Panel

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Fig. 13.3: GRASS database structure (from GRASS docs)

You’ll be asked to choose the location of the GRASS database.

2. Set it as the directory that will be used by GRASS to set up its database:

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3. Click Next.
GRASS needs to create a Location, which describes the maximum extent of the geographic area you’ll
be working in, also known as Grass Region.

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Note: the Region is extremely important for GRASS because it describes the area in which all layers
will be taken into account for GRASS. Everything that is outside will not be considered. Don’t worry,
you can always change the extent of the GRASS Region after the Location has been created

1. Call the new location SouthAfrica:

2. Click Next.
3. We’ll be working with WGS 84, so search for and select this CRS:

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4. Click Next.
5. Now select the region South Africa from the dropdown and click Set :

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6. Click Next.
7. Create a mapset, which is the map file that you’ll be working with.

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Once you’re done, you’ll see a dialog asking with a summary of all the information entered.

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8. Click Finish.
9. Click OK on the success dialog.
You will see that the GRASS Panel will become active and you can start to use all GRASS tools.

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13.1.3 Follow Along: Loading Vector Data into GRASS

You have now a blank map and before you can start to use all the GRASS tools you have to load data
into the GRASS database, specifically into the Mapset. You cannot use GRASS tools with layer that are
not loaded into a GRASS Mapset.
There are many different ways to load data in the GRASS database. Let’s start with the first one.

Follow Along: Load data using the QGIS Browser

In section The Browser Panel we saw that the easiest and quickest way to load the data in QGIS is the
Browser Panel.
GRASS data are recognized from the QGIS Browser as real GRASS data and you can notice it because

you will see the GRASS icon next to the GRASS Mapset. Moreover you will see the icon next to the
Mapset that is opened.

Note: You will see a replication of the GRASS Location as normal folder: GRASS Mapset data are
those within the folder

You can easily drag and drop layers from a folder to the GRASS Mapset.
Let’s try to import the roads.shp layer into the grass_mapset Mapset of the SouthAfrica Location.
Open the shapefile/ folder and simply drag the roads.shp layer into the grass_mapset Mapset.

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That’s it! If you expand the Mapset you will see the imported roads layer. You can now load in QGIS
the imported layer like all the other layers.

Tip: You can also load layers from the Layer Legend Panel to Mapset in the Browser Panel. This will
speed up incredibly your workflow!

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Follow Along: Load data using the GRASS Panel

We will use now the long method to load the rivers.shp layer into the same Mapset.
1. Load data into QGIS as usual. Use the rivers.shp dataset (found in the exercise_data/
shapefile/ folder)
2. As soon as it is loaded, click on the Filter box of the GRASS Panel and find the vector import tool
by entering the term v.in.ogr.qgis:

Warning: There are 2 similar tools: v.in.ogr.qgis and v.in.ogr.qgis.loc. We are looking
for the first one.

The v stands for vector, in means a function to import data into the GRASS database, ogr is the
software library used to read vector data, and qgis means that the tool will look for a vector from
among the vectors already loaded into QGIS.
3. Once you’ve found this tool, click on it to bring up the tool itself. Choose the rivers layer in the
Loaded Layer box and type and name it g_rivers to prevent confusion:

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Note: Note the extra import options provided under Advanced Options. These include the
ability to add a WHERE clause for the SQL query used for importing the data.

4. Click Run to begin the import.

5. When it’s done, click the View output button to see the newly imported GRASS layer in the map.
6. Close first the import tool (click the Close button to the immediate right of View output ), then
close the GRASS Tools window.
7. Remove the original rivers layer.
Now you are left with only the imported GRASS layer as displayed in your QGIS map.

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13.1.4 Follow Along: Loading Raster Data into GRASS

You can import a raster layer in the same ways we imported vector layers.
We are going to import in the GRASS Mapset the layer srtm_41_19_4326.tif.

Note: the raster layer is already in the correct CRS, WGS 84. If you have layers in different CRS you
must reproject them in the same CRS of the GRASS Mapset

1. Load the srtm_41_19_4326.tif layer in QGIS

2. Open the GRASS Tools dialog again.
3. Click on the Modules List tab.
4. Search for r.in.gdal.qgis and double click the tool to open the tool’s dialog.
5. Set it up so that the input layer is srtm_41_19_4326.tif and the output is g_dem.

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6. Click Run.
7. When the process is done, click View output.
8. Close the current tab, and then Close the whole dialog.

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9. You may now remove the original srtm_41_19_4326.tif layer.

13.1.5 Try Yourself Add Layers to Mapset

Try to import in the GRASS Mapset the vector layers water.shp and places.shp from the
exercise_data/shapefile/ folder. As we did for rivers rename the imported layer as g_water and
g_places to avoid confusion
Check your results

13.1.6 Open an existing GRASS Mapset

If you have an existing GRASS Mapset you can easily reopen it in another session of QGIS.
You have several method to open a GRASS Mapset, let’s explore some of them.
Let’s close the Mapset by clicking on the Close Mapset button of the GRASS Tools window.

Follow Along: Using the GRASS plugin

1. Click on the Plugins –> GRASS –> Open Mapset menu next to the Plugins –> GRASS –> New
Mapset menu that we saw in the previous section.
2. Browse to the GRASS database folder: be careful! You must choose the parent folder, not the
GRASS Mapset one. Indeed GRASS will read all the Locations of the database and all the
Mapsets of each Location:

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3. Choose the Location SouthAfrica and the Mapset grass_mapset that we have created before.
That’s it! The GRASS Panel will become active meaning that the Mapset has been correctly opened.

Follow Along: Using the QGIS Browser

Even faster and easier is opening a Mapset using the QGIS Browser:
1. Close the Mapset (if it is open) by clicking on the Close Mapset button of the GRASS Tools
window.
2. In the QGIS Browser, browse to the folder of the GRASS database.

3. Right click on the Mapset (remember, the Mapset has the GRASS icon next to it). You will
see some options.
4. Click on Open mapset :

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The Mapset is now open and ready to use!

Tip: Right click on a GRASS Mapset offers you a lot of different settings. Try to explore them and see
all the useful options.

13.1.7 In Conclusion

The GRASS workflow for ingesting data is somewhat different from the QGIS method because GRASS
loads its data into a spatial database structure. However, by using QGIS as a frontend, you can make

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the setup of a GRASS mapset easier by using existing layers in QGIS as data sources for GRASS.

13.1.8 What’s Next?

Now that the data is imported into GRASS, we can look at the advanced analysis operations that GRASS
offers.

13.2 Lesson: GRASS Tools

In this lesson we will present a selection of tools to give you an idea of the capabilities of GRASS.

13.2.1 Follow Along: Create an aspect map

1. Open the GRASS Tools tab

2. Load the g_dem raster layer from the grass_mapset Mapset
3. Look for the r.aspect module by searching for it in the Filter field of the Modules List tab
4. Open the tool and set it up like this and click on the Run button:

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5. When the process is finished click on View Output to load the resulting layer in the canvas:

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The g_aspect layer is stored within the grass_mapset Mapset so you can remove the layer from the
canvas and reload it whenever you want.

13.2.2 Follow Along: Get basic statistic of raster layer

We want to know some basic statistics of the g_dem raster layer.

1. Open the GRASS Tools tab
2. Load the g_dem raster layer from the grass_mapset Mapset
3. Look for the r.info module by searching for it in the Filter field of the Modules List tab
4. Set up the tool like this and click on Run :

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5. Within the Output tab you will see some raster information printed, like the path of the file, the
number of rows and columns and other useful information:

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13.2.3 Follow Along: The Reclass Tool

Reclassifying a raster layer is a very useful task. We just created the g_aspect layer from the g_dem
one. The value range gets from 0 (North) passing through 90 (East), 180 (South), 270 (West) and finally
to 360 (North again). We can reclassify the g_aspect layer to have just 4 categories following specific
rules (North = 1, East = 2, South = 3 and West = 4).
Grass reclassify tool accepts a txt file with the defined rules. Writing the rules is very simple and the
GRASS Manual contains very good description.

Tip: Each GRASS tool has its own Manual tab. Take the time to read the description of the tool you
are using to don’t miss some useful parameters

1. Load the g_aspect layer or, if you don’t have create it, go back to the Follow Along: Create an
aspect map section.
2. Look for the r.reclass module by searching for it in the Filter field of the Modules List tab

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3. Open the tool and set it up like the following picture. The file containing the rules is in the
exercise_data/grass/ folder, named reclass_aspect.txt.
4. Click on Run and wait until the process is finished:

5. Click on View Output to load the reclassified raster in the canvas

The new layer is made up by just 4 values (1, 2, 3, and 4) and it is easier to manage and to process.

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Tip: Open the reclass_aspect.txt with a text editor to see the rules and to start becoming used to
them. Moreover, take a deep look at the GRASS manual: a lot of different examples are pointed out.

13.2.4 Try Yourself Reclassify with your rules

Try to reclassify the g_dem layer into 3 new categories:

ˆ from 0 to 1000, new value = 1
ˆ from 1000 to 1400, new value = 2
ˆ from 1400 to the maximum raster value, new value = 3
Check your results

13.2.5 Follow Along: The Mapcalc Tool

The Mapcalc tools is similar to the Raster Calculator of QGIS. You can perform mathematical operation
on one or more raster layers and the final result will be a new layer with the calculated values.
The aim of the next exercise is to extract the values greater than 1000 from the g_dem raster layer.
1. Look for the r.mapcalc module by searching for it in the Filter field of the Modules List tab.
2. Start the tool.
The Mapcalc dialog allows you to construct a sequence of analyses to be performed on a raster, or
collection of rasters. You will use these tools to do so:

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In order, they are:

ˆ Add map : Add a raster file from your current GRASS mapset.
ˆ Add constant value : Add a constant value to be used in functions, 1000 in this case
ˆ Add operator or function : Add an operator or function to be connected to inputs and outputs,
we will use the operator greater equals than
ˆ Add connection : Connect elements. Using this tool, click and drag from the red dot on one
item to the red dot on another item. Dots that are correctly connected to a connector line
will turn gray. If the line or dot is red, it is not properly connected!
ˆ Select item : Select an item and move selected items.
ˆ Delete selected item : Removes the selected item from the current mapcalc sheet, but not from
the mapset (if it is an existing raster)
ˆ Open : Open an existing file with the operation defined
ˆ Save : Save all the operation in a file
ˆ Save as : Save all the operations as a new file on the disk.
3. Using these tools, construct the following algorithm:

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4. Click on Run and then on View output to see the output displayed in your map:

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This shows all the areas where the terrain is higher than 1000 meters.

Tip: You can also save the formula you have created and load it in another QGIS project by clicking
on the last button on the GRASS Mapcalc toolbar.

13.2.6 In Conclusion

In this lesson, we have covered only a few of the many tools GRASS offers. To explore the capabilities
of GRASS for yourself, open the GRASS Tools dialog and scroll down the Modules List. Or for a more
structured approach, look under the Modules Tree tab, which organizes tools by type.

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Module: Assessment

Use your own data for this section. You will need:
ˆ a point vector dataset of points of interest, with point names and multiple categories
ˆ a line vector dataset of roads
ˆ a polygon vector dataset of land use (using property boundaries)
ˆ a visual-spectrum image (such as an aerial photograph)
ˆ a DEM (downloadable from the CGIAR-CSI if you don’t have your own)

14.1 Create a base map

Before doing any data analysis, you will need a base map, which will provide your analysis result with
context.

14.1.1 Add the point layer

ˆ Add in the point layer. Based on the level that you’re doing the course at, do only what is listed
in the appropriate section below:

ˆ Label the points according to a unique attribute, such as place names. Use a small font and keep
the labels inconspicuous. The information should be available, but shouldn’t be a main feature of
the map.
ˆ Classify the points themselves into different colors based on a category. For example, categories
could include „tourist destination“, „police station“, and „town center“.

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ˆ Do the same as the section.

ˆ Classify the point size by importance: the more significant a feature, the larger its point. However,
don’t exceed the point size of 2.00.
ˆ For features that aren’t located at a single point (for example, provincial/regional names, or town
names at a large scale), don’t assign any point at all.

ˆ Don’t use point symbols to symbolize the layer at all. Instead, use labels centered over the points;
the point symbols themselves should have no size.
ˆ Use Data defined settings to style the labels into meaningful categories.
ˆ Add appropriate columns to the attribute data if necessary. When doing so, don’t create fictional
data - rather, use the Field Calculator to populate the new columns, based on appropriate existing
values in the dataset.

14.1.2 Add the line layer

ˆ Add the road layer and then change its symbology. Don’t label the roads.

ˆ Change the road symbology to a light color with a broad line. Make it somewhat transparent as
well.

ˆ Create a symbol with multiple symbol layers. The resulting symbol should look like a real road.
You can use a simple symbol for this; for example, a black line with a thin white solid line running
down the center. It can be more elaborate as well, but the resulting map should not look too busy.
ˆ If your dataset has a high density of roads at the scale you want to show the map at, you should
have two road layers: the elaborate road-like symbol, and a simpler symbol at smaller scales. (Use
scale-based visibility to make them switch out at appropriate scales.)
ˆ All symbols should have multiple symbol layers. Use symbols to make them display correctly.

ˆ Do the same as in the section above.

ˆ In addition, roads should be classified. When using realistic road-like symbols, each type of road
should have an appropriate symbol; for example, a highway should appear to have two lanes in
either direction.

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14.1.3 Add the polygon layer

ˆ Add the land use layer and change its symbology.

ˆ Classify the layer according to land use. Use solid colors.

ˆ Classify the layer according to land use. Where appropriate, incorporate symbol layers, different
symbol types, etc. Keep the results looking subdued and uniform, however. Keep in mind that this
will be part of a backdrop!

ˆ Use rule-based classification to classify the land use into general categories, such as „urban“, „rural“,
„nature reserve“, etc.

14.1.4 Create the raster backdrop

ˆ Create a hillshade from the DEM, and use it as an overlay for a classified version of the DEM itself.
You could also use the Relief plugin (as shown in the lesson on plugins).

14.1.5 Finalize the base map

ˆ Using the resources above, create a base map using some or all of the layers. This map should
include all the basic information needed to orient the user, as well as being visually unified /
„simple“.

14.2 Analyze the data

ˆ You are looking for a property that satisfies certain criteria.
ˆ You can decide on your own criteria, which you must document.
ˆ There are some guidelines for these criteria:
– the target property should be of (a) certain type(s) of land use
– it should be within a given distance from roads, or be crossed by a road
– it should be within a given distance from some category of points, like a hospital for example

14.2.1 /

ˆ Include raster analysis in your results. Consider at least one derived property of the raster, such
as its aspect or slope.

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14.3 Final Map

ˆ Use the Print Layout to create a final map, which incorporates your analysis results.
ˆ Include this map in a document along with your documented criteria. If the map has become too
visually busy due to the added layer(s), deselect the layers which you feel are the least necessary.
ˆ Your map must include a title and a legend.

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 Глава 15

Module: Forestry Application

In modules 1 through 13, you have already learned quite a lot about QGIS and how to work with it. If
you are interested in learning about some basic forestry applications of GIS, following this module will
give you the ability to apply what you have learned and will show you some new useful tools.

The development of this module has been sponsored by the European Union.

15.1 Lesson: Forestry Module Presentation

Following this module about a forestry application requires the knowledge you have learned through the
modules 1 to 11 of this training manual. The exercises in the following lessons assume you are already
capable of doing many of the basic operations in QGIS and only tools that have not been used before
are presented in more detail.
Nevertheless, the module follows a basic level throughout the lessons so that if you have previous
experience with QGIS, you can probably follow the instructions without problems.
Note that you need to download an additional data package for this module.

15.1.1 Forestry Sample Data

Note: The sample data used in this module is part of the training manual data set and can be downloaded
here. Download the zip file and extract the forestry\ folder into your exercise_data\ folder.

The forestry related sample data (forestry map, forest data), has been provided by the EVO-HAMK
forestry school. The datasets have been modified to adapt to the lessons needs.

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The general sample data (aerial images, LiDAR data, basic maps) has been obtained from the National
Land Survey of Finland open data service, and adapted for the purposes of the exercises. The open data
file download service can be accessed in English here.

Warning: As for the rest of the training manual, this module includes instructions on adding,
deleting and altering GIS datasets. We have provided training datasets for this purpose. Before using
the techniques described here on your own data, always ensure you have proper backups!

15.2 Lesson: Georeferencing a Map

A common forestry task would be the update of the information for a forestry area. It is possible that
the previous information for that area dates several years back and was collected analogically (that is,
in paper) or perhaps it was digitized but all you have left is the paper version of that inventory data.
Most likely you would like to use that information in your GIS to, for example, compare later with
later inventories. This means that you will need to digitize the information at hand using your GIS
software. But before you can start the digitizing, there is an important first step to be done, scanning
and georeferencing your paper map.
The goal for this lesson: To learn to use the Georeferencer tool in QGIS.

15.2.1 Scan the map

The first task you will have to do is to scan your map. If your map is too big, then you can scan it in
different parts but keep in mind that you will have to repeat preprocessing and georeferencing tasks for
each part. So if possible, scan the map in as few parts as possible.
If you are going to use a different map that the one provided with this manual, use your own scanner to
scan the map as an image file, a resolution of 300 DPI will do. If your map has colors, scan the image in
color so that you can later use those colors to separate information from your map into different layers
(for ex., forest stands, contour lines, roads. . . ).
For this exercise you will use a previously scanned map, you can find it as rautjarvi_map.tif in the
data folder exercise_data/forestry

15.2.2 Follow Along: Georeferencing the scanned map

Open QGIS and set the project’s CRS to ETRS89 / ETRS-TM35FIN in Project → Properties → CRS,
which is the currently used CRS in Finland. Make sure that Enable on the fly‘ CRS transformation is
’
checked, since we will be working with old data that is another CRS.

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Save the QGIS project as map_digitizing.qgs.

You will use the georeferencing plugin from QGIS, the plugin is already installed in QGIS. Activate the
plugin using the plugin manager as you have done in previous modules. The plugin is named Georeferencer
GDAL.
To georeference the map:
ˆ Open the georeference tool, Raster → Georeferencer → Georeferencer.
ˆ Add the map image file, rautjarvi_map.tif, as the image to georeference, File → Open raster.
ˆ When prompted find and select the KKJ / Finland zone 2 CRS, it is the CRS that was used in
Finland back in 1994 when this map was created.
ˆ Click OK.
Next you should define the transformation settings for georeferencing the map:
ˆ Open Settings → Transformation settings.
ˆ Click the icon next to the Output raster box, go to the folder and create the folder
exercise_data\forestry\digitizing and name the file as rautjarvi_georef.tif.
ˆ Set the rest of parameters as shown below.

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ˆ Click OK.
The map contains several cross-hairs marking the coordinates in the map, we will use those to
georeferenciate this image. You can use the zooming and panning tools as you usually do in QGIS
to inspect the image in the Georeferencer’s window.
ˆ Zoom in to the left lower corner of the map and note that there is a cross-hair with a coordinate
pair, X and Y, that as mentioned before are in KKJ / Finland zone 2 CRS. You will use this point
as the first ground control point for the georeferencing your map.
ˆ Select the Add point tool and click in the intersection of the cross-hairs (pan and zoom as needed).
ˆ In the Enter map coordinates dialogue write the coordinates that appear in the map (X: 2557000
and Y: 6786000).
ˆ Click OK.
The first coordinate for the georeferencing is now ready.

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Look for other cross-hairs in the black lines image, they are separated 1000 meters from each other both
in North and East direction. You should be able to calculate the coordinates of those points in relation
to the first one.
Zoom out in the image and move to the right until you find other cross-hair, and estimate how many
kilometres you have moved. Try to get ground control points as far from each other as possible. Digitize
at least three more ground control points in the same way you did the first one. You should end up with
something similar to this:

With already three digitized ground control points you will be able to see the georeferencing error as a
red line coming out of the points. The error in pixels can be seen also in the GCP table in the dX[pixels]
and dY[pixels] columns. The error in pixels should not be higher than 10 pixels, if it is you should review
the points you have digitized and the coordinates you have entered to find what the problem is. You can
use the image above as a guide.
Once you are happy with your control points save your ground control points, in case that you will need
them later, and you will:

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ˆ File → Save GCP points as. . . .

ˆ In the folder exercise_data\forestry\digitizing, name the file rautjarvi_map.tif.points.
Finally, georeference you map:
ˆ File → Start georeferencing.
ˆ Note that you named the file already as rautjarvi_georef.tif when you edited the Georeferencer
settings.
Now you can see the map in QGIS project as a georeferenced raster. Note that the raster seems to be
slightly rotated, but that is simply because the data is KKJ / Finland zone 2 and your project is in
ETRS89 / ETRS-TM35FIN.
To check that your data is properly georeferenced you can open the aerial image in the
exercise_data\forestry folder, named rautjarvi_aerial.tif. Your map and this image should
match quite well. Set the map transparency to 50% and compare it to the aerial image.

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Save the changes to your QGIS project, you will continue from this point for the next lesson.

15.2.3 In Conclusion

As you have seen, georeferencing a paper map is a relatively straight forward operation.

15.2.4 What’s Next?

In the next lesson, you will digitize the forest stands in your map as polygons and add the inventory
data to them.

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15.3 Lesson: Digitizing Forest Stands

Unless you are going to use your georeferenced map as a simple background image, the next natural
step is to digitize elements from it. You have already done so in the exercises about creating vector data
in Lesson: Creating a New Vector Dataset , when you digitized the school fields. In this lesson, you are
going to digitize the forest stands‘ borders that appear in the map as green lines but instead of doing it
using an aerial image, you will use your georeferenced map.
The goal for this lesson: Learn a technique to help the digitizing task, digitizing forest stands and
finally adding the inventory data to them.

15.3.1 Follow Along: Extracting the Forest Stands Borders

Open your map_digitizing.qgs project in QGIS, that you saved from the previous lesson.
Once you have scanned and georeferenced your map you could start to digitize directly by looking at the
image as a guide. That would most likely be the way to go if the image you are going to digitize from is,
for example, an aerial photograph.
If what you are using to digitize is a good map, as it is in our case, it is likely that the information is
clearly displayed as lines with different colors for each type of element. Those colors can be relatively
easy extracted as individual images using an image processing software like GIMP. Such separate images
can be used to assist the digitizing, as you will see below.
The first step will be to use GIMP to obtain an image that contains only the forest stands, that is, all
those greenish lines that you could see in the original scanned map:
ˆ Open GIMP (if you don’t have it installed yet, download it from the internet or ask your teacher).
ˆ Open the original map image, File → Open, rautjarvi_map.tif in the exercise_data/forestry
folder. Note that the forest stands are represented as green lines (with the number of the stand
also in green inside each polygon).

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Now you can select the pixels in the image that are making up the forest stands‘ borders (the greenish
pixels):
ˆ Open the tool Select → By color.
ˆ With the tool active, zoom into the image (Ctrl + mouse wheel ) so that a forest stand line is close
enough to differentiate the pixels forming the line. See the left image below.
ˆ Click and drag the mouse cursor in the middle of the line so that the tool will collect several pixel
color values.
ˆ Release the mouse click and wait a few seconds. The pixels matching the colors collected by the
tool will be selected through the whole image.
ˆ Zoom out to see how the greenish pixels have been selected throughout the image.
ˆ If you are not happy with the result, repeat the click and drag operation.
ˆ Your pixel selection should look something like the right image below.

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Once you are done with the selection you need to copy this selection as a new layer and then save it as
separate image file:
ˆ Copy (Ctr+C ) the selected pixels.
ˆ And paste the pixels directly (Ctr+V ), GIMP will display the pasted pixels as a new temporary
layer in the Layers - Brushes panel as a Floating Selection (Pasted Layer).
ˆ Right click that temporary layer and select To New Layer.
ˆ Click the „eye“ icon next to the original image layer to switch it off, so that only the Pasted Layer
is visible:

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ˆ Finally, select File → Export. . . , set Select File Type (By Extension) as a TIFF image, select the
digitizing folder and name it rautjarvi_map_green.tif. Select no compression when asked.
You could do the same process with other elements in the image, for example extracting the black lines
that represent roads or the brown ones that represent the terrain‘ contour lines. But for us, the forest
stands is enough.

15.3.2 Try Yourself Georeference the Green Pixels Image

As you did in the previous lesson, you need to georeference this new image to be able to use it with the
rest of your data.
Note that you don’t need to digitize the ground control points any more because this image is basically
the same image as the original map image, as far as the Georeferencer tool is concerned. Here are some
things you should remember:
ˆ This image is also, of course, in KKJ / Finland zone 2 CRS.
ˆ You should use the ground control points you saved, File → Load GCP points.
ˆ Remember to review the Transformation settings.
ˆ Name the output raster as rautjarvi_green_georef.tif in the digitizing folder.
Check that the new raster is fitting nicely with the original map.

15.3.3 Follow Along: Creating Supporting Points for Digitizing

Having in mind the digitizing tools in QGIS, you might already be thinking that it would be helpful to
snap to those green pixels while digitizing. That is precisely what you are going to do next create points
from those pixels to use them later to help you follow the forest stands‘ borders when digitizing, by using
the snapping tools available in QGIS.

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ˆ Use the Raster → Conversion → Polygonize (Raster to Vector) tool to vectorize your green lines
to polygons. If you don’t remember how, you can review it in Lesson: Raster to Vector Conversion .
ˆ Save as rautjarvi_green_polygon.shp inside the digitizing folder.
Zoom in and see what the polygons look like. You will get something like this:

Next one option to get points out of those polygons is to get their centroids:
ˆ Open Vector → Geometry tools → Polygon centroids.
ˆ Set the polygon layer you just got as the input file for the tool.
ˆ Name the output as green_centroids.shp inside the digitizing folder.
ˆ Check Add result to canvas.
ˆ Run the tool to calculate the centroids for the polygons.

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Now you can remove the rautjarvi_green_polygon layer from the TOC.
Change the symbology of the centroids layer as:
ˆ Open the Layer Properties for green_centroids.
ˆ Go to the Symbology tab.
ˆ Set the Unit to Map unit.
ˆ Set the Size to 1.
It is not necessary to differentiate points from each other, you just need them to be there for the snapping
tools to use them. You can use those points now to follow the original lines much easily than without
them.

15.3.4 Follow Along: Digitize the Forest Stands

Now you are ready to start with the actual digitizing work. You would start by creating a vector file of
polygon type, but for this exercise, there is a shapefile with part of the area of interest already digitized.
You will just finish digitizing the half of the forest stands that are left between the main roads (wide
pink lines) and the lake:

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ˆ Go to the digitizing folder using your file manager browser.

ˆ Drag and drop the forest_stands.shp vector file to your map.
Change the new layer’s symbology so that it will be easier to see what polygons have already been
digitized:
ˆ The filling of the polygon to green.
ˆ The polygons‘ borders to 1 mm.
ˆ and set the transparency to 50%.
Now, if you remember past modules, we have to set up and activate the snapping options:

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ˆ Go to Project → Snapping options. . . .

ˆ Activate the snapping for the green_centroids and the forest_stands layers.
ˆ Set their Tolerance to 5 map units.
ˆ Check the Avoid Int. box for the forest_stands layer.
ˆ Check Enable topological editing.
ˆ Click Apply.

With these snapping settings, whenever you are digitizing and get close enough to one of the points in
the centroids layer or any vertex of your digitized polygons, a pink cross will appear on the point that
will be snapped to.
Finally, turn off the visibility of all the layers except forest_stands and rautjarvi_georef. Make sure
that the map image has not transparency any more.
A couple of important things to note before you start digitizing:
ˆ Don’t try to be too accurate with the digitizing of the borders.
ˆ If a border is a straight line, digitize it with just two nodes. In general, digitize using as few nodes
as possible.
ˆ Zoom in to close ranges only if you feel that you need to be accurate, for example, at some corners
or when you want a polygon to connect with another polygon at a certain node.
ˆ Use the mouse’s middle button to zoom in/out and to pan as you digitize.
ˆ Digitize only one polygon at a time.
ˆ After digitizing one polygon, write the forest stand id that you can see from the map.
Now you can start digitizing:
ˆ Locate the forest stand number 357 in the map window.
ˆ Enable editing for the forest_stands.shp layer.
ˆ Select the Add feature tool.
ˆ Start digitizing the stand 357 by connecting some of the dots.
ˆ Note the pink crosses indicating the snapping.

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ˆ When you are done, right click to end digitizing that polygon.
ˆ Enter the forest stand id (in this case 357).
ˆ Click OK.
If you were not prompted for the polygon id when you finished digitizing it, go to Settings → Options →
Digitizing and make sure that the Suppress attribute form pop-up after feature creation is not checked.
Your digitized polygon will look like this:

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Now for the second polygon, pick up the stand number 358. Make sure that the Avoid int. is checked for
the forest_stands layer. This option does not allow intersecting polygons at digitizing, so that if you
digitize over an existing polygon, the new polygon will be trimmed to meet the border of the already
existing polygons. You can use this characteristic to automatically obtain a common border.
ˆ Begin digitizing the stand 358 at one of the common corners with the stand 357.
ˆ Then continue normally until you get to the other common corner for both stands.
ˆ Finally, digitize a few points inside polygon 357 making sure that the common border is not
intersected. See left image below.
ˆ Right click to finish editing the forest stand 358.
ˆ Enter the id as 358.
ˆ Click OK, your new polygon should show a common border with the stand 357 as you can see in
the image on the right.

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The part of the polygon that was overlapping the existing polygon has been automatically trimmed out
and you are left with a common border, as you intended it to be.

15.3.5 Try Yourself Finish Digitizing the Forest Stands

Now you have two forest stands ready. And a good idea on how to proceed. Continue digitizing on your
own until you have digitized all the forest stands that are limited by the main road and the lake.
It might look like a lot of work, but you will soon get used to digitizing the forest stands. It should take
you about 15 minutes.
During the digitizing you might need to edit or delete nodes, split or merge polygons. You learned about
the necessary tools in Lesson: Feature Topology , now is probably a good moment to go read about them
again.
Remember that having Enable topological editing activated, allows you to move nodes common to two
polygons so that the common border is edited at the same time for both polygons.
Your result will look like this:

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15.3.6 Follow Along: Joining the Forest Stand Data

It is possible that the forest inventory data you have for you map is also written in paper. In that case,
you would have to first write that data to a text file or a spreadsheet. For this exercise, the information
from the inventory for 1994 (the same inventory as the map) is ready as a comma separated text (csv)
file.
Open the rautjarvi_1994.csv file from the exercise_data\forestry directory in a text editor and
note that the inventory data file has an attribute called ID that has the numbers of the forest stands.
Those numbers are the same as the forest stands ids you have entered for your polygons and can be used
to link the data from the text file to your vector file. You can see the metadata for this inventory data
in the file rautjarvi_1994_legend.txt in the same folder.
ˆ Open the .csv in QGIS with the Layer → Add Delimited Text Layer. . . tool. In the dialog, set it
as follows:

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To add the data from the .csv file:

ˆ Open the Layer Properties for the forest_stands layer.
ˆ Go to the Joins tab.
ˆ Click the plus sign on the bottom of the dialog box.
ˆ Select rautjarvi_1994.csv as the Join layer and ID as the Join field.
ˆ Make sure that the Target field is also set to id.
ˆ Click OK two times.
The data from the text file should be now linked to your vector file. To see what has happened, open
the attribute table for the forest_stands layer. You can see that all the attributes from the inventory
data file are now linked to your digitized vector layer.

15.3.7 Try Yourself Renaming Attribute Names and Adding Area and
Perimeter

The data from the .csv file is just linked to your vector file. To make this link permanent, so that the
data is actually recorded to the vector file you need to save the forest_stands layer as a new vector file.
Close the attribute table and right click the forest_stands layer to save it as forest_stands_1994.shp.
Open your new forest_stands_1994.shp in your map if you did not added yet. Then open the attribute
table. You notice that the names of the columns that you just added are no very useful. To solve this:
ˆ Add the plugin Table Manager as you have done with other plugins before.

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ˆ Make sure the plugin is activated.

ˆ In the TOC select the layer forest_stands_1994.shp.
ˆ Then, go to Vector → Table Manager → Table manager.
ˆ Use the dialogue box to edit the names of the columns to match the ones in the .csv file.

ˆ Click on Save.
ˆ Select Yes to keep the layer style.
ˆ Close the Table Manager dialogue.
To finish gathering the information related to these forest stands, you might calculate the area and the
perimeter of the stands. You calculated areas for polygons in Lesson: Supplementary Exercise . Go back
to that lesson if you need to and calculate the areas for the forest stands, name the new attribute Area
and make sure that the values calculated are in hectares.
Now your forest_stands_1994.shp layer is ready and packed with all the available information.
Save your project to keep the current map presentation in case you need to come back later to it.

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15.3.8 In Conclusion

It has taken a few clicks of the mouse but you now have your old inventory data in digital format and
ready for use in QGIS.

15.3.9 What’s Next?

You could start doing different analysis with your brand new dataset, but you might be more interested
in performing analysis in a dataset more up to date. The topic of the next lesson will be the creation of
forest stands using current aerial photos and the addition of some relevant information to your dataset.

15.4 Lesson: Updating Forest Stands

Now that you have digitized the information from the old inventory maps and added the corresponding
information to the forest stands, the next step would be to create the inventory of the current state of
the forest.
You will digitize new forest stands from scratch following an aerial photo from that forest area. The
forestry map you digitized in the previous lesson was created from an aerial Color Infrared (CIR)
photograph. This type of imagery, where the infrared light is recorded instead of the blue light, are
widely used to study vegetated areas. You will also use a CIR photograph in this lesson.
After digitizing the forest stands, you will add information such as new constraints given by conservation
regulations.
The goal for this lesson: To digitize a new set of forest stands from CIR aerial photographs and add
information from other data-sets.

15.4.1 Comparing the Old Forest Stands to Current Aerial Photographs

The National Land Survey of Finland has an open data policy that allows you downloading a variety of
geographical data like aerial imagery, traditional topographic maps, DEM, LiDAR data, etc. The service
can be accessed also in English here. The aerial image used in this exercise has been created from two
orthorectified CIR images downloaded from that service (M4134F_21062012 and M4143E_21062012).
ˆ Open QGIS and set the project’s CRS to ETRS89 / ETRS-TM35FIN in Project → Properties. . .
→ CRS.
ˆ Make sure that Enable on the fly‘ CRS transformation is checked.
’
ˆ From the exercise_data\forestry\ folder, add the CIR image rautjarvi_aerial.tif that is
containing the digitized lakes.
ˆ Then save the QGIS project as digitizing_2012.qgs.
The CIR images are from 2012. You can compare the stands that were created in 1994 with the situation
almost 20 years later.
ˆ Add your forest_stands_1994.shp layer.
ˆ Set its styling so that you can see through your polygons.
ˆ Review how the old forest stands follow (or not) what you might visually interpret as an
homogeneous forest.
Zoom and pan around the area. You probably will notice that some of the old forest stands might be
still corresponding with the image but others are not.
This is a normal situation, as some 20 years have passed by and different forest operations have been
done (harvesting, thinning. . . ). It is also possible that the forest stands looked homogeneous back in 1992

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to the person who digitized them but as time has passed some forest has developed in different ways. Or
simply the priorities for the forest inventory were different that they are today.
Next, you will create new forest stands for this image without using the old ones. Later you can compare
them to see the differences.

15.4.2 Interpreting the CIR Image

Let’s digitize the same area that was covered by the old inventory, limited by the roads and the lake.
You don’t have to digitize the whole area, as in the previous exercise you can start with a vector file that
already contains most of the forest stands.
ˆ Remove the forest_stands_1994.shp layer.
ˆ Add the forest_stands_2012.shp layer, located in the exercise_data\forestry\ folder.
ˆ Set the styling of this layer so that the polygons have no fill and the borders are visible.

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You can see that a region to the North of the inventory area is still missing. That will be your task,
digitizing the missing forest stands.
But before you start, spend some time reviewing the forest stands already digitized and the corresponding
forest in the image. Try to get an idea about how the stands borders are decided, it helps if you have
some forestry knowledge.
Some ideas about what you could identify from the images:
ˆ What forests are deciduous species (in Finland mostly birch forests) and which ones are conifers
(in this region pine or spruce). In CIR images, deciduous species will often come as bright red color
whereas conifers present dark green colors.
ˆ When a forest stand age changes, by looking at the sizes of the tree crowns that can be identified
in the imagery.
ˆ The different forest stands‘ densities, for example forest stand were a thinning operation has recently
been done would clearly show spaces between the tree crowns and should be easy to differentiate

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from other forest stands around it.

ˆ Blueish areas indicate barren terrain, roads and urban areas, crops that have not started to grow
etc.
ˆ Don’t use zooms too close to the image when trying to identify forest stands. A scale between 1:3
000 and 1: 5 000 should be enough for this imagery. See the image below (1:4000 scale):

15.4.3 Try Yourself Digitizing Forest Stands from CIR Imagery

When digitizing the forest stands, you should try to get forest areas that are as homogeneous as possible
in terms of tree species, forest age, stand density. . . Don’t be too detailed though, or you will end up
making hundreds of small forest stands that would not be useful at all. You should try to get stands that
are meaningful in the context of forestry, not too small (at least 0.5 ha) but not too big either (no more
than 3 ha).
With this indications in mind, you can now digitize the missing forest stands.
ˆ Enable editing for forest_stands_2012.shp.
ˆ Set up the snapping and topology options as in the image.
ˆ Remember to click Apply or OK.

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Start digitizing as you did in the previous lesson, with the only difference that you don’t have any point
layer that you are snapping to. For this area you should get around 14 new forest stands. While digitizing,
fill in the Stand_id field with numbers starting at 901.
When you are finished your layer should look something like:

Now you have a new set of polygons defining the different forest stands for the current situation as can
interpreted from the CIR images. But you are obviously still missing the forest inventory data, right?
For that you will still need to visit the forest and get some sample data that you will use to estimate the
forest attributes for each of the forest stands. You will see how to do that in the next lesson.

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For the moment, you still can improve your vector layer with some extra information that you have
about conservation regulation that should be taken into account for this area.

15.4.4 Follow Along: Updating Forest Stands with Conservation Information

For the area you are working with, it has been researched that the following conservation regulations
must be taken into account while doing the forest planning:
ˆ Two locations of a protected species of Siberian flying squirrel (Pteromys volans) have been
identified. According to the regulation, an area of 15 meters around the spots must be left
untouched.
ˆ A riparian forest of special interest growing along a stream in the area must be protected. In a visit
to the field, it was found that 20 meters to both sides of the stream must be protected.
You have one vector file containing the information about the squirrel locations and another containing
the digitized stream running in the North area towards the lake. From the exercise_data\forestry\
folder, add the vector files squirrel.shp and stream.shp.
For the protection of the squirrels locations, you are going to add a new attribute (column) to your
new forest stands that will contain information about point locations that have to be protected. That
information will later be available whenever a forest operation is planned, and the field team will be able
to mark the area that has to be left untouched before the work starts.
ˆ Open the attribute table for the squirrel layer.
ˆ You can see that there are two locations that are defined as Siberian flying squirrel, and that the
area to be protected is indicated by a distance of 15 meters from the locations.
To join the information about the squirrels to your forest stands, you can use the Join attributes by
location :
ˆ Open Vector → Data Management Tools → Join attributes by location.
ˆ Set the forest_stands_2012.shp layer as the Target vector layer.
ˆ As Join vector layer select the squirrel.shp point layer.
ˆ Name the output file as stands_squirrel.shp.
ˆ In Output table select Keep all records (including non-matching target records). So that you keep all
the forest stands in the layer instead of only keeping those that are spatially related to the squirrel
locations.
ˆ Click OK.
ˆ Select Yes when prompted to add the layer to the TOC.
ˆ Close the dialogue box.

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Now you have a new forest stands layer, stands_squirrel where there are new attributes corresponding
to the protection information related to the Siberian flying squirrel.
Open the table of the new layer and order it so that the forest stands with information for the Protection
attribute are on top. You should have now two forest stands where the squirrel has been located:

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Although this information might be enough, look at what areas related to the squirrels should be
protected. You know that you have to leave a buffer of 15 meters around the squirrels location:
ˆ Open Vector → Geoprocessing Tools → Buffer.
ˆ Make a buffer of 15 meters for the squirrel layer.
ˆ Name the result squirrel_15m.shp.

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You will notice that if you zoom in to the location in the Northern part of the area, the buffer area
extends to the neighbouring stand as well. This means that whenever a forest operation would take place
in that stand, the protected location should also be taken into account.

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From your previous analysis, you did not get that stand to register information about the protection
status. To solve this problem:
ˆ Run the Join attributes by location tool again.
ˆ But this time use the squirrel_15m layer as join layer.
ˆ Name the output file as stands_squirrel_15m.shp.

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Open the attribute table for the this new layer and note that now you have three forest stands that have
the information about the protection locations. The information in the forest stands data will indicate to
the forest manager that there are protection considerations to be taken into account. Then he or she can
get the location from the squirrel dataset, and visit the area to mark the corresponding buffer around
the location so that the operators in the field can avoid disturbing the squirrels environment.

15.4.5 Try Yourself Updating Forest Stands with Distance to the Stream

Following the same approach as indicated for the protected squirrel locations you can now update your
forest stands with protection information related to the stream identified in the field:
ˆ Remember that the buffer in this case is 20 meters around it.

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ˆ You want to have all the protection information in the same vector file, so use the
stands_squirrel_15m layer as the target.
ˆ Name your output as forest_stands_2012_protect.shp.
Open the attributes table for the new vector layer and confirm that you now have all the protection
information for the stands that are affected by the protection measures to protect the riparian forest
associated with the stream.
Save your QGIS project.

15.4.6 In Conclusion

You have seen how to interpret CIR images to digitize forest stands. Of course it would take some
practice to make more accurate stands and usually using other information like soil maps would give
better results, but you know now the basis for this type of task. And adding information from other
datasets resulted to be quite a trivial task.

15.4.7 What’s Next?

The forest stands you digitized will be used for planning forestry operations in the future, but you still
need to get more information about the forest. In the next lesson, you will see how to plan a set of
sampling plots to inventory the forest area you just digitized, and get the overall estimate of forest
parameters.

15.5 Lesson: Systematic Sampling Design

You have already digitized a set of polygons that represent the forest stands, but you don’t have
information about the forest just yet. For that purpose you can design a survey to inventory the whole
forest area and then estimate its parameters. In this lesson you will create a systematic set of sampling
plots.
When you start planning your forest inventory it is important to clearly define the objectives, the types
of sample plots that will be used, and the data that will be collected to achieve the objectives. For each
individual case, those will depend on the type of forest and the management purpose; and should be
carefully planned by someone with forestry knowledge. In this lesson, you will implement a theoretical
inventory based on a systematic sampling plot design.
The goal for this lesson: To create a systematic sampling plot design to survey the forest area.

15.5.1 Inventorying the Forest

There are several methods to inventory forests, each of them suiting different purposes and conditions.
For example, one very accurate way to inventory a forest (if you consider only tree species) would be
to visit the forest and make a list of every tree and their characteristics. As you can imagine this is not
commonly applicable except for some small areas or some special situations.
The most common way to find out about a forest is by sampling it, that is, taking measurements in
different locations at the forest and generalizing that information to the whole forest. These measurements
are often made in sample plots that are smaller forest areas that can be easily measured. The sample
plots can be of any size (for ex. 50 m2, 0.5 ha) and form (for ex. circular, rectangular, variable size), and
can be located in the forest in different ways (for ex. randomly, systematically, along lines). The size,
form and location of the sample plots are usually decided following statistical, economical and practical
considerations. If you have no forestry knowledge, you might be interested in reading this Wikipedia
article.

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15.5.2 Follow Along: Implementing a Systematic Sampling Plot Design

For the forest you are working with, the manager has decided that a systematic sampling design is the
most appropriate for this forest and has decided that a fixed distance of 80 meters between the sample
plots and sampling lines will yield reliable results (for this case, +- 5% average error at a probability of
68%). Variable size plots has been decided to be the most effective method for this inventory, for growing
and mature stands, but a 4 meters fixed radius plots will be used for seedling stands.
In practice, you simply need to represented the sample plots as points that will be used by the field
teams later:
ˆ Open your digitizing_2012.qgs project from the previous lesson.
ˆ Remove all the layers except for forest_stands_2012.
ˆ Save your project now as forest_inventory.qgs
Now you need to create a rectangular grid of points separated 80 meters from each other:
ˆ Open Vector → Research Tools → Regular points.
ˆ In the Area definitions select Input Boundary Layer.
ˆ And as input layer set the forest_stands_2012 layer.
ˆ In the Grid Spacing settings, select Use this point spacing and set it to 80.
ˆ Save the output as systematic_plots.shp in the forestry\sampling\ folder.
ˆ Check Add result to canvas.
ˆ Click OK.

Note: The suggested Regular points creates the systematic points starting in the corner upper-left
corner of the extent of the selected polygon layer. If you want to add some randomness to this regular
points, you could use a randomly calculated number between 0 and 80 (80 is the distance between our
points), and then write it as the Initial inset from corner (LH side) parameter in the tool’s dialog.

You notice that the tool has used the whole extent of your stands layer to generate a rectangular grid
of points. But you are only interested on those points that are actually inside your forest area (see the
images below):

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ˆ Open Vector → Geoprocessing Tools → Clip.

ˆ Select systematic_plots as Input vector layer.
ˆ Set forest_stands_2012 as the Clip layer.
ˆ Save the result as systematic_plots_clip.shp.
ˆ Check Add result to canvas.
ˆ Click OK.
You have now the points that the field teams will use to navigate to the designed sample plots locations.
You can still prepare these points so that they are more useful for the field work. At the least you will
have to add meaningful names for the points and export them to a format that can be used in their GPS
devices.
Lets start with the naming of the sample plots. If you check the Attribute table for the plots inside the
forest area, you can see that you have the default id field automatically generated by the Regular points
tool. Label the points to see them in the map and consider if you could use those numbers as part of
your sample plot naming:
ˆ Open the Layer Properties –> Labels for your systematic_plots_clip.
ˆ Check Label this layer with and select the field ID.
ˆ Go to the Buffer options and check the Draw text buffer, set the Size to 1.
ˆ Click OK.
Now look at the labels on your map. You can see that the points have been created and numbered first
West to East and then North to South. If you look at the attribute table again, you will notice that the
order in the table is following also that pattern. Unless you would have a reason to name the sample
plots in a different way, naming them in a West-East/North-South fashion follows a logical order and is
a good option.

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Note: If you would like to order or name them in a different way, you could use a spreadsheet to be
able to order and combine rows and columns in any different way.

Nevertheless, the number values in the id field are not so good. It would be better if the naming would
be something like p_1, p_2.... You can create a new column for the systematic_plots_clip layer:
ˆ Go to the Attribute table for systematic_plots_clip.
ˆ Enable the edit mode.
ˆ Open the Field calculator and name the new column Plot_id.
ˆ Set the Output field type‘to :kbd:‘Text (string).
ˆ In the Expression field, write, copy or construct this formula concat('P_', $rownum ). Remember
that you can also double click on the elements inside the Function list. The concat function can
be found under String and the $rownum parameter can be found under Record.
ˆ Click OK.
ˆ Disable the edit mode and save your changes.
Now you have a new column with plot names that are meaningful to you. For the
systematic_plots_clip layer, change the field used for labeling to your new Plot_id field.

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15.5.3 Follow Along: Exporting Sample Plots as GPX format

The field teams will be probably using a GPS device to locate the sample plots you
planned. The next step is to export the points you created to a format that your GPS can
read. QGIS allows you to save your point and line vector data in GPS eXchange Format
(GPX)<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_Exchange_Format>, which is an standard GPS data format
that can be read by most of the specialized software. You need to be careful with selecting the CRS when
you save your data:
ˆ Right click systematic_plots_clip and select Save as.

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ˆ In Format select GPS eXchange Format [GPX].

ˆ Save the output as plots_wgs84.gpx.
ˆ In CRS select Selected CRS.
ˆ Browse for WGS 84 (EPSG:4326).

Note: The GPX format accepts only this CRS, if you select a different one, QGIS will give no error but
you will get an empty file.

ˆ Click OK.
ˆ In the dialog that opens, select only the waypoints layer (the rest of the layers are empty).

The inventory sample plots are now in a standard format that can be managed by most of the GPS
software. The field teams can now upload the locations of the sample plots to their devices. That would
be done by using the specific devices own software and the plots_wgs84.gpx file you just saved. Other
option would be to use the GPS Tools plugin but it would most likely involve setting the tool to work
with your specific GPS device. If you are working with your own data and want to see how the tool
works you can find out information about it in the section working_gps in the QGIS User Manual.
Save your QGIS project now.

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15.5.4 In Conclusion

You just saw how easily you can create a systematic sampling design to be used in a forest inventory.
Creating other types of sampling designs will involve the use of different tools within QGIS, spreadsheets
or scripting to calculate the coordinates of the sample plots, but the general idea remains the same.

15.5.5 What’s Next?

In the next lesson you will see how to use the Atlas capabilities in QGIS to automatically generate
detailed maps that the field teams will be using to navigate to the sample plots assigned to them.

15.6 Lesson: Creating Detailed Maps with the Atlas Tool

The systematic sampling design is ready and the field teams have loaded the GPS coordinates in their
navigation devices. They also have a field data form where they will collect the information measured
at every sample plot. To easier find their way to every sample plot, they have requested a number of
detail maps where some ground information can be clearly seen along with a smaller subset of sample
plots and some information about the map area. You can use the Atlas tool to automatically generate a
number of maps with a common format.
The goal for this lesson: Learn to use the Atlas tool in QGIS to generate detailed printable maps to
assist in the field inventory work.

15.6.1 Follow Along: Preparing the Print Layout

Before we can automate the detailed maps of the forest area and our sampling plots, we need to create a
map template with all the elements we consider useful for the field work. Of course the most important
will be a properly styled but, as you have seen before, you will also need to add lots of other elements
that complete the printed map.
Open the QGIS project from the previous lesson forest_inventory.qgs. You should have at least the
following layers:
ˆ forest_stands_2012 (with a 50% transparency, green fill and darker green border lines).
ˆ systematic_plots_clip.
ˆ rautjarvi_aerial.
Save the project with a new name, map_creation.qgs.
To create a printable map, remember that you use the Layout Manager :
ˆ Open Project → Layout Manager. . . .
ˆ In the Layout manager dialog.
ˆ Click the Add button and name your print layout forest_map.
ˆ Click OK.
ˆ Click the Show button.
Set up the printer options so that your maps will suit your paper and margins, for an A4 paper:
ˆ Open menuselection:Layout –> Page Setup. . . .
ˆ Size is A4 (217 x 297 mm).
ˆ Orientation is Landscape.
ˆ Margins (millimeters) are all set to 5.

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In the Print Layout window, go to the Composition tab (on the right panel) and make sure that these
settings for Paper and quality are the same you defined for the printer:
ˆ Size : A4 (210x297mm).
ˆ Orientation : Landscape.
ˆ Quality : 300dpi.
Composing a map is easier if you make use of the canvas grid to position the different elements. Review
the settings for the layout grid:
ˆ In the Composition tab expand the Grid region.
ˆ Check that Spacing is set to 10 mm.
ˆ And that Tolerance is set to 2 mm.
You need to activate the use of the grid:
ˆ Open the View menu.
ˆ Check Show grid.
ˆ Check Snap to grid.
ˆ Notice that options for using guides are checked by default, which allows you to see red guiding
lines when you are moving elements in the layout.
Now you can start to add elements to your map canvas. Add first a map element so you can review how
it looks as you will be making changes in the layers symbology:

ˆ Click on the Add New Map button: .

ˆ Click and drag a box on the canvas so that the map occupies most of it.

Notice how the mouse cursor snaps to the canvas grid. Use this function when you add other elements.
If you want to have more accuracy, change the grid Spacing setting. If for some reason you don’t want
to snap to the grid at some point, you can always check or uncheck it in the View menu.

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15.6.2 Follow Along: Adding Background Map

Leave the layout open but go back to the map. Lets add some background data and create some styling
so that the map content is as clear as possible.
ˆ Add the background raster basic_map.tif that you can find in the exercise_data\forestry\
folder.
ˆ When prompted select the ETRS89 / ETRS-TM35FIN CRS for the raster.
As you can see the background map is already styled. This type of ready to use cartography raster is
very common. It is created from vector data, styled in a standard format and stored as a raster so that
you don’t have to bother styling several vector layers and worrying about getting a good result.
ˆ Now zoom to your sample plots, so that you can see only about four or five lines of plots.
The current styling of the sample plots is not the best, but how does it look in the print layout?:

While during the last exercises, the white buffer was OK on top of the aerial image, now that the
background image is mostly white you barely can see the labels. You can also check how it looks like on
the layout:
ˆ Go to the Print Layout window.

ˆ Use the button to select the map element in the layout.

ˆ Go to the Item properties tab.
ˆ Under Extents click on Set to map canvas extent.
ˆ If you need to refresh the element, under Main properties click on the Update preview.
Obviously this is not good enough, you want to make the plot numbers as clearly visible as possible for
the field teams.

15.6.3 Try Yourself Changing the Symbology of the Layers

You have been working in Module: Creating a Basic Map with symbology and in Module: Classifying
Vector Data with labeling. Go back to those modules if you need to refresh about some of the available
options and tools. Your goal is to get the plots locations and their name to be as clearly visible as possible
but always allowing to see the background map elements. You can take some guidance from this image:

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You will use later the the green styling of the forest_stands_2012 layer. In order to keep it, and have
a visualization of it that shows only the stand borders:
ˆ Right click on forest_stands_2012 and select Duplicate
ˆ you get a new layer named forest_stands_2012 copy that you can use to define a different style,
for example with no filling and red borders.
Now you have two different visualizations of the forest stands and you can decide which one to display
for your detail map.
Go back to the Print Layout window often to see what the map would look like. For the purposes of
creating detailed maps, you are looking for a symbology that looks good not at the scale of the whole
forest area (left image below) but at a closer scale (right image below). Remember to use Update preview
and Set to map canvas extent whenever you change the zoom in your map or the layout.

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15.6.4 Try Yourself Create a Basic Map Template

Once you have a symbology your happy with, you are ready to add some more information to your
printed map. Add at least the following elements:
ˆ Title.
ˆ A scale bar.
ˆ Grid frame for your map.
ˆ Coordinates on the sides of the grid.
You have created a similar composition already in Module: Creating Maps . Go back to that module as
you need. You can look at this example image for reference:

Export your map as an image and look at it.

ˆ Layout → Export as Image. . . .
ˆ Use for example the JPG format.
That is what it will look like when printed.

15.6.5 Follow Along: Adding More Elements to the Print Layout

As you probably noticed in the suggested map template images, there are plenty of room on the right
side of the canvas. Lets see what else could go in there. For the purposes of our map, a legend is not
really necessary, but an overview map and some text boxes could add value to the map.
The overview map will help the field teams place the detail map inside the general forest area:
ˆ Add another map element to the canvas, right under the title text.
ˆ In the Item properties tab, open the Overview dropdown.

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ˆ Set the Overview frame to Map 0. This creates a shadowed rectangle over the smaller map
representing the extent visible in the bigger map.
ˆ Check also the Frame option with a black color and a Thickness of 0.30.

Notice that your overview map is not really giving an overview of the forest area which is what you want.
You want this map to represent the whole forest area and you want it to show only the background map
and the forest_stands_2012 layer, and not display the sample plots. And also you want to lock its view
so it does not change anymore whenever you change the visibility or order of the layers.
ˆ Go back to the map, but don’t close the Print Layout.
ˆ Right click the forest_stands_2012 layer and click on Zoom to Layer Extent.
ˆ Deactivate all layers except for basic_map and forest_stands_2012.
ˆ Go back to the Print Layout.
ˆ With the small map selected, click the Set to map canvas extent to set its extents to what you can
see in the map window.
ˆ Lock the view for the overview map by checking Lock layers for map item under Main properties.
Now your overview map is more what you expected and its view will not change anymore. But, of course,
now your detail map is not showing anymore the stand borders nor the sample plots. Lets fix that:
ˆ Go to the map window again and select the layers you want to be visible (systematic_plots_clip,
forest_stands_2012 copy and Basic_map).
ˆ Zoom again to have only a few lines of sample plots visible.
ˆ Go back to the Print Layout window.

ˆ Select the bigger map in your layout ( ).

ˆ In Item properties click on Update preview and Set to map canvas extent.

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Notice that only the bigger map is displaying the current map view, and the small overview map is
keeping the same view you had when you locked it.
Note also that the overview is showing a shaded frame for the extent shown in the detail map.

Your template map is almost ready. Add now two text boxes below the map, one containing the text
Detailed map zone: and the other one Remarks: . Place them as you can see in the image above.
’ ’ ’ ’
You can also add a North arrow to the overview map:

ˆ Use the Add image tool, .

ˆ Click at the upper right corner of the overview map.
ˆ In Item properties open Search directories and browse for an arrow image.
ˆ Under Image rotation, check the Sync with map and select Map 1 (the overview map).
ˆ Uncheck Background.
ˆ Resize the arrow image to a size that looks good on the small map.
The basic map layout is ready, now you want to make use of the Atlas tool to generate as many detail
maps in this format as you consider necessary.

15.6.6 Follow Along: Creating an Atlas Coverage

The Atlas coverage is just a vector layer that will be used to generate the detail maps, one map for every
feature in the coverage. To get an idea of what you will do next, here is a full set of detail maps for the
forest area:

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The coverage could be any existing layer, but usually it makes more sense to create one for the specific
purpose. Let’s create a grid of polygons covering the forest area:
ˆ In the QGIS map view, open Vector → Research Tools → Vector grid.
ˆ Set the tool as shown in this image:

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ˆ Save the output as atlas_coverage.shp.

ˆ Style the new atlas_coverage layer so that the polygons have no filling.
The new polygons are covering the whole forest area and they give you an idea of what each map (created
from each polygon) will contain.

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15.6.7 Follow Along: Setting Up the Atlas Tool

The last step is to set up the Atlas tool:

ˆ Go back to the Print Layout.
ˆ In the panel on the right, go to the Atlas generation tab.
ˆ Set the options as follows:

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That tells the Atlas tool to use the features (polygons) inside atlas_coverage as the focus for every
detail map. It will output one map for every feature in the layer. The Hidden coverage layer tells the
Atlas to not show the polygons in the output maps.
One more thing needs to be done. You need to tell the Atlas tool what map element is going to be
updated for every output map. By now, you probably can guess that the map to be changed for every
feature is the one you have prepared to contain detail views of the sample plots, that is the bigger map
element in your canvas:
ˆ Select the bigger map element.
ˆ Go to the Item properties tab.
ˆ In the list, check Controlled by atlas.
ˆ And set the Marging around feature to 10%. The view extent will be 10% bigger than the polygons,
which means that your detail maps will have a 10% overlap.

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Now you can use the preview tool for Atlas maps to review what your maps will look like:

ˆ Activate the Atlas previews using the button or if your Atlas toolbar is not visible, via Atlas
→ Preview Atlas.
ˆ You can use the arrows in the Atlas tool bar or in the Atlas menu to move through maps that will
be created.
Note that some of them cover areas that are not interesting. Lets do something about it and save some
trees by not printing those useless maps.

15.6.8 Follow Along: Editing the Coverage Layer

Besides removing the polygons for those areas that are not interesting, you can also customize the text
labels in your map to be generated with content from the Attribute table of your coverage layer:
ˆ Go back to the map view.
ˆ Enable editing for the atlas_coverage layer.

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ˆ Select the polygons that are selected (in yellow) in the image below.
ˆ Remove the selected polygons.
ˆ Disable editing and save the edits.

You can go back to the Print Layout and check that the previews of the Atlas use only the polygons you
left in the layer.
The coverage layer you are using does not yet have useful information that you could use to customize
the content of the labels in your map. The first step is to create them, you can add for example a zone
code for the polygon areas and a field with some remarks for the field teams to have into account:
ˆ Open the Attribute table for the atlas_coverage layer.
ˆ Enable editing.

ˆ Use the calculator to create and populate the following two fields.
ˆ Create a field named Zone and type Whole number (integer).
ˆ In the Expression box write/copy/construct $rownum.
ˆ Create another field named Remarks, of type Text (string) and a width of 255.

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ˆ In the Expression box write 'No remarks.'. This will set all the default value for all the polygons.
The forest manager will have some information about the area that might be useful when visiting
the area. For example, the existence of a bridge, a swamp or the location of a protected species. The
atlas_coverage layer is probably in edit mode still, add the following text in the Remarks field to the
corresponding polygons (double click the cell to edit it):
ˆ For the Zone 2: Bridge to the North of plot 19. Siberian squirrel between p_13 and
p_14..
ˆ For the Zone 6: Difficult to transit in swamp to the North of the lake..
ˆ For the Zone 7: Siberian squirrel to the South East of p_94..
ˆ Disable editing and save your edits.
Almost ready, now you have to tell the Atlas tool that you want some of the text labels to use the
information from the atlas_coverage layer’s attribute table.
ˆ Go back to the Print Layout.
ˆ Select the text label containing Detailed map....
ˆ Set the Font size to 12.
ˆ Set the cursor at the end of the text in the label.
ˆ In the Item properties tab, inside the Main properties click on Insert an expression.
ˆ In the Function list double click on the field Zone under Field and Values.
ˆ Click OK.
ˆ The text inside the box in the Item properties should show Detail map inventory zone: [%
"Zone"%]. Note that the [% "Zone"%] will be substituted by the value of the field Zone for the
corresponding feature from the layer atlas_coverage.
Test the contents of the label by looking at the different Atlas preview maps.
Do the same for the labels with the text Remarks: using the field with the zone information. You can
leave a break line before you enter the expression. You can see the result for the preview of zone 2 in the
image below:

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Use the Atlas preview to browse through all the maps you will be creating soon and enjoy!

15.6.9 Follow Along: Printing the Maps

Last but not least, printing or exporting your maps to image files or PDF files. You can use the Atlas
→ Export Atlas as Images. . . or Atlas → Export Atlas as PDF. . . . Currently the SVG export format is
not working properly and will give a poor result.
Lets print the maps as a single PDF that you can send to the field office for printing:
ˆ Go to the Atlas generation tab on the right panel.
ˆ Under the Output check the Single file export when possible. This will put all the maps together
into a PDF file, if this option is not checked you will get one file for every map.
ˆ Open Layout → Export as PDF. . . .
ˆ Save the PDF file as inventory_2012_maps.pdf in your
exercise_data\forestry\samplig\map_creation\ folder.
Open the PDF file to check that everything went as expected.
You could just as easily create separate images for every map (remember to uncheck the single file
creation), here you can see the thumbnails of the images that would be created:

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In the Print Layout, save your map as a layout template as forestry_atlas.qpt in your
exercise_data\forestry\map_creation\ folder. Use Layout → Save as Template. You will be able
to use this template again and again.
Close the Print Layout and save your QGIS project.

15.6.10 In Conclusion

You have managed to create a template map that can be used to automatically generate detail maps to
be used in the field to help navigate to the different plots. As you noticed, this was not an easy task
but the benefit will come when you need to create similar maps for other regions and you can use the
template you just saved.

15.6.11 What’s Next?

In the next lesson, you will see how you can use LiDAR data to create a DEM and then use it to your
enhance your data and maps visibility.

15.7 Lesson: Calculating the Forest Parameters

Estimating the parameters of the forest is the goal of the forest inventory. Continuing the example
from previous lesson, you will use the inventory information gathered in the field to calculate the forest
parameters, for the whole forest first, and then for the stands you digitized before.
The goal for this lesson: Calculate forest parameters at general and stand level.

15.7.1 Follow Along: Adding the Inventory Results

The field teams visited the forest and with the help of the information you provided, gathered information
about the forest at every sample plot.
Most often the information will be collected into paper forms in the field, then typed to a spreadsheet.
The sample plots information has been condensed into a .csv file that can be easily open in QGIS.
Continue with the QGIS project from the lesson about designing the inventory, you probably named it
forest_inventory.qgs.
First, add the sample plots measurements to your QGIS project:

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1. Go to Layer → Add Delimited Text Layer. . . .

2. Browse to the file systematic_inventory_results.csv located in exercise_data/forestry/
results/.
3. Make sure that the Point coordinates option is checked.
4. Set the fields for the coordinates to the X and Y fields.
5. Click OK.
6. When prompted, select ETRS89 / ETRS-TM35FIN as the CRS.
7. Open the new layer’s Attribute table and have a look at the data.
You can read the type of data that is contained in the sample plots measurements in the text file
legend_2012_inventorydata.txt located in the exercise_data/forestry/results/ folder.
The systematic_inventory_results layer you just added is actually just a virtual representation of
the text information in the .csv file. Before you continue, convert the inventory results to a real spatial
dataset:
1. Right click on the systematic_inventory_results layer.
2. Browse to exercise_data/forestry/results/ folder.
3. Name the file sample_plots_results.shp.
4. Check Add saved file to map.
5. Remove the systematic_inventory_results layer from your project.

15.7.2 Follow Along: Whole Forest Parameters Estimation

You can calculate the averages for this whole forest area from the inventory results for the some interesting
parameters, like the volume and the number of stems per hectare. Since the systematic sample plots
represent equal areas, you can directly calculate the averages of the volumes and number of stems per
hectare from the sample_plots_results layer.
You can calculate the average of a field in a vector layer using the Basic statistics tool:
1. Open Vector → Analysis Tools → Basic statistics for Fields.
2. Select sample_plots_results as the Input Vector Layer.
3. Select Vol as Target field.
4. Click OK.
The average volume in the forest is 135.2 m3/ha.
You can calculate the average for the number of stems in the same way, 2745 stems/ha.

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15.7.3 Follow Along: Estimating Stand Parameters

You can make use of those same systematic sample plots to calculate estimates for the different forest
stands you digitized previously. Some of the forest stands did not get any sample plot and for those
you will not get information. You could have planned some extra sample plots when you planned the
systematic inventory, so that the field teams would have measured a few extra sample plots for this
purpose. Or you could send a field team later to get estimates of the missing forest stands to complete
the stand inventory. Nevertheless, you will get information for a good number of stands just using the
planned plots.
What you need is to get the averages of the sample plots that are falling within each of the forest stands.
When you want to combine information based on their relative locations, you perform a spatial join:
1. Open the Vector → Data Management → Join attributes by location tool.
2. Set forest_stands_2012 as the Target vector layer. The layer you want the results for.
3. Set sample_plots_results as the Join vector layer. The layer you want to calculate estimates
from.
4. Check Take summary of intersecting features.
5. Check to calculate only the Mean.
6. Name the result as forest_stands_2012_results.shp and save it in the exercise_data/
forestry/results/ folder.
7. Finally select Keep all records. . . , so you can check later what stands did not get information.
8. Click OK.
9. Accept adding the new layer to your project when prompted.
10. Close the Join attributes by location tool.
Open the Attribute table for forest_stands_2012_results and review the results you got. Note that a
number of forest stands have NULL as the value for the calculations, those are the ones having no sample
plots. Select them all and view them in the map, they are some of the smaller stands:

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Lets calculate now the same averages for the whole forest as you did before, only this time you will
use the averages you got for the stands as the bases for the calculation. Remember that in the previous
situation, each sample plot represented a theoretical stand of 80x80 m. Now you have to consider the
area of each of the stands individually instead. That way, again, the average values of the parameters
that are in, for example, m3/ha for the volumes are converted to total volumes for the stands.
You need to first calculate the areas for the stands and then calculate total volumes and stem numbers
for each of them:
1. In the Attribute table enable editing.
2. Open the Field calculator.
3. Create a new field called area.

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4. Set the Output field type to Decimal number (real).

5. Set the Precision to 2.
6. In the Expression box, write $area / 10000. This will calculate the area of the forest stands in
ha.
7. Click OK.
Now calculate a field with the total volumes and number of stems estimated for every stand:
1. Name the fields s_vol and s_stem.
2. The fields can be integer numbers or you can use real numbers also.
3. Use the expressions "area"* "MEANVol" and "area"* "MEANStems" for total volumes and total
stems respectively.
4. Save the edits when you are finished.
5. Disable editing.
In the previous situation, the areas represented by every sample plot were the same, so it was enough to
calculate the average of the sample plots. Now to calculate the estimates, you need to divide the sum of
the stands volumes or number of stems by the sum of the areas of the stands containing information.
1. In the Attribute table for the forest_stands_2012_results layer, select all the stands containing
information.
2. Open Vector → Analysis Tools → Basic statistics for fields.
3. Select the forest_stands_2012_results as the Input layer.
4. Select area as Field to calculate statistics on.
5. Check the Selected features only
6. Click OK.

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As you can see, the total sum of the stands‘ areas is 66.04 ha. Note that the area of the missing forest
stands is only about 7 ha.
In the same way, you can calculate that the total volume for these stands is 8908 m3/ha and the total
number of stems is 179594 stems.
Using the information from the forest stands, instead of directly using that from the sample plots, gives
the following average estimates:
ˆ 184.9 m3/ha and
ˆ 2719 stems/ha.
Save your QGIS project, forest_inventory.qgs.

15.7.4 In Conclusion

You managed to calculate forest estimates for the whole forest using the information from your systematic
sample plots, first without considering the forest characteristics and also using the interpretation of the
aerial image into forest stands. And you also got some valuable information about the particular stands,
which could be used to plan the management of the forest in the coming years.

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15.7.5 What’s Next?

In the following lesson, you will first create a hillshade background from a LiDAR dataset which you will
use to prepare a map presentation with the forest results you just calculated.

15.8 Lesson: DEM from LiDAR Data

You can improve the look of your maps by using different background images. You could use the basic
map or the aerial image you have been using before, but a hillshade raster of the terrain will look nicer
in some situations.
You will use LAStools to extract a DEM from a LiDAR dataset and then create a hillshade raster to use
in your map presentation later.
The goal for this lesson: Install LAStools and calculate a DEM from LiDAR data and a hillshade
raster.

15.8.1 Follow Along: Installing Lastools

Managing LiDAR data within QGIS is possible using the Processing framework and the algorithms
provided by LAStools.
You can obtain a digital elevation model (DEM) from a LiDAR point cloud and then create a hillshade
raster that is visually more intuitive for presentation purposes. First you will have to set up the Processing
framework settings to properly work with LAStools:
ˆ Close QGIS, if you have already started it.
ˆ An old lidar plugin might be installed by default in your system in the folder C:/Program Files/
QGIS Valmiera/apps/qgis/python/plugins/processing/.
ˆ If you have a folder named lidar, delete it. This is valid for some installations of QGIS 2.2 and
2.4.

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ˆ Go to the exercise_data\forestry\lidar\ folder, there you can find the file QGIS_2_2_toolbox.
zip. Open it and extract the lidar folder to replace the one you just deleted.
ˆ If you are using a different QGIS version, you can see more installation instructions in this tutorial.
Now you need to install the LAStools to your computer. Get the newest lastools version here and extract
the content of the lastools.zip file into a folder in your system, for example, C:\lastools\. The path
to the lastools folder cannot have spaces or special characters.

Note: Read the LICENSE.txt file inside the lastools folder. Some of the LAStools are open source and
other are closed source and require licensing for most commercial and governmental use. For education
and evaluation purposes you can use and test LAStools as much as you need to.

The plugin and the actual algorithms are now installed in your computer and almost ready to use, you
just need to set up the Processing framework to start using them:
ˆ Open a new project in QGIS.
ˆ Set the project’s CRS to ETRS89 / ETRS-TM35FIN.
ˆ Save the project as forest_lidar.qgs.
To setup the LAStools in QGIS:
ˆ Go to Processing → Options and configuration.
ˆ In the Processing options dialog, go to Providers and then to Tools for LiDAR data.
ˆ Check Activate.
ˆ For LAStools folder set c:\lastools\ (or the folder you extracted LAStools to).

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15.8.2 Follow Along: Calculating a DEM with LAStools

You have already used the Processing toolbox in Lesson: Spatial Statistics to run some SAGA algorithms.
Now you are going to use it to run LAStools programs:
ˆ Open Processing → Toolbox.
ˆ In the dropdown menu at the bottom, select Advanced interface.
ˆ You should see the Tools for LiDAR data category.

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ˆ Expand it to see the tools available, and expand also the LAStools category (the number of
algorithms may vary).
ˆ Scroll down until you find the lasview algorithm, double click it to open.
ˆ At Input LAS/LAZ file, browse to exercise_data\forestry\lidar\ and select the
rautjarvi_lidar.laz file.

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ˆ Click Run.
Now you can see the LiDAR data in the just a little LAS and LAZ viewer dialog window:

There are many things you can do within this viewer, but for now you can just click and drag on the
viewer to pan the LiDAR point cloud to see what it looks like.

Note: If you want to know further details on how the LAStools work, you can read the README text

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files about each of the tools, in the C:\lastools\bin\ folder. Tutorials and other materials are available
at the Rapidlasso webpage.

ˆ Close the viewer when you are ready.

Creating a DEM with LAStools can be done in two steps, first one to classify the point cloud into ground
and no ground points and then calculating a DEM using only the ground points.
ˆ Go back to the Processing Toolbox.
ˆ Note the Search. . . box, write lasground.
ˆ Double click to open the lasground tool and set it as shown in this image:

ˆ The output file is saved to the same folder where the rautjarvi_lidar.laz is located and it is
named rautjarvi_lidar_1.las.
You can open it with lasview if you want to check it.

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The brown points are the points classified as ground and the gray ones are the rest, you can click the
letter g to visualize only the ground points or the letter u to see only the unclassified points. Click the
letter a to see all the points again. Check the lasview_README.txt file for more commands. If you are
interested, also this tutorial about editing LiDAR points manually will show you different operations
within the viewer.
ˆ Close the viewer again.
ˆ In the Processing Toolbox, search for las2dem.
ˆ Open the las2dem tool and set it as shown in this image:

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The result DEM is added to your map with the generic name Output raster file.

Note: The lasground and las2dem tools require licensing. You can use the unlicensed tool as indicated
in the license file, but you get the diagonals you can appreciate in the image results.

15.8.3 Follow Along: Creating a Terrain Hillshade

For visualization purposes, a hillshade generated from a DEM gives a better visualization
of the terrain:
ˆ Open Raster → Terrain analysis → Hillshade.
ˆ As the Output layer, browse to exercise_data\forestry\lidar\ and name the file hillshade.
tif.
ˆ Leave the rest of parameters with the default settings.

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ˆ Select ETRS89 / ETRS-TM35FIN as the CRS when prompted.

Despite the diagonal lines remaining in the hillshade raster result, you can clearly see an accurate relief
of the area. You can even see the different soil drains that have been dug in the forests.

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15.8.4 In Conclusion

Using LiDAR data to get a DEM, specially in forested areas, gives good results with not much effort.
You could also use ready LiDAR derived DEMs or other sources like the SRTM 9m resolution DEMs.
Either way, you can use them to create a hillshade raster to use in your map presentations.

15.8.5 What’s Next?

In the next, and final step in this module, lesson you will use the hillshade raster and the forest inventory
results to create a map presentation of the results.

15.9 Lesson: Map Presentation

In the previous lessons you have imported an old forest inventor as a GIS project, updated it to the
current situation, designed a forest inventory, created maps for the field work and calculated forest
parameters from the field measurements.
It is often important to create maps with the results of a GIS project. A map presenting the results of
the forest inventory will make it easier for anyone to have a good idea of what the results are in a quick
glance, without looking at the specific numbers.

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The goal for this lesson: Create a map to present the inventory results using a hillshade raster as
background.

15.9.1 Follow Along: Preparing the Map Data

Open the QGIS project from the parameters calculations lesson, forest_inventory.qgs. Keep at least
the following layers:
ˆ forest_stands_2012_results.
ˆ basic_map.
ˆ rautjarvi_aerial.
ˆ lakes (if you don’t have it, add it from the exercise_data\forestry\ folder).
You are going to present the average volumes of your forest stands in a map. If you open the Attribute
table for the forest_stands_2012_results layer, you can see the NULL values for the stands without
information. To be able to get also those stands into your symbology you should change the NULL values
to, for example, -999, knowing that those negative numbers mean there is no data for those polygons.
For the forest_stands_2012_results layer:
ˆ Open the Attribute table and enable editing.
ˆ Select the polygons with NULL values.
ˆ Use the calculator to update the values of the MEANVol field to -999 only for the selected features.
ˆ Disable editing and save the changes.
Now you can use a saved style for this layer:
ˆ Go to the Symbology tab.
ˆ Click on Style → Load Style. . . .
ˆ Select the forest_stands_2012_results.qml from the exercise_data\forestry\results\
folder.
ˆ Click OK.

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Your map will look something like this:

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15.9.2 Try Yourself Try Different Blending Modes

The style you loaded:

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is using the Hard light mode for the Layer blending mode. Note that the different modes apply different
filters combining the underlying and overlying layers, in this case the hillshade raster and your forest
stands are used. You can read about these modes in the User Guide.
Try with different modes and see the differences in your map. Then choose the one you like better for
your final map.

15.9.3 Try Yourself Using a Layout Template to Create the Map result

Use a template prepared in advanced to present the results. The template forest_map.qpt is located in
the exercise_data\forestry\results\ folder. Load it using the Project → Layout Manager. . . dialog.

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Open the print layout and edit the final map to get a result you are happy with.
The map template you are using will give a map similar to this one:

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Save your QGIS project for future references.

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15.9.4 In Conclusion

Through this module you have seen how a basic forest inventory can be planned and presented with
QGIS. Many more forest analysis are possible with the variety of tools that you can access, but hopefully
this manual has given you a good starting point to explore how you could achieve the specific results
you need.

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Module: Database Concepts with PostgreSQL

Relational Databases are an important part of any GIS system. In this module, you’ll learn about
Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) concepts and you will use PostgreSQL to create a
new database to store data, as well as learning about other typical RDBMS functions.

16.1 Lesson: Introduction to Databases

Before using PostgreSQL, let’s make sure of our ground by covering general database theory. You will
not need to enter any of the example code; it’s only there for illustration purposes.
The goal for this lesson: To understand fundamental database concepts.

16.1.1 What is a Database?

A database consists of an organized collection of data for one or more uses, typically in digital form. -
Wikipedia
A database management system (DBMS) consists of software that operates databases, providing storage,
access, security, backup and other facilities. - Wikipedia

16.1.2 Tables

In relational databases and flat file databases, a table is a set of data elements (values) that is organized
using a model of vertical columns (which are identified by their name) and horizontal rows. A table has
a specified number of columns, but can have any number of rows. Each row is identified by the values
appearing in a particular column subset which has been identified as a candidate key. - Wikipedia

id | name | age
----+-------+-----
1 | Tim | 20
2 | Horst | 88
(2 rows)

In SQL databases a table is also known as a relation.

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16.1.3 Columns / Fields

A column is a set of data values of a particular simple type, one for each row of the table. The
columns provide the structure according to which the rows are composed. The term field is often used
interchangeably with column, although many consider it more correct to use field (or field value) to refer
specifically to the single item that exists at the intersection between one row and one column. - Wikipedia
A column:

| name |
+-------+
| Tim |
| Horst |

A field:

| Horst |

16.1.4 Records

A record is the information stored in a table row. Each record will have a field for each of the columns
in the table.

2 | Horst | 88 <-- one record

16.1.5 Datatypes

Datatypes restrict the kind of information that can be stored in a column. - Tim and Horst
There are many kinds of datatypes. Let’s focus on the most common:
ˆ String - to store free-form text data
ˆ Integer - to store whole numbers
ˆ Real - to store decimal numbers
ˆ Date - to store Horst’s birthday so no one forgets
ˆ Boolean - to store simple true/false values
You can tell the database to allow you to also store nothing in a field. If there is nothing in a field, then
the field content is referred to as a null‘ value:
’
insert into person (age) values (40);

select * from person;

Result:

id | name | age
---+-------+-----
1 | Tim | 20
2 | Horst | 88
4 | | 40 <-- null for name
(3 rows)

There are many more datatypes you can use - check the PostgreSQL manual!

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16.1.6 Modelling an Address Database

Let’s use a simple case study to see how a database is constructed. We want to create an address database.

Try Yourself
Write down the properties which make up a simple address and which we would want to store in our
database.
Check your results

Address Structure
The properties that describe an address are the columns. The type of information stored in each column
is its datatype. In the next section we will analyse our conceptual address table to see how we can make
it better!

16.1.7 Database Theory

The process of creating a database involves creating a model of the real world; taking real world concepts
and representing them in the database as entities.

16.1.8 Normalisation

One of the main ideas in a database is to avoid data duplication / redundancy. The process of removing
redundancy from a database is called Normalisation.
Normalization is a systematic way of ensuring that a database structure is suitable for general-purpose
querying and free of certain undesirable characteristics - insertion, update, and deletion anomalies - that
could lead to a loss of data integrity. - Wikipedia
There are different kinds of normalisation forms‘.
’
Let’s take a look at a simple example:
Table "public.people"

Column | Type | Modifiers

----------+------------------------+------------------------------------
id | integer | not null default
| | nextval('people_id_seq'::regclass)
| |
name | character varying(50) |
address | character varying(200) | not null
phone_no | character varying |
Indexes:
"people_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (id)

select * from people;

id | name | address | phone_no

---+---------------+-----------------------------+-------------
1 | Tim Sutton | 3 Buirski Plein, Swellendam | 071 123 123
2 | Horst Duester | 4 Avenue du Roix, Geneva | 072 121 122
(2 rows)

Imagine you have many friends with the same street name or city. Every time this data is duplicated, it
consumes space. Worse still, if a city name changes, you have to do a lot of work to update your database.

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16.1.9 Try Yourself

Redesign the theoretical people table above to reduce duplication and to normalise the data structure.
You can read more about database normalisation here
Check your results

16.1.10 Indexes

A database index is a data structure that improves the speed of data retrieval operations on a database
table. - Wikipedia
Imagine you are reading a textbook and looking for the explanation of a concept - and the textbook has
no index! You will have to start reading at one cover and work your way through the entire book until
you find the information you need. The index at the back of a book helps you to jump quickly to the
page with the relevant information:
create index person_name_idx on people (name);

Now searches on name will be faster:

Table "public.people"

Column | Type | Modifiers

----------+------------------------+-------------------------------------
id | integer | not null default
| | nextval('people_id_seq'::regclass)
| |
name | character varying(50) |
address | character varying(200) | not null
phone_no | character varying |
Indexes:
"people_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (id)
"person_name_idx" btree (name)

16.1.11 Sequences

A sequence is a unique number generator. It is normally used to create a unique identifier for a column
in a table.
In this example, id is a sequence - the number is incremented each time a record is added to the table:
id | name | address | phone_no
---+--------------+-----------------------------+-------------
1 | Tim Sutton | 3 Buirski Plein, Swellendam | 071 123 123
2 | Horst Duster | 4 Avenue du Roix, Geneva | 072 121 122

16.1.12 Entity Relationship Diagramming

In a normalised database, you typically have many relations (tables). The entity-relationship diagram (ER
Diagram) is used to design the logical dependencies between the relations. Consider our non-normalised
people table from earlier in the lesson:
select * from people;

id | name | address | phone_no

----+--------------+-----------------------------+-------------

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1 | Tim Sutton | 3 Buirski Plein, Swellendam | 071 123 123

2 | Horst Duster | 4 Avenue du Roix, Geneva | 072 121 122
(2 rows)

With a little work we can split it into two tables, removing the need to repeat the street name for
individuals who live in the same street:

select * from streets;

id | name
----+--------------
1 | Plein Street
(1 row)

and:

select * from people;

id | name | house_no | street_id | phone_no

----+--------------+----------+-----------+-------------
1 | Horst Duster | 4 | 1 | 072 121 122
(1 row)

We can then link the two tables using the keys‘ streets.id and people.streets_id.
’
If we draw an ER Diagram for these two tables it would look something like this:

The ER Diagram helps us to express one to many‘ relationships. In this case the arrow symbol show
’
that one street can have many people living on it.

Try Yourself
Our people model still has some normalisation issues - try to see if you can normalise it further and show
your thoughts by means of an ER Diagram.
Check your results

16.1.13 Constraints, Primary Keys and Foreign Keys

A database constraint is used to ensure that data in a relation matches the modeller’s view of how that
data should be stored. For example a constraint on your postal code could ensure that the number falls
between 1000 and 9999.
A Primary key is one or more field values that make a record unique. Usually the primary key is called
id and is a sequence.
A Foreign key is used to refer to a unique record on another table (using that other table’s primary key).
In ER Diagramming, the linkage between tables is normally based on Foreign keys linking to Primary
keys.
If we look at our people example, the table definition shows that the street column is a foreign key that
references the primary key on the streets table:

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Table "public.people"

Column | Type | Modifiers

-----------+-----------------------+--------------------------------------
id | integer | not null default
| | nextval('people_id_seq'::regclass)
name | character varying(50) |
house_no | integer | not null
street_id | integer | not null
phone_no | character varying |
Indexes:
"people_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (id)
Foreign-key constraints:
"people_street_id_fkey" FOREIGN KEY (street_id) REFERENCES streets(id)

16.1.14 Transactions

When adding, changing, or deleting data in a database, it is always important that the database is left
in a good state if something goes wrong. Most databases provide a feature called transaction support.
Transactions allow you to create a rollback position that you can return to if your modifications to the
database did not run as planned.
Take a scenario where you have an accounting system. You need to transfer funds from one account and
add them to another. The sequence of steps would go like this:
ˆ remove R20 from Joe
ˆ add R20 to Anne
If something goes wrong during the process (e.g. power failure), the transaction will be rolled back.

16.1.15 In Conclusion

Databases allow you to manage data in a structured way using simple code structures.

16.1.16 What’s Next?

Now that we’ve looked at how databases work in theory, let’s create a new database to implement the
theory we’ve covered.

16.2 Lesson: Implementing the Data Model

Now that we’ve covered all the theory, let’s create a new database. This database will be used for our
exercises for the lessons that will follow afterwards.
The goal for this lesson: To install the required software and use it to implement our example database.

16.2.1 Install PostgreSQL

Note: Although outside the scope of this document, Mac users can install PostgreSQL using Homebrew.
Windows users can use the graphical installer. Please note that the documentation will assume users are
running QGIS under Ubuntu.

Under Ubuntu:

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sudo apt-get install postgresql-9.1

You should get a message like this:

[sudo] password for qgis:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
postgresql-client-9.1 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common
Suggested packages:
oidentd ident-server postgresql-doc-9.1
The following NEW packages will be installed:
postgresql-9.1 postgresql-client-9.1 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
Need to get 5,012kB of archives.
After this operation, 19.0MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

Press Y and Enter and wait for the download and installation to finish.

16.2.2 Помощ

PostgreSQL has very good online documentation.

16.2.3 Create a database user

Under Ubuntu:
After the installation is complete, run this command to become the postgres user and then create a new
database user:

sudo su - postgres

Type in your normal log in password when prompted (you need to have sudo rights).
Now, at the postgres user’s bash prompt, create the database user. Make sure the user name matches
your unix login name: it will make your life much easier, as postgres will automatically authenticate you
when you are logged in as that user:

createuser -d -E -i -l -P -r -s qgis

Enter a password when prompted. You should use a different password to your login password.
What do those options mean?

-d, --createdb role can create new databases

-E, --encrypted encrypt stored password
-i, --inherit role inherits privileges of roles it is a member of (default)
-l, --login role can login (default)
-P, --pwprompt assign a password to new role
-r, --createrole role can create new roles
-s, --superuser role will be superuser

Now you should leave the postgres user’s bash shell environment by typing:

exit

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16.2.4 Verify the new account

psql -l

Should return something like this:

Name | Owner | Encoding | Collation | Ctype |
----------+----------+----------+------------+------------+
postgres | postgres | UTF8 | en_ZA.utf8 | en_ZA.utf8 |
template0 | postgres | UTF8 | en_ZA.utf8 | en_ZA.utf8 |
template1 | postgres | UTF8 | en_ZA.utf8 | en_ZA.utf8 |
(3 rows)

Type Q to exit.

16.2.5 Create a database

The createdb command is used to create a new database. It should be run from the bash shell prompt:
createdb address -O qgis

You can verify the existence of your new database by using this command:
psql -l

Which should return something like this:

Name | Owner | Encoding | Collation | Ctype | Access privileges
----------+----------+----------+------------+------------+-----------------------
address | qgis | UTF8 | en_ZA.utf8 | en_ZA.utf8 |
postgres | postgres | UTF8 | en_ZA.utf8 | en_ZA.utf8 |
template0 | postgres | UTF8 | en_ZA.utf8 | en_ZA.utf8 | =c/postgres: postgres=CTc/postgres
template1 | postgres | UTF8 | en_ZA.utf8 | en_ZA.utf8 | =c/postgres: postgres=CTc/postgres
(4 rows)

Type Q to exit.

16.2.6 Starting a database shell session

You can connect to your database easily like this:

psql address

To exit out of the psql database shell, type:

\q

For help in using the shell, type:

\?

For help in using sql commands, type:

\help

To get help on a specific command, type (for example):

\help create table

See also the Psql cheat sheet.

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16.2.7 Make Tables in SQL

Let’s start making some tables! We will use our ER Diagram as a guide. First, connect to the address
db:

psql address

Then create a streets table:

create table streets (id serial not null primary key, name varchar(50));

serial and varchar are data types. serial tells PostgreSQL to start an integer sequence (auto-
number) to populate the id automatically for every new record. varchar(50) tells PostgreSQL to create
a character field of 50 characters in length.
You will notice that the command ends with a ; - all SQL commands should be terminated this way.
When you press Enter, psql will report something like this:

NOTICE: CREATE TABLE will create implicit sequence "streets_id_seq"

for serial column "streets.id"
NOTICE: CREATE TABLE / PRIMARY KEY will create implicit index
"streets_pkey" for table "streets"
CREATE TABLE

That means your table was created successfully, with a primary key streets_pkey using streets.id.
Note: If you hit return without entering a ;, then you will get a prompt like this: address-#. This is
because PG is expecting you to enter more. Enter ; to run your command.
To view your table schema, you can do this:

\d streets

Which should show something like this:

Table "public.streets"
Column | Type | Modifiers
--------+-----------------------+--------------------------------------
id | integer | not null default
| | nextval('streets_id_seq'::regclass)
name | character varying(50) |
Indexes:
"streets_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (id)

To view your table contents, you can do this:

select * from streets;

Which should show something like this:

id | name
---+------
(0 rows)

As you can see, our table is currently empty.

Try Yourself
Use the approach shown above to make a table called people:

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Add fields such as phone number, home address, name, etc. (these aren’t all valid names: change them
to make them valid). Make sure you give the table an ID column with the same data-type as above.
Check your results

16.2.8 Create Keys in SQL

The problem with our solution above is that the database doesn’t know that people and streets have
a logical relationship. To express this relationship, we have to define a foreign key that points to the
primary key of the streets table.

There are two ways to do this:

ˆ Add the key after the table has been created
ˆ Define the key at time of table creation
Our table has already been created, so let’s do it the first way:
alter table people
add constraint people_streets_fk foreign key (street_id) references streets(id);

That tells the people table that its street_id fields must match a valid street id from the streets
table.
The more usual way to create a constraint is to do it when you create the table:
create table people (id serial not null primary key,
name varchar(50),
house_no int not null,
street_id int references streets(id) not null,
phone_no varchar null);

\d people

After adding the constraint, our table schema looks like this now:
Table "public.people"

Column | Type | Modifiers

-----------+-----------------------+---------------------------------
id | integer | not null default
| | nextval('people_id_seq'::regclass)
name | character varying(50) |
house_no | integer | not null
street_id | integer | not null
phone_no | character varying |
Indexes:
"people_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (id)
Foreign-key constraints:
"people_streets_fk" FOREIGN KEY (id) REFERENCES streets(id)

16.2.9 Create Indexes in SQL

We want lightning fast searches on peoples names. To provide for this, we can create an index on the
name column of our people table:

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create index people_name_idx on people(name);

\d people

Which results in:

Table "public.people"

Column | Type | Modifiers

-----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------
id | integer | not null default nextval
| | ('people_id_seq'::regclass)
name | character varying(50) |
house_no | integer | not null
street_id | integer | not null
phone_no | character varying |
Indexes:
"people_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (id)
"people_name_idx" btree (name) <-- new index added!
Foreign-key constraints:
"people_streets_fk" FOREIGN KEY (id) REFERENCES streets(id)

16.2.10 Dropping Tables in SQL

If you want to get rid of a table you can use the drop command:

drop table streets;

Note: In our current example, the above command would not work. Why not? See why

If you used the same drop table command on the people table, it would be successful:

drop table people;

Note: If you actually did enter that command and dropped the people table, now would be a good
time to rebuild it, as you will need it in the next exercises.

16.2.11 A word on pgAdmin III

We are showing you the SQL commands from the psql prompt because it’s a very useful way to learn
about databases. However, there are quicker and easier ways to do a lot of what we are showing you.
Install pgAdmin III and you can create, drop, alter etc tables using point and click‘ operations in a GUI.
’
Under Ubuntu, you can install it like this:

sudo apt-get install pgadmin3

pgAdmin III will be covered in more detail in another module.

16.2.12 In Conclusion

You have now seen how to create a brand new database, starting completely from scratch.

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16.2.13 What’s Next?

Next you’ll learn how to use the DBMS to add new data.

16.3 Lesson: Adding Data to the Model

The models we’ve created will now need to be populated with the data they’re intended to contain.
The goal for this lesson: To learn how to insert new data into the database models.

16.3.1 Insert statement

How do you add data to a table? The sql INSERT statement provides the functionality for this:

insert into streets (name) values ('High street');

A couple of things to note:

ˆ After the table name (streets), you list the column names that you will be populating (in this
case only the name column).
ˆ After the values keyword, place the list of field values.
ˆ Strings should be quoted using single quotes.
ˆ Note that we did not insert a value for the id column; this is because it is a sequence and will be
auto-generated.
ˆ If you do manually set the id, you may cause serious problems with the integrity of your database.
You should see INSERT 0 1 if it is successful.
You can see the result of your insert action by selecting all the data in the table:

select * from streets;

Result:

select * from streets;

id | name
----+-------------
1 | High street
(1 row)

Try Yourself
Use the INSERT command to add a new street to the streets table.
Check your results

16.3.2 Sequencing Data Addition According to Constraints

16.3.3 Try Yourself

Try to add a person object to the people table with the following details:

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Name: Joe Smith

House Number: 55
Street: Main Street
Phone: 072 882 33 21

Note: Recall that in this example, we defined phone numbers as strings, not integers.

At this point, you should have an error report if you try to do this without first creating a record for
Main Street in the streets table.
You should have also noticed that:
ˆ You can’t add the street using its name
ˆ You can’t add a street using a street id before first creating the street record on the streets table
Remember that our two tables are linked via a Primary/Foreign Key pair. This means that no valid
person can be created without there also being a valid corresponding street record.
Using the above knowledge, add the new person to the database.
Check your results

16.3.4 Select data

We have already shown you the syntax for selecting records. Let’s look at a few more examples:

select name from streets;

select * from streets;

select * from streets where name='Main Road';

In later sessions we will go into more detail on how to select and filter data.

16.3.5 Update data

What if you want to make a change to some existing data? For example, a street name is changed:

update streets set name='New Main Road' where name='Main Road';

Be very careful using such update statements - if more than one record matches your WHERE clause, they
will all be updated!
A better solution is to use the primary key of the table to reference the record to be changed:

update streets set name='New Main Road' where id=2;

It should return UPDATE 1.

Note: the WHERE statement criteria are case sensitive Main Road is not the same as Main road

16.3.6 Delete Data

In order to delete an object from a table, use the DELETE command:

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delete from people where name = 'Joe Smith';

Let’s look at our people table now:

address=# select * from people;

id | name | house_no | street_id | phone_no

----+------+----------+-----------+----------
(0 rows)

16.3.7 Try Yourself

Use the skills you have learned to add some new friends to your database:

name | house_no | street_id | phone_no

-----------------+----------+-----------+--------------
Joe Bloggs | 3 | 2 | 072 887 23 45
Jane Smith | 55 | 3 | 072 837 33 35
Roger Jones | 33 | 1 | 072 832 31 38
Sally Norman | 83 | 1 | 072 932 31 32

16.3.8 In Conclusion

Now you know how to add new data to the existing models you created previously. Remember that if
you want to add new kinds of data, you may want to modify and/or create new models to contain that
data.

16.3.9 What’s Next?

Now that you’ve added some data, you’ll learn how to use queries to access this data in various ways.

16.4 Lesson: Queries

When you write a SELECT ... command it is commonly known as a query - you are interrogating the
database for information.
The goal of this lesson: To learn how to create queries that will return useful information.

Note: If you did not do so in the previous lesson, add the following people objects to your people table.
If you receive any errors related to foreign key constraints, you will need to add the Main Road‘ object
’
to your streets table first

insert into people (name,house_no, street_id, phone_no)

values ('Joe Bloggs',3,2,'072 887 23 45');
insert into people (name,house_no, street_id, phone_no)
values ('Jane Smith',55,3,'072 837 33 35');
insert into people (name,house_no, street_id, phone_no)
values ('Roger Jones',33,1,'072 832 31 38');
insert into people (name,house_no, street_id, phone_no)
values ('Sally Norman',83,1,'072 932 31 32');

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16.4.1 Ordering Results

Let’s retrieve a list of people ordered by their house numbers:

select name, house_no from people order by house_no;

Result:

name | house_no
--------------+----------
Joe Bloggs | 3
Roger Jones | 33
Jane Smith | 55
Sally Norman | 83
(4 rows)

You can sort the results by the values of more than one column:

select name, house_no from people order by name, house_no;

Result:

name | house_no
--------------+----------
Jane Smith | 55
Joe Bloggs | 3
Roger Jones | 33
Sally Norman | 83
(4 rows)

16.4.2 Filtering

Often you won’t want to see every single record in the database - especially if there are thousands of
records and you are only interested in seeing one or two.
Here is an example of a numerical filter which only returns objects whose house_no is less than 50:

select name, house_no from people where house_no < 50;

name | house_no
-------------+----------
Joe Bloggs | 3
Roger Jones | 33
(2 rows)

You can combine filters (defined using the WHERE clause) with sorting (defined using the ORDER BY clause):

select name, house_no from people where house_no < 50 order by house_no;

name | house_no
-------------+----------
Joe Bloggs | 3
Roger Jones | 33
(2 rows)

You can also filter based on text data:

select name, house_no from people where name like '%s%';

name | house_no
-------------+----------

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Joe Bloggs | 3
Roger Jones | 33
(2 rows)

Here we used the LIKE clause to find all names with an s in them. You’ll notice that this query is
case-sensitive, so the Sally Norman entry has not been returned.
If you want to search for a string of letters regardless of case, you can do a case in-sensitive search using
the ILIKE clause:

select name, house_no from people where name ilike '%r%';

name | house_no
--------------+----------
Roger Jones | 33
Sally Norman | 83
(2 rows)

That query returned every people object with an r or R in their name.

16.4.3 Свързвания

What if you want to see the person’s details and their street’s name instead of the ID? In order to do
that, you need to join the two tables together in a single query. Lets look at an example:

select people.name, house_no, streets.name

from people,streets
where people.street_id=streets.id;

Note: With joins, you will always state the two tables the information is coming from, in this case
people and streets. You also need to specify which two keys must match (foreign key & primary key). If
you don’t specify that, you will get a list of all possible combinations of people and streets, but no way
to know who actually lives on which street!

Here is what the correct output will look like:

name | house_no | name

--------------+----------+-------------
Joe Bloggs | 3 | Low Street
Roger Jones | 33 | High street
Sally Norman | 83 | High street
Jane Smith | 55 | Main Road
(4 rows)

We will revisit joins as we create more complex queries later. Just remember they provide a simple way
to combine the information from two or more tables.

16.4.4 Sub-Select

Sub-selections allow you to select objects from one table based on the data from another table which is
linked via a foreign key relationship. In our case, we want to find people who live on a specific street.
First, let’s do a little tweaking of our data:

insert into streets (name) values('QGIS Road');

insert into streets (name) values('OGR Corner');
insert into streets (name) values('Goodle Square');

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update people set street_id = 2 where id=2;

update people set street_id = 3 where id=3;

Let’s take a quick look at our data after those changes: we can reuse our query from the previous section:
select people.name, house_no, streets.name
from people,streets
where people.street_id=streets.id;

Result:
name | house_no | name
--------------+----------+-------------
Roger Jones | 33 | High street
Sally Norman | 83 | High street
Jane Smith | 55 | Main Road
Joe Bloggs | 3 | Low Street
(4 rows)

Now let’s show you a sub-selection on this data. We want to show only people who live in street_id
number 1:
select people.name
from people, (
select *
from streets
where id=1
) as streets_subset
where people.street_id = streets_subset.id;

Result:
name
--------------
Roger Jones
Sally Norman
(2 rows)

Although this is a very simple example and unnecessary with our small data-sets, it illustrates how useful
and important sub-selections can be when querying large and complex data-sets.

16.4.5 Aggregate Queries

One of the powerful features of a database is its ability to summarise the data in its tables. These
summaries are called aggregate queries. Here is a typical example which tells us how many people
objects are in our people table:
select count(*) from people;

Result:
count
-------
4
(1 row)

If we want the counts to be summarised by street name we can do this:

select count(name), street_id
from people
group by street_id;

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Result:

count | street_id
-------+-----------
2 | 1
1 | 3
1 | 2
(3 rows)

Note: Because we have not used an ORDER BY clause, the order of your results may not match what is
shown here.

Try Yourself
Summarise the people by street name and show the actual street names instead of the street_ids.
Check your results

16.4.6 In Conclusion

You’ve seen how to use queries to return the data in your database in a way that allows you to extract
useful information from it.

16.4.7 What’s Next?

Next you’ll see how to create views from the queries that you’ve written.

16.5 Lesson: Изгледи

Когато създавате заявка трябва да прекарате доста време и усилия за да я формирате. Със изгле-
дите можете да си спестите създаването на SQL заявка в преизползваемите виртуални таблици‘
’
Целта на този урок е: Да запишем заявка като изглед.

16.5.1 Създаване на Изглед

You can treat a view just like a table, but its data is sourced from a query. Let’s make a simple view
based on the above:

create view roads_count_v as

select count(people.name), streets.name
from people, streets where people.street_id=streets.id
group by people.street_id, streets.name;

As you can see the only change is the create view roads_count_v as part at the beginning. We can
now select data from that view:

select * from roads_count_v;

Result:

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count | name
-------+-------------
1 | Main Road
2 | High street
1 | Low Street
(3 rows)

16.5.2 Промяна на Изглед

A view is not fixed, and it contains no real data‘. This means you can easily change it without impacting
’
on any data in your database:

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW roads_count_v AS

SELECT count(people.name), streets.name
FROM people, streets WHERE people.street_id=streets.id
GROUP BY people.street_id, streets.name
ORDER BY streets.name;

(Този пример показва най добрите практики удобни за използване на UPPER CASE за всички SQL
ключови думи)
You will see that we have added an ORDER BY clause so that our view rows are nicely sorted:

select * from roads_count_v;

count | name
-------+-------------
2 | High street
1 | Low Street
1 | Main Road
(3 rows)

16.5.3 Изхвърляне на Изглед

If you no longer need a view, you can delete it like this:

drop view roads_count_v;

16.5.4 In Conclusion

Използвайки изгледи, можете да запазите заявка и да достъпите резултатите все едно, че имате
таблица.

16.5.5 What’s Next?

ПОнякога, когато променяте данни може да поискате промените да афектират някъде в базата
данни. Следващият урок ще ви покаже как да го направите.

16.6 Lesson: Rules

Rules allow the „query tree“ of an incoming query to be rewritten. One common usage is to implement
views, including updatable view. - Wikipedia
The goal for this lesson: To learn how to create new rules for the database.

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16.6.1 Creating a logging rule

Say you want to log every change of phone_no in your people table in to a people_log table. So you set
up a new table:

create table people_log (name text, time timestamp default NOW());

In the next step, create a rule that logs every change of a phone_no in the people table into the people_log
table:

create rule people_log as on update to people

where NEW.phone_no <> OLD.phone_no
do insert into people_log values (OLD.name);

To test that the rule works, let’s modify a phone number:

update people set phone_no = '082 555 1234' where id = 2;

Check that the people table was updated correctly:

select * from people where id=2;

id | name | house_no | street_id | phone_no

----+------------+----------+-----------+--------------
2 | Joe Bloggs | 3 | 2 | 082 555 1234
(1 row)

Now, thanks to the rule we created, the people_log table will look like this:

select * from people_log;

name | time
------------+----------------------------
Joe Bloggs | 2014-01-11 14:15:11.953141
(1 row)

Note: The value of the time field will depend on the current date and time.

16.6.2 In Conclusion

Rules allow you to automatically add or change data in your database to reflect changes in other parts
of the database.

16.6.3 What’s Next?

The next module will introduce you to Spatial Database using PostGIS, which takes these database
concepts and applies them to GIS data.

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 Глава 17

Module: Spatial Database Concepts with PostGIS

Spatial Databases allow the storage of the geometries of records inside a Database as well as providing
functionality for querying and retrieving the records using these Geometries. In this module we will use
PostGIS, an extension to PostgreSQL, to learn how to setup a spatial database, import data into the
database and make use of the geographic functions that PostGIS offers.
While working through this section, you may want to keep a copy of the PostGIS cheat sheet available
from Boston GIS user group. Another useful resource is the online PostGIS documentation.
There are also some more extensive tutorials on PostGIS and Spatial Databases available from Boundless
Geo:
ˆ Introduction to PostGIS
ˆ Spatial Database Tips and Tricks
See also PostGIS online.

17.1 Lesson: PostGIS Setup

Setting up PostGIS functions will allow you to access spatial functions from within PostgreSQL.
The goal for this lesson: To install spatial functions and briefly demo their effects.

Note: We will assume the use of PostGIS version 2.1 in this exercise. The installation and database
configuration are different for older versions, but the rest of this material in this module will still work.
Consult the documentation for your platform for help with installation and database configuration.

17.1.1 Installing under Ubuntu

Postgis is easily installed from apt.

$ sudo apt-get install postgis

$ sudo apt-get install postgresql-9.1-postgis

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Really, it’s that easy. . .

Note: Depending on which version of Ubuntu you are using, and which repositories you have configured,
these commands will install PostGIS 1.5, or 2.x. You can find the version installed by issuing a select
PostGIS_full_version(); query with psql or another tool.

To install the absolute latest version of PostGIS, you can use the following commands.

$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:sharpie/for-science

$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:sharpie/postgis-nightly
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install postgresql-9.1-postgis-nightly

17.1.2 Installing under Windows

Installing on Windows is a little more complicated, but still not hard. Note that you need to be online
to install the postgis stack.
First Visit the download page.
Then follow this guide.
More information about installing on Windows can be found on the PostGIS website.

17.1.3 Installing on Other Platforms

The PostGIS website download has information about installing on other platforms including macOS
and on other linux distributions

17.1.4 Configuring Databases to use PostGIS

Once PostGIS is installed, you will need to configure your database to use the extensions. If you have
installed PostGIS version > 2.0, this is as simple as issuing the following command with psql using the
address database from our previous exercise.

$ psql -d address -c "CREATE EXTENSION postgis;"

Note: If you are using PostGIS 1.5 and a version of PostgreSQL lower than 9.1, you will need to
follow a different set of steps in order to install the postgis extensions for your database. Please consult
the PostGIS Documentation for instructions on how to do this. There are also some instructions in the
previous version of this manual.

17.1.5 Looking at the installed PostGIS functions

PostGIS can be thought of as a collection of in-database functions that extend the core capabilities of
PostgreSQL so that it can deal with spatial data. By deal with‘, we mean store, retrieve, query and
’
manipulate. In order to do this, a number of functions are installed into the database.
Our PostgreSQL address database is now geospatially enabled, thanks to PostGIS. We are going to
delve a lot deeper into this in the coming sections, but let’s give you a quick little taster. Let’s say we
want to create a point from text. First we use the psql command to find functions relating to point. If
you are not already connected to the address database, do so now. Then run:

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\df *point*

This is the command we’re looking for: st_pointfromtext. To page through the list, use the down arrow,
then press Q to quit back to the psql shell.
Try running this command:

select st_pointfromtext('POINT(1 1)');

Result:

st_pointfromtext
--------------------------------------------
0101000000000000000000F03F000000000000F03F
(1 row)

Three things to note:

ˆ We defined a point at position 1,1 (EPSG:4326 is assumed) using POINT(1 1),
ˆ We ran an sql statement, but not on any table, just on data entered from the SQL prompt,
ˆ The resulting row does not make much sense.
The resulting row is in the OGC format called Well Known Binary‘ (WKB). We will look at this format
’
in detail in the next section.
To get the results back as text, we can do a quick scan through the function list for something that
returns text:

\df *text

The query we’re looking for now is st_astext. Let’s combine it with the previous query:

select st_astext(st_pointfromtext('POINT(1 1)'));

Result:

st_astext
------------
POINT(1 1)
(1 row)

Here, we entered the string POINT(1,1), turned it into a point using st_pointfromtext(), and turned
it back into a human-readable form with st_astext(), which gave us back our original string.
One last example before we really get into the detail of using PostGIS:

select st_astext(st_buffer(st_pointfromtext('POINT(1 1)'),1.0));

What did that do? It created a buffer of 1 degree around our point, and returned the result as text.

17.1.6 Spatial Reference Systems

In addition to the PostGIS functions, the extension contains a collection of spatial reference system
(SRS) definitions as defined by the European Petroleum Survey Group (EPSG). These are used during
operations such as coordinate reference system (CRS) conversions.
We can inspect these SRS definitions in our database as they are stored in normal database tables.
First, let’s look at the schema of the table by entering the following command in the psql prompt:

\d spatial_ref_sys

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The result should be this:

Table "public.spatial_ref_sys"
Column | Type | Modifiers
-----------+-------------------------+-----------
srid | integer | not null
auth_name | character varying(256) |
auth_srid | integer |
srtext | character varying(2048) |
proj4text | character varying(2048) |
Indexes:
"spatial_ref_sys_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (srid)

You can use standard SQL queries (as we have learned from our introductory sections), to view and
manipulate this table - though its not a good idea to update or delete any records unless you know what
you are doing.
One SRID you may be interested in is EPSG:4326 - the geographic / lat lon reference system using the
WGS 84 ellipsoid. Let’s take a look at it:

select * from spatial_ref_sys where srid=4326;

Result:

srid | 4326
auth_name | EPSG
auth_srid | 4326
srtext | GEOGCS["WGS 84",DATUM["WGS_1984",SPHEROID["WGS
84",6378137,298.257223563,AUTHORITY["EPSG","7030"]],TOWGS84[0,
0,0,0,0,0,0],AUTHORITY["EPSG","6326"]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0,
AUTHORITY["EPSG","8901"]],UNIT["degree",0.01745329251994328,
AUTHORITY["EPSG","9122"]],AUTHORITY["EPSG","4326"]]
proj4text | +proj=longlat +ellps=WGS84 +datum=WGS84 +no_defs

The srtext is the projection definition in well known text (you may recognise this from .prj files in your
shapefile collection).

17.1.7 In Conclusion

You now have PostGIS functions installed in your copy of PostgreSQL. With this you’ll be able to make
use of PostGIS‘ extensive spatial functions.

17.1.8 What’s Next?

Next you’ll learn how spatial features are represented in a database.

17.2 Lesson: Simple Feature Model

How can we store and represent geographic features in a database? In this lesson we’ll cover one approach,
the Simple Feature Model as defined by the OGC.
The goal for this lesson: To learn what the SFS Model is and how to use it.

17.2.1 What is OGC

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), an international voluntary consensus standards organization,
originated in 1994. In the OGC, more than 370+ commercial, governmental, nonprofit and research

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organizations worldwide collaborate in an open consensus process encouraging development and

implementation of standards for geospatial content and services, GIS data processing and data sharing.
- Wikipedia

17.2.2 What is the SFS Model

The Simple Feature for SQL (SFS) Model is a non-topological way to store geospatial data in a database
and defines functions for accessing, operating, and constructing these data.

The model defines geospatial data from Point, Linestring, and Polygon types (and aggregations of them
to Multi objects).
For further information, have a look at the OGC Simple Feature for SQL standard.

17.2.3 Add a geometry field to table

Let’s add a point field to our people table:

alter table people add column the_geom geometry;

17.2.4 Add a constraint based on geometry type

You will notice that the geometry field type does not implicitly specify what type of geometry for the
field - for that we need a constraint:

alter table people

add constraint people_geom_point_chk
check(st_geometrytype(the_geom) = 'ST_Point'::text
OR the_geom IS NULL);

This adds a constraint to the table so that it will only accept a point geometry or a null value.

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17.2.5 Try Yourself

Create a new table called cities and give it some appropriate columns, including a geometry field for
storing polygons (the city boundaries). Make sure it has a constraint enforcing geometries to be polygons.
Check your results

17.2.6 Populate geometry_columns table

At this point you should also add an entry into the geometry_columns table:
insert into geometry_columns values
('','public','people','the_geom',2,4326,'POINT');

Why? geometry_columns is used by certain applications to be aware of which tables in the database
contain geometry data.

Note: If the above INSERT statement causes an error, run this query first:
select * from geometry_columns;

If the column f_table_name contains the value people, then this table has already been registered and
you don’t need to do anything more.

The value 2 refers to the number of dimensions; in this case, two: X and Y.
The value 4326 refers to the projection we are using; in this case, WGS 84, which is referred to by the
number 4326 (refer to the earlier discussion about the EPSG).

Try Yourself
Add an appropriate geometry_columns entry for your new cities layer
Check your results

17.2.7 Add geometry record to table using SQL

Now that our tables are geo-enabled, we can store geometries in them:
insert into people (name,house_no, street_id, phone_no, the_geom)
values ('Fault Towers',
34,
3,
'072 812 31 28',
'SRID=4326;POINT(33 -33)');

Note: In the new entry above, you will need to specify which projection (SRID) you want to use.
This is because you entered the geometry of the new point using a plain string of text, which does not
automatically add the correct projection information. Obviously, the new point needs to use the same
SRID as the data-set it is being added to, so you need to specify it.
If at this point you were using a graphical interface, for example, specifying the projection for each point
would be automatic. In other words, you usually won’t need to worry about using the correct projection
for every point you want to add if you’ve already specified it for that data-set, as we did earlier.

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Now is probably a good time to open QGIS and try to view your people table. Also, we should try
editing / adding / deleting records and then performing select queries in the database to see how the
data has changed.
To load a PostGIS layer in QGIS, use the Layer → Add PostGIS Layers menu option or toolbar button:

This will open the dialog:

Click on the New button to open this dialog:

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Then define a new connection, e.g.:

Name: myPG
Service:
Host: localhost
Port: 5432
Database: address
User:
Password:

To see whether QGIS has found the address database and that your username and password are correct,
click Test Connect. If it works, check the boxes next to Save Username and Save Password. Then click
OK to create this connection.

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Back in the Add PostGIS Layers dialog, click Connect and add layers to your project as usual.

Try Yourself
Formulate a query that shows a person’s name, street name and position (from the the_geom column)
as plain text.
Check your results

17.2.8 In Conclusion

You have seen how to add spatial objects to your database and view them in GIS software.

17.2.9 What’s Next?

Next you’ll see how to import data into, and export data from, your database.

17.3 Lesson: Import and Export

Of course, a database with no easy way to migrate data into it and out of it would not be of much use.
Fortunately, there are a number of tools that will let you easily move data into and out of PostGIS.

17.3.1 shp2pgsql

shp2pgsql is a commandline tool to import ESRI Shapefile to the database. Under Unix, you can use the
following command for importing a new PostGIS table:

shp2pgsql -s <SRID> -c -D -I <path to shapefile> <schema>.<table> | \

psql -d <databasename> -h <hostname> -U <username>

Under Windows, you have to perform the import process in two steps:

shp2pgsql -s <SRID> -c -D -I <path to shapefile> <schema>.<table> > import.sql

psql psql -d <databasename> -h <hostname> -U <username> -f import.sql

You may encounter this error:

ERROR: operator class "gist_geometry_ops" does not exist for access method
"gist"

This is a known issue regarding the creation in situ of a spatial index for the data you’re importing. To
avoid the error, exclude the -I parameter. This will mean that no spatial index is being created directly,
and you’ll need to create it in the database after the data have been imported. (The creation of a spatial
index will be covered in the next lesson.)

17.3.2 pgsql2shp

pgsql2shp is a commandline tool to export PostGIS Tables, Views or SQL select queries. To do this under
Unix:

pgsql2shp -f <path to new shapefile> -g <geometry column name> \

-h <hostname> -U <username> <databasename> <table | view>

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To export the data using a query:

pgsql2shp -f <path to new shapefile> -g <geometry column name> \

-h <hostname> -U <username> "<query>"

17.3.3 ogr2ogr

ogr2ogr is a very powerful tool to convert data into and from postgis to many data formats. ogr2ogr is
part of the GDAL/OGR Software and has to be installed separately. To export a table from PostGIS to
GML, you can use this command:

ogr2ogr -f GML export.gml PG:'dbname=<databasename> user=<username>

host=<hostname>' <Name of PostGIS-Table>

17.3.4 Управление на БД

You may have noticed another option in the Database menu labeled DB Manager. This is a tool that
provides a unified interface for interacting with spatial databases including PostGIS. It also allows you
to import and export from databases to other formats. Since the next module is largely devoted to using
this tool, we will only briefly mention it here.

17.3.5 In Conclusion

Importing and exporting data to and from the database can be done in many various ways. Especially
when using disparate data sources, you will probably use these functions (or others like them) on a
regular basis.

17.3.6 What’s Next?

Next we’ll look at how to query the data we’ve created before.

17.4 Lesson: Spatial Queries

Spatial queries are no different from other database queries. You can use the geometry column like any
other database column. With the installation of PostGIS in our database, we have additional functions
to query our database.
The goal for this lesson: To see how spatial functions are implemented similarly to „normal“ non-
spatial functions.

17.4.1 Spatial Operators

When you want to know which points are within a distance of 2 degrees to a point(X,Y) you can do this
with:

select *
from people
where st_distance(the_geom,'SRID=4326;POINT(33 -34)') < 2;

Result:

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id | name | house_no | street_id | phone_no | the_geom

----+--------------+----------+-----------+---------------+---------------
6 | Fault Towers | 34 | 3 | 072 812 31 28 | 01010008040C0
(1 row)

Note: the_geom value above was truncated for space on this page. If you want to see the point in
human-readable coordinates, try something similar to what you did in the section „View a point as
WKT“, above.

How do we know that the query above returns all the points within 2 degrees ? Why not 2 meters ? Or
any other unit, for that matter?
Check your results

17.4.2 Spatial Indexes

We also can define spatial indexes. A spatial index makes your spatial queries much faster. To create a
spatial index on the geometry column use:

CREATE INDEX people_geo_idx

ON people
USING gist
(the_geom);

\d people

Result:

Table "public.people"
Column | Type | Modifiers
-----------+-----------------------+----------------------------------------
id | integer | not null default
| | nextval('people_id_seq'::regclass)
name | character varying(50) |
house_no | integer | not null
street_id | integer | not null
phone_no | character varying |
the_geom | geometry |
Indexes:
"people_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (id)
"people_geo_idx" gist (the_geom) <-- new spatial key added
"people_name_idx" btree (name)
Check constraints:
"people_geom_point_chk" CHECK (st_geometrytype(the_geom) = 'ST_Point'::text
OR the_geom IS NULL)
Foreign-key constraints:
"people_street_id_fkey" FOREIGN KEY (street_id) REFERENCES streets(id)

17.4.3 Try Yourself

Modify the cities table so its geometry column is spatially indexed.

Check your results

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17.4.4 PostGIS Spatial Functions Demo

In order to demo PostGIS spatial functions, we’ll create a new database containing some (fictional) data.
To start, create a new database (exit the psql shell first):

createdb postgis_demo

Remember to install the postgis extensions:

psql -d postgis_demo -c "CREATE EXTENSION postgis;"

Next, import the data provided in the exercise_data/postgis/ directory. Refer back to the previous
lesson for instructions, but remember that you’ll need to create a new PostGIS connection to the new
database. You can import from the terminal or via DB Manager. Import the files into the following
database tables:
ˆ points.shp into building
ˆ lines.shp into road
ˆ polygons.shp into region
Load these three database layers into QGIS via the Add PostGIS Layers dialog, as usual. When you
open their attribute tables, you’ll note that they have both an id field and a gid field created by the
PostGIS import.
Now that the tables are imported, we can use PostGIS to query the data. Go back to your terminal
(command line) and enter the psql prompt by running:

psql postgis_demo

We’ll demo some of these select statements by creating views from them, so that you can open them in
QGIS and see the results.

Избиране според местоположение

Get all the buildings in the KwaZulu region:

SELECT a.id, a.name, st_astext(a.the_geom) as point

FROM building a, region b
WHERE st_within(a.the_geom, b.the_geom)
AND b.name = 'KwaZulu';

Result:

id | name | point
----+------+------------------------------------------
30 | York | POINT(1622345.23785063 6940490.65844485)
33 | York | POINT(1622495.65620524 6940403.87862489)
35 | York | POINT(1622403.09106394 6940212.96302097)
36 | York | POINT(1622287.38463732 6940357.59605424)
40 | York | POINT(1621888.19746548 6940508.01440885)
(5 rows)

Or, if we create a view from it:

CREATE VIEW vw_select_location AS

SELECT a.gid, a.name, a.the_geom
FROM building a, region b
WHERE st_within(a.the_geom, b.the_geom)
AND b.name = 'KwaZulu';

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Add the view as a layer and view it in QGIS:

Select neighbors
Show a list of all the names of regions adjoining the Hokkaido region:

SELECT b.name
FROM region a, region b
WHERE st_touches(a.the_geom, b.the_geom)
AND a.name = 'Hokkaido';

Result:

name
--------------
Missouri
Saskatchewan
Wales
(3 rows)

As a view:

CREATE VIEW vw_regions_adjoining_hokkaido AS

SELECT b.gid, b.name, b.the_geom
FROM region a, region b
WHERE TOUCHES(a.the_geom, b.the_geom)
AND a.name = 'Hokkaido';

In QGIS:

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Note the missing region (Queensland). This may be due to a topology error. Artifacts such as this
can alert us to potential problems in the data. To solve this enigma without getting caught up in the
anomalies the data may have, we could use a buffer intersect instead:

CREATE VIEW vw_hokkaido_buffer AS

SELECT gid, ST_BUFFER(the_geom, 100) as the_geom
FROM region
WHERE name = 'Hokkaido';

This creates a buffer of 100 meters around the region Hokkaido.

The darker area is the buffer:

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Select using the buffer:

CREATE VIEW vw_hokkaido_buffer_select AS

SELECT b.gid, b.name, b.the_geom
FROM
(
SELECT * FROM
vw_hokkaido_buffer
) a,
region b
WHERE ST_INTERSECTS(a.the_geom, b.the_geom)
AND b.name != 'Hokkaido';

In this query, the original buffer view is used as any other table would be. It is given the alias a, and its
geometry field, a.the_geom, is used to select any polygon in the region table (alias b) that intersects it.
However, Hokkaido itself is excluded from this select statement, because we don’t want it; we only want
the regions adjoining it.
In QGIS:

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It is also possible to select all objects within a given distance, without the extra step of creating a buffer:

CREATE VIEW vw_hokkaido_distance_select AS

SELECT b.gid, b.name, b.the_geom
FROM region a, region b
WHERE ST_DISTANCE (a.the_geom, b.the_geom) < 100
AND a.name = 'Hokkaido'
AND b.name != 'Hokkaido';

This achieves the same result, without need for the interim buffer step:

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Select unique values

Show a list of unique town names for all buildings in the Queensland region:

SELECT DISTINCT a.name

FROM building a, region b
WHERE st_within(a.the_geom, b.the_geom)
AND b.name = 'Queensland';

Result:

name
---------
Beijing
Berlin
Atlanta
(3 rows)

Further examples . . .

CREATE VIEW vw_shortestline AS

SELECT b.gid AS gid,
ST_ASTEXT(ST_SHORTESTLINE(a.the_geom, b.the_geom)) as text,
ST_SHORTESTLINE(a.the_geom, b.the_geom) AS the_geom
FROM road a, building b
WHERE a.id=5 AND b.id=22;

CREATE VIEW vw_longestline AS

SELECT b.gid AS gid,
ST_ASTEXT(ST_LONGESTLINE(a.the_geom, b.the_geom)) as text,
ST_LONGESTLINE(a.the_geom, b.the_geom) AS the_geom
FROM road a, building b
WHERE a.id=5 AND b.id=22;

CREATE VIEW vw_road_centroid AS

SELECT a.gid as gid, ST_CENTROID(a.the_geom) as the_geom
FROM road a
WHERE a.id = 1;

CREATE VIEW vw_region_centroid AS

SELECT a.gid as gid, ST_CENTROID(a.the_geom) as the_geom
FROM region a
WHERE a.name = 'Saskatchewan';

SELECT ST_PERIMETER(a.the_geom)
FROM region a
WHERE a.name='Queensland';

SELECT ST_AREA(a.the_geom)
FROM region a
WHERE a.name='Queensland';

CREATE VIEW vw_simplify AS

SELECT gid, ST_Simplify(the_geom, 20) AS the_geom
FROM road;

CREATE VIEW vw_simplify_more AS

SELECT gid, ST_Simplify(the_geom, 50) AS the_geom
FROM road;

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CREATE VIEW vw_convex_hull AS

SELECT
ROW_NUMBER() over (order by a.name) as id,
a.name as town,
ST_CONVEXHULL(ST_COLLECT(a.the_geom)) AS the_geom
FROM building a
GROUP BY a.name;

17.4.5 In Conclusion

You have seen how to query spatial objects using the new database functions from PostGIS.

17.4.6 What’s Next?

Next we’re going to investigate the structures of more complex geometries and how to create them using
PostGIS.

17.5 Lesson: Geometry Construction

In this section we are going to delve a little deeper into how simple geometries are constructed in SQL. In
reality, you will probably use a GIS like QGIS to create complex geometries using their digitising tools;
however, understanding how they are formulated can be handy for writing queries and understanding
how the database is assembled.
The goal of this lesson: To better understand how to create spatial entities directly in
PostgreSQL/PostGIS.

17.5.1 Creating Linestrings

Going back to our address database, let’s get our streets table matching the others; i.e., having a
constraint on the geometry, an index and an entry in the geometry_columns table.

17.5.2 Try Yourself

ˆ Modify the streets table so that it has a geometry column of type ST_LineString.
ˆ Don’t forget to do the accompanying update to the geometry columns table!
ˆ Also add a constraint to prevent any geometries being added that are not LINESTRINGS or null.
ˆ Create a spatial index on the new geometry column
Check your results
Now let’s insert a linestring into our streets table. In this case we will update an existing street record:

update streets
set the_geom = 'SRID=4326;LINESTRING(20 -33, 21 -34, 24 -33)'
where streets.id=2;

Take a look at the results in QGIS. (You may need to right-click on the streets layer in the Layers‘
’
panel, and choose Zoom to layer extent‘.)
’
Now create some more streets entries - some in QGIS and some from the command line.

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17.5.3 Creating Polygons

Creating polygons is just as easy. One thing to remember is that by definition, polygons have at least
four vertices, with the last and first being co-located:

insert into cities (name, the_geom)

values ('Tokyo', 'SRID=4326;POLYGON((10 -10, 5 -32, 30 -27, 10 -10))');

Note: A polygon requires double brackets around its coordinate list; this is to allow you to add complex
polygons with multiple unconnected areas. For instance

insert into cities (name, the_geom)

values ('Tokyo Outer Wards',
'SRID=4326;POLYGON((20 10, 20 20, 35 20, 20 10),
(-10 -30, -5 0, -15 -15, -10 -30))'
);

If you followed this step, you can check what it did by loading the cities dataset into QGIS, opening its
attribute table, and selecting the new entry. Note how the two new polygons behave like one polygon.

17.5.4 Exercise: Linking Cities to People

For this exercise you should do the following:

ˆ Delete all data from your people table.
ˆ Add a foreign key column to people that references the primary key of the cities table.
ˆ Use QGIS to capture some cities.
ˆ Use SQL to insert some new people records, ensuring that each has an associated street and city.
Your updated people schema should look something like this:

\d people

Table "public.people"
Column | Type | Modifiers
-----------+-----------------------+--------------------------------------------
id | integer | not null
| | default nextval('people_id_seq'::regclass)
name | character varying(50) |
house_no | integer | not null
street_id | integer | not null
phone_no | character varying |
the_geom | geometry |
city_id | integer | not null
Indexes:
"people_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (id)
"people_name_idx" btree (name)
Check constraints:
"people_geom_point_chk" CHECK (st_geometrytype(the_geom) =
'ST_Point'::text OR the_geom IS NULL)
Foreign-key constraints:
"people_city_id_fkey" FOREIGN KEY (city_id) REFERENCES cities(id)
"people_street_id_fkey" FOREIGN KEY (street_id) REFERENCES streets(id)

Check your results

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17.5.5 Looking at Our Schema

By now our schema should be looking like this:

17.5.6 Try Yourself

Create city boundaries by computing the minimum convex hull of all addresses for that city and
computing a buffer around that area.

17.5.7 Access Sub-Objects

With the SFS-Model functions, you have a wide variety of options to access sub-objects of SFS
Geometries. When you want to select the first vertex point of every polygon geometry in the table
myPolygonTable, you have to do this in this way:
ˆ Transform the polygon boundary to a linestring:

select st_boundary(geometry) from myPolygonTable;

ˆ Select the first vertex point of the resultant linestring:

select st_startpoint(myGeometry)
from (
select st_boundary(geometry) as myGeometry
from myPolygonTable) as foo;

17.5.8 Data Processing

PostGIS supports all OGC SFS/MM standard conform functions. All these functions start with ST_.

17.5.9 Clipping

To clip a subpart of your data you can use the ST_INTERSECT() function. To avoid empty geometries,
use:

where not st_isempty(st_intersection(a.the_geom, b.the_geom))

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select st_intersection(a.the_geom, b.the_geom), b.*

from clip as a, road_lines as b
where not st_isempty(st_intersection(st_setsrid(a.the_geom,32734),
b.the_geom));

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17.5.10 Building Geometries from Other Geometries

From a given point table, you want to generate a linestring. The order of the points is defined by their
id. Another ordering method could be a timestamp, such as the one you get when you capture waypoints
with a GPS receiver.

To create a linestring from a new point layer called points‘, you can run the following command:
’
select ST_LineFromMultiPoint(st_collect(the_geom)), 1 as id
from (
select the_geom
from points
order by id
) as foo;

To see how it works without creating a new layer, you could also run this command on the people‘ layer,
’
although of course it would make little real-world sense to do this.

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17.5.11 Geometry Cleaning

You can get more information for this topic in this blog entry.

17.5.12 Differences between tables

To detect the difference between two tables with the same structure, you can use the PostgreSQL keyword
EXCEPT:
select * from table_a
except
select * from table_b;

As the result, you will get all records from table_a which are not stored in table_b.

17.5.13 Tablespaces

You can define where postgres should store its data on disk by creating tablespaces:

CREATE TABLESPACE homespace LOCATION '/home/pg';

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When you create a database, you can then specify which tablespace to use e.g.:

createdb --tablespace=homespace t4a

17.5.14 In Conclusion

You’ve learned how to create more complex geometries using PostGIS statements. Keep in mind that
this is mostly to improve your tacit knowledge when working with geo-enabled databases through a GIS
frontend. You usually won’t need to actually enter these statements manually, but having a general idea
of their structure will help you when using a GIS, especially if you encounter errors that would otherwise
seem cryptic.

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 Глава 18

The QGIS processing guide

This module contributed by Victor Olaya and Paolo Cavallini.

Съдържание:

18.1 Introduction
This guide describes how to use the QGIS processing framework. It assumes no previous knowledge of
the Processing framework or any of the applications that it rely on. It assumes basic knowledge of QGIS.
The chapters about scripting assume you have some basic knowledge of Python and maybe the QGIS
Python API.
This guide is designed for self-study or to be used for running a processing workshop.
Examples in this guide use QGIS 3.4. They might not work or not be available in versions other than
that one.
This guide is comprised of a set of small exercises of progressive complexity. If you have never used the
processing framework, you should start from the very beginning. If you have some previous experience,
feel free to skip lessons. They are more or less independent of each other, and each one introduces some
new concept or some new element, as indicated in the chapter title and the short introduction at the
beginning of each chapter. That should make it easy to locate lessons dealing with a particular topic.
For a more systematic description of all the framework components and their usage, it is recommended
to check the corresponding chapter in the user manual. Use it as a support text along with this guide.
All the exercises in this guide use the same free dataset used throughout the training manual and
referenced at section Data . The zip file to download contains several folders corresponding to each one
of the lessons in this guide. In each of them you will find a QGIS project file. Just open it and you will
be ready to start the lesson.
Enjoy!

18.2 An important warning before starting

Just like the manual of a word processor doesn’t teach you how to write a novel or a poem, or a CAD
tutorial doesn’t show you how to calculate the size of a beam for a building, this guide will not teach you

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spatial analysis. Instead, it will show you how to use the QGIS Processing framework, a powerful tool for
performing spatial analysis. It is up to you to learn the required concepts that are needed to understand
that type of analysis. Without them, there is no point in using the framework and its algorithms, although
you might be tempted to try.
Let’s show this more clearly with an example.
Given a set of points and a value of a given variable value at each point, you can calculate a raster layer
from them using the Kriging geoalgorithm. The parameters dialog for that module is like the following
one.

It looks complex, right?

By reading this manual, you will learn things such as how to use that module, how to run it in a batch
process to create raster layers from hundreds of points layers in a single run, or what happens if the
input layer has some points selected. However, the parameters themselves are not explained. A seasoned
analyst with a good knowledge of geostatistics will have no problem understanding those parameters. If
you are not one of them and sill, range, or nugget are not familiar concepts to you, then you should not
use the Kriging module. More than that, you are far from being ready to use the Kriging module, since it
requires learning about concepts such as spatial autocorrelation or semivariograms, which probably you
also haven’t heard before, or at least haven’t studied long enough. You should first study and understand
them, and then come back to QGIS to actually run it and perform the analysis. Ignoring this will result
in wrong results and poor (and most likely useless) analysis.

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Although not all algorithms are as complex as kriging (but some of them are even more complex!), almost
all of them require understanding the fundamental analysis ideas that they are based on. Without that
knowledge, using them will most likely lead to poor results.
Using geoalgorithms without having a good foundation of spatial analysis is like trying to write a novel
without knowing anything about grammar or syntax, and having no knowledge about storytelling. You
might get a result, but it is likely to have no value at all. Please, don’t fool yourself and think that after
reading this guide you are already capable of performing spatial analysis and get sound results. You need
to study spatial analysis as well.
Here is a good reference that you can read to learn more about spatial data analysis.
Geospatial Analysis (3rd Edition) : A Comprehensive Guide to Principles, Techniques and Software Tools
Michael John De Smith, Michael F. Goodchild, Paul A. Longley
It is available online here

18.3 Setting-up the processing framework

The first thing to do before using the processing framework is to configure it. There is not much to
set-up, so this is an easy task.
Later on we will show how to configure the external applications that are used for extending the list of
available algorithms, but for now we are just going to work with the framework itself.
The processing framework is a core QGIS plugin, which means that it should already be installed in your
system, since it is included with QGIS. In case it is active, you should see a menu called Processing in
your menu bar. There you can access all the framework components.

If you cannot find that menu, you have to enable the plugin by going to the plugin manager and activating
it.

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The main element that we are going to work with is the toolbox. Click on the corresponding menu entry
and you will see the toolbox docked at the right side of the QGIS window.

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The toolbox contains a list of all the available algorithms, divided in groups called Providers. Providers
can be (de)activated in the Settings → Options → Processing. We will discuss that dialog later in this
manual.
By default, only providers that do not rely on third-party applications (that is, those that only require
QGIS elements to be run) are active. Algorithms requiring external applications might need additional
configuration. Configuring providers is explained in a later chapter in this manual.
If you have reached this point, now you are ready to use geoalgorithms. There is no need to configure
anything else by now. We can already run our first algorithm, which we will do in the next lesson.

18.4 Running our first algorithm. The toolbox

Note: In this lesson we will run our first algorithm, and get our first result from it.

As we have already mentioned, the processing framework can run algorithms from other applications,
but it also contains native algorithms that need no external software to be run. To start exploring the
processing framework, we are going to run one of those native algorithms. In particular, we are going to
calculate the centroids of set of polygons.
First, open the QGIS project corresponding to this lesson. It contains just a single layer with two polygons

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Now go to the text box at the top of the toolbox. That is the search box, and if you type text in it,
it will filter the list of algorithms so just those ones containing the entered text are shown. If there are
algorithms that match your search but belong to a provider that is not active, an additional label will
be shown in the lower part of the toolbox.
Type centroids and you should see something like this.

The search box is a very practical way of finding the algorithm you are looking for. At the bottom of
the dialog, an additional label shows that there are algorithms that match your search but belong to a
provider that is not active. If you click on the link in that label, the list of algorithms will also include
results from those inactive providers, which will be shown in light gray. A link to activate each inactive
provider is also shown. We’ll see later how to activate other providers.

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To execute an algorithm, you just have to double-click on its name in the toolbox. When you double-click
on the Polygon centroids algorithm, you will see the following dialog.

All algorithms have a similar interface, which basically contains input parameters that you have to fill,
and outputs that you have to select where to store. In this case, the only input we have is a vector layer
with polygons.
Select the Polygons layer as input. The algorithm has a single output, which is the centroids layer. There
are two options to define where a data output is saved: enter a filepath or save it to a temporary filename
In case you want to set a destination and not save the result in a temporary file, the format of the output
is defined by the filename extension. To select a format, just select the corresponding file extension (or
add it if you are directly typing the filepath instead). If the extension of the filepath you entered does

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not match any of the supported ones, a default extension (usually .dbf for tables, .tif for raster layers
and .shp for vector ones) will be appended to the filepath and the file format corresponding to that
extension will be used to save the layer or table.
In all the exercises in this guide, we will be saving results to a temporary file, since there is no need to
save them for a later use. Feel free to save them to a permament location if you want to.

Warning: Temporary files are deleted once you close QGIS. If you create a project with an output
that was saved as a temporary output, QGIS will complain when you try to open back the project
later, since that output file will not exist.

Once you have configured the algorithm dialog, press Run to run the algorithm.
You will get the following output.

The output has the same CRS as the input. Geoalgorithms assumes all input layers share the same
CRS and do not perform any reprojection. Except in the case of some special algorithms (for instance,
reprojection ones), the outputs will also have that same CRS. We will see more about this soon.
Try yourself saving it using different file formats (use, for instance, shp and geojson as extensions). Also,
if you do not want the layer to be loaded in QGIS after it is generated, you can check off the checkbox
that is found below the output path box.

18.5 More algorithms and data types

Note: In this lesson we will run three more algorithms, learn how to use other input types, and configure
outputs to be saved to a given folder automatically.

For this lessons we will need a table and a polygons layer. We are going to create a points layer based
on coordinates in the table, and then count the number of points in each polygon. If you open the QGIS
project corresponding to this lesson, you will find a table with X and Y coordinates, but you will find
no polygons layer. Don’t worry, we will create it using a processing geoalgorithm.

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The first thing we are going to do is to create a points layer from the coordinates in the table, using the
Points layer from table algorithm. You now know how to use the search box, so it should not be hard
for you to find it. Double–click on it to run it and get to its following dialog.
This algorithm, like the one from the previous lesson, just generates a single output, and it has three
inputs:
ˆ Table : the table with the coordinates. You should select here the table from the lesson data.
ˆ X and Y fields : these two parameters are linked to the first one. The corresponding selector will
show the name of those fields that are available in the selected table. Select the XCOORD field for
the X parameter, and the YYCOORD field for the Y parameter.
ˆ CRS : Since this algorithm takes no input layers, it cannot assign a CRS to the output layer based
on them. Instead, it asks you to manually select the CRS that the coordinates in the table use.
Click on the button on the left–hand side to open the QGIS CRS selector, and select EPSG:4326
as the output CRS. We are using this CRS because the coordinates in the table are in that CRS.
Your dialog should look like this.

Now press the Run button to get the following layer (you may need to zoom full to reenter the map
around the newly created points):

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The next thing we need is the polygon layer. We are going to create a regular grid of polygons using the
Create grid algorithm, which has the following parameters dialog.

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Warning: The options are simpler in recent versions of QGIS; you just need to enter min and max
for X and Y (suggested values: -5.696226,-5.695122,40.24742,40.248171)

The inputs required to create the grid are all numbers. When you have to enter a numerical value, you
have two options: typing it directly on the corresponding box or clicking the button on the right–hand
side to get to a dialog like the one shown next.

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The dialog contains a simple calculator, so you can type expressions such as 11 * 34.7 + 4.6, and the
result will be computed and put in the corresponding text box in the parameters dialog. Also, it contains
constants that you can use, and values from other layers available.
In this case, we want to create a grid that covers the extent of the input points layer, so we should use
its coordinates to calculate the center coordinate of the grid and its width and height, since those are the
parameters that the algorithm takes to create the grid. With a little bit of math, try to do that yourself
using the calculator dialog and the constants from the input points layer.
Select Rectangles (polygons) in the Type field.
As in the case of the last algorithm, we have to enter the CRS here as well. Select EPSG:4326 as the
target CRS, as we did before.
In the end, you should have a parameters dialog like this:

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(Better add one spacing on the width and height: Horizontal spacing: 0.0001, Vertical spacing: 0.0001,
Width: 0.001004, Height: 0.000651, Center X: -5.695674, Center Y: 40.2477955) The case of X center is
a bit tricky, see: -5.696126+(( -5.695222+ 5.696126)/2)
Press Run and you will get the graticule layer.

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The last step is to count the points in each one of the rectangles of that graticule. We will use the Count
points in polygons algorithm.

Now we have the result we were looking for.

Before finishing this lesson, here is a quick tip to make your life easier in case you want to persistently
save your data. If you want all your output files to be saved in a given folder, you do not have to type

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the folder name each time. Instead, go to the processing menu and select the Options and configuration
item. It will open the configuration dialog.

In the Output folder entry that you will find in the General group, type the path to your destination
folder.

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Now when you run an algorithm, just use the filename instead of the full path. For instance, with the
configuration shown above, if you enter graticule.shp as the output path for the algorithm that we
have just used, the result will be saved in D:\processing_output\graticule.shp. You can still enter
a full path in case you want a result to be saved in a different folder.
Try yourself the Create grid algorithm with different grid sizes, and also with different types of grids.

18.6 CRSs. Reprojecting

Note: In this lesson we will discuss how Processing uses CRSs. We will also see a very useful algorithm:
reprojecting.

CRS’s are a great source of confusion for QGIS Processing users, so here are some general rules about
how they are handled by geoalgorithms when creating a new layer.
ˆ If there are input layers, it will use the CRS of the first layer. This is assumed to be the CRS of all
input layers, since they should have the same one. If you use layers with unmatching CRS’s, QGIS
will warn you about it. Notice that the CRS of input layers is shown along with its name in the
parameters dialog.

ˆ If there are no input layer, it will use the project CRS, unless the algorithm contains a specific
CRS field (as it happenend in the last lesson with the graticule algorithm)

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Open the project corresponding to this lesson and you will see two layers named 23030 and 4326. They
both contain the same points, but in different CRSs (EPSG:23030 and EPSG:4326). They appear in the
same place because QGIS is reprojecting on the fly to the project CRS (EPSG:4326), but they are not
actually the same layer.
Open the Export/Add geometry columns algorithm.

This algorithm add new columns to the attributes table of a vector layer. The content of the columns
depend on the type of geometry of the layer. In the case of points, it adds new columns with the X and
Y coordinates of each point.
In the list of available layers that you will find in the input layer field, you will see each one with its
corresponding CRS. That means that, although they appear in the same place in your canvas, they will
be treated differently. Select the 4326 layer.
The other parameter of the algorithm allows to set how the algorithm uses coordinates to calculate the
new value that it will add to the resulting layers. Most algorithms do not have an option like that, and
just use the coordinates directly. Select the Layer CRS option to just use coordinates as they are. This
is how almost all geoalgorithms work.
You should get a new layer with exactly the same points as the other two layers. If you right click on the
name of the layer and open its properties, you will see that it shares the same CRS of the input layer,
that is, EPSG:4326. When the layer is loaded into QGIS, you will not be asked to enter the CRS of the
layer, since QGIS already knows about it.
If you open the attributes table of the new layer you will see that it contains two new fields with the X
and Y coordinates of each point.

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Those coordinate values are given in the layer CRS, since we chose that option. However, even if you
choose another option, the output CRS of the layer would have been the same, since the input CRS is
used to set the CRS of the output layer. Choosing another option will cause the values to be different,
but not the resulting point to change or the CRS of the ouput layer to be different to the CRS of the
input one.
Now do the same calculation using the other layer. You should find the resulting layer rendered exactly
in the same place as the other ones, and it will have the EPSG:23030 CRS, since that was the one of the
input layer.
If you go to its attribute table, you will see values that are different to the ones in the first layer that we
created.

This is because the original data is different (it uses a different CRS), and those coordinates are taken
from it.
What should you learn from this? The main idea behind these examples is that geoalgorithms use the
layer as it is in its original data source, and completely ignore the reprojections that QGIS might be
doing before rendering. In other words, do not trust what you see in the canvas, but always have in mind
that the original data will be used. That is not so important in this case, since we are just using one
single layer at a time, but in an algorithm that needs several of them (such as a clip algorithm), layers
that appear to match or overlay might be very far one from each other, since they might have different
CRSs.
Algorithms performs no reprojection (except in the reprojection algorithm that we will see next), so it
is up to you to make sure that layers have matching CRS’s.

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An interesting module that deals with CRS’s is the reprojection one. It represents a particular case, since
it has an input layer (the one to reproject), but it will not use its CRS for the output one.
Open the Reproject layer algorithm.

Select any of the layers as input, and select EPSG:23029 as the destination CRS. Run the algorithm
and you will get a new layer, identical to the input one, but with a different CRS. It will appear on the
same region of the canvas, like the other ones, since QGIS will reproject it on the fly, but its original
coordinates are different. You can see that by running the Export/Add geometry columns algorithm using
this new layer as input, and veryfing that the added coordinates are different to the ones in the attribute
tables of both of the two layers that we had computed before.

18.7 Избиране

Note: In this lesson we will see how processing algorithms handle selections in vector layers that are
used as inputs, and how to create a selection using a particular type of algorithm.

Unlike other analysis plugins in QGIS, you will not find in processing geoalgorithms any „Use only
selected features“ checkbox or similar. The behaviour regarding selection is set for the whole plugin and
all its algorithms, and not for each algorithm execution. Algorithms follow the following simple rules
when using a vector layer.
ˆ If the layer has a selection, only selected features are used.
ˆ If there is no selection, all features are used.
Please note that you can change this behaviour by unselecting the relevant option in the Processing →
Options → General menu.

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You can test that yourself by selecting a few points in any of the layers that we used in the last chapter,
and running the reprojection algorithm on them. The reprojected layer that you will obtain will contain
only those points that were selected, unless there was no selection, which will cause the resulting layer
to contain all points from the original layer.
To make a selection, you can use any of the available methods and tools in QGIS. However, you can
also use a geoalgorithm to do so. Algorithms for creating a selection are found in the toolbox under
Vector/Selection

Open the Random selection algorithm.

Leaving the default values, it will select 10 points from the current layer.

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You will notice that this algorithm does not produce any output, but modifies the input layer (not the
layer itself, but its selection). This is an uncommon behaviour, since all the other algorithms will produce
new layers and not alter the input layers.
Since the selection is not part of the data itself, but something that only exist within QGIS, these
selection algorithms only must be used selecting a layer that is open in QGIS, and not with the file
selection option that you can find in the corresponding parameter value box.
The selection we have just made, like most of the ones created by the rest of the selection algorithms, can
also be done manually from QGIS, so you might be wondering what is the point on using an algorithm for
that. Although now this might not make much sense to you, we will later see how to create models and
scripts. If you want to make a selection in the middle of a model (which defines a processing workflow),
only a geoalgorithm can be added to a model, and other QGIS elements and operations cannot be added.
That is the reason why some processing algorithms duplicate functionality that is also available in other
QGIS elements.
By now, just remember that selections can be made using processing geoalgorithms, and that algorithms
will only use the selected features if a selection exists, or all features otherwise.

18.8 Running an external algorithm

Note: In this lesson we will see how to use algorithms that depend on a third-party application,
particularly SAGA, which is one of the main algorithm providers.

All the algorithms that we have run so far are part of processing framework. That is, they are native
algorithms implemented in the plugin and run by QGIS just like the plugin itself is run. However, one of
the greatest features of the processing framework is that it can use algorithms from external applications
and extend the possibilites of those applications. Such algorithms are wrapped and included in the
toolbox, so you can easily use them from QGIS, and use QGIS data to run them.
Some of the algorithms that you see in the simplified view require third party applications to be installed
in your system. One algorithm provider of special interest is SAGA (System for Automated Geospatial
Analysis). First, we need to configure everything so QGIS can correctly call SAGA. This is not difficult,
but it’s important to understand how it works. Each external application has its own configuration, and
later in this same manual we will talk about some of the other ones, but SAGA is going to be our main
backend, so we will discuss it here.
If you are on Windows, the best way to work with external algorithms is to install QGIS using the
standalone installer. It will take care of installing all the needed dependencies, including SAGA, so if you
have used it, there is nothing else to do. You can open the settings dialog and go to the Providers/SAGA
group.

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The SAGA path should already be configured and pointing to the folder where SAGA is installed.
If you have installed QGIS not using the standalone installer, then you must enter the path to your
SAGA installation (which you must have installed separately) there. The required version is SAGA 2.1
[this is changing according to the releases of SAGA].
In case you are using Linux, you do not have to set the path to your SAGA installation in the processing
configuration. Instead, you must install SAGA and make sure that the SAGA folder is in PATH, so it
can be called from the console (just open a console and type saga_cmd to check it). Under Linux, the
target version for SAGA is also 2.1, but in some installations (such as the OSGeo Live DVD) you might
have just 2.0.8 available. There are some 2.1 packages available, but they are not commonly installed
and might have some issues, so if you prefer to use the more common and stable 2.0.8, you can do it by
enabling 2.0.8 compatibility in the configuration dialog, under the SAGA group.

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Once SAGA is installed, you can launch a SAGA algorithm double clicking on its name, as with any
other algorithm. Since we are using the simplified interface, you do not know which algorithms are based
on SAGA or in another external application, but if you happen to double–click on one of them and the
corresponding application is not installed, you will see something like this.

In our case, and assuming that SAGA is correctly installed and configured, you should not see this
window, and you will get to the parameters dialog instead.
Let’s try with a SAGA–based algorithm, the one called Split shapes layer randomly.

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Use the points layer in the project corresponding to this lesson as input, and the default parameter
values, and you will get something like this (the split is random, so your result might be different).

The input layer has been split in two layers, each one with the same number of points. This result has
been computed by SAGA, and later taken by QGIS and added to the QGIS project.
If all goes fine, you will not notice any difference between this SAGA–based algorithm and one of the
others that we have previously run. However, SAGA might, for some reason, not be able to produce a
result and not generate the file that QGIS is expecting. In that case, there will be problems adding the
result to the QGIS project, and an error message like this will be shown.

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This kind of problems might happen, even if SAGA (or any other application that we are calling from
the processing framework) is correctly installed, and it is important to know how to deal with them.
Let’s produce one of those error messages.
Open the Create graticule algorithm and use the following values.

We are using width and height values that is larger than the specified extent, so SAGA cannot produce

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any output. In other words, the parameter values are wrong, but they are not checked until SAGA gets
them and tries to create the graticule. Since it cannot create it, it will not produce the expected layer,
and you will see the error message shown above.

Note: In SAGA >= 2.2.3, the command will adjust automatically wrong input data, so you’ll not get
an error. To provoke an error, use negative values for division.

Understanding this kind of problems will help you solve them and find an explanation to what is
happening. As you can see in the error message, a test is performed to check that the connection with
SAGA is working correctly, indicating you that there might be a problem in how the algorithm was
executed. This applies not only to SAGA, but also to other external applications as well.
In the next lesson we will introduce the processing log, where information about commands run by
geoalgorithms is kept, and you will see how to get more detail when issues like this appear.

18.9 The processing log

Note: This lesson describes the processing log.

All the analysis performed with the processing framework is logged in QGIS logging system. This
allows you to know more about what has been done with the processing tools, to solve problems when
they happen, and also to re–run previous operations, since the logging system also implements some
interactivity.
To open the log, click on the balloon at the bottom right, on the QGIS status bar. Some algorithms
might leave here information about their execution. For instance, those algorithms that call an external
application usually log the console output of that application to this entry. If you have a look at it, you
will see that the output of the SAGA algorithm that we just run (and that fail to execute because input
data was not correct) is stored here.
This is helpful to understand what is going on. Advanced users will be able to analyze that output to
find out why the algorithm failed. If you are not an advanced user, this will be useful for others to help
you diagnose the problem you are having, which might be a problem in the installation of the external
software or an issue with the data you provided.
Even if the algorithm could be executed, some algorithms might leave warnings in case the result might
not be right. For instance, when executing an interpolation algorithm with a very small amount of points,
the algorithm can run and will produce a result, but it is likely that it will not be correct, since more
points should be used. It’s a good idea to regularly check for this type of warnings if you are not sure
about some aspect of a given algorithm.
From the Processing menu, under the History section, you’ll find Algorithms. All algorithms that are
executed, even if they are executed from the GUI and not from the console (which will be explained
later in this manual) are stored in this section as a console call. That means that everytime you run an
algorithm, a console command is added to the log, and you have the full history of your working session.
Here is how that history looks like:

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This can be very useful when starting working with the console, to learn about the syntax of algorithms.
We will use it when we discuss how to run analysis commands from the console.
The history is also interactive, and you can re–run any previous algorithm just by double–clicking on its
entry. This is an easy way of replicating the work we already did before.
For instance, try the following. Open the data corresponding to the first chapter of this manual and run
the algorithm explained there. Now go to the log dialog and locate the last algorithm in the list, which
corresponds to the algorithm you have just run. Double–click on it an a new result should be produced,
just like when you run it using the normal dialog and calling it from the toolbox.

18.9.1 Advanced

You can also modify the algorithm. Just copy it, open the Plugins → Python console, click on Import
class → Import Processing class, then paste it to re-run the analysis; change the text at will. To display
the resulting file, type iface.addVectorLayer('/path/filename.shp', 'Layer name in legend',
'ogr'). Otherwise, you can use processing.runandload.

18.10 The raster calculator. No-data values

Note: In this lesson we will see how to use the raster calculator to perform some operations on raster
layers. We will also explain what are no–data values and how the calculator and other algorithms deal
with them

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The raster calculator is one of the most powerful algorithms that you will find. It’s a very flexible and
versatile algorithm that can be used for many different calculations, and one that will soon become an
important part of your toolbox.
In this lesson we will be performing some calculation with the raster calculator, most of them rather
simple. This will let us see how it is used and how it deals with some particular situations that it might
find. Understanding that is important to later get the expected results when using the calculator, and
also to understand certain techniques that are commonly applied with it.
Open the QGIS project corresponding to this lesson and you will see that it contains several raster layers.
Now open the toolbox and open the dialog corresponding to the raster calculator.

Note: The interface is different in recent versions.

The dialog contains 2 parameters.

ˆ The layers to use for the analysis. This is a multiple input, that meaning that you can select as
many layers as you want. Click on the button on the right–hand side and then select the layers
that you want to use in the dialog that will appear.
ˆ The formula to apply. The formula uses the layers selected in the above parameter, which are named
using alphabet letters (a, b, c...) or g1, g2, g3... as variable names. That is, the formula a
+ 2 * b is the same as g1 + 2 * g2 and will compute the sum of the value in the first layer plus
two times the value in the second layer. The ordering of the layers is the same ordering that you
see in the selection dialog.

Warning: The calculator is case sensitive.

To start with, we will change the units of the DEM from meters to feet. The formula we need is the

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following one:

h' = h * 3.28084

Select the DEM in the layers field and type a * 3.28084 in the formula field.

Warning: For non English users: use always „.“, not „ ,“.

Click Run to run the algorithm. You will get a layer that has the same appearance of the input layer, but
with different values. The input layer that we used has valid values in all its cells, so the last parameter
has no effect at all.
Let’s now perform another calculation, this time on the accflow layer. This layer contains values of
accumulated flow, a hydrological parameter. It contains those values only within the area of a given
watershed, with no–data values outside of it. As you can see, the rendering is not very informative, due
to the way values are distributed. Using the logarithm of that flow accumulation will yield a much more
informative representation. We can calculate that using the raster calculator.
Open the algorithm dialog again, select the accflow layer as the only input layer, and enter the following
formula: log(a).
Here is the layer that you will get.

If you select the Identify tool to know the value of a layer at a given point, select the layer that we have
just created, and click on a point outside of the basin, you will see that it contains a no–data value.

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For the next exercise we are going to use two layers instead of one, and we are going to get a DEM with
valid elevation values only within the basin defined in the second layer. Open the calculator dialog and
select both layers of the project in the input layers field. Enter the following formula in the corresponding
field:

a/a * b

a refers to the accumulated flow layer (since it is the first one to appear in the list) and b refers to the
DEM. What we are doing in the first part of the formula here is to divide the accumulated flow layer by
itself, which will result in a value of 1 inside the basin, and a no–data value outside. Then we multiply
by the DEM, to get the elevation value in those cells inside the basin (DEM * 1 = DEM) and the no–data
value outside (DEM * no_data = no_data)
Here is the resulting layer.

This technique is used frequently to mask values in a raster layer, and is useful whenever you want
to perform calculations for a region other that the arbitrary rectangular region that is used by raster
layer. For instance, an elevation histogram of a raster layer doesn’t have much meaning. If it is instead

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computed using only values corresponding to a basin (as in he case above), the result that we obtain is
a meaningful one that actually gives information about the configuration of the basin.
There are other interesting things about this algorithm that we have just run, apart from the no–data
values and how they are handled. If you have a look at the extents of the layers that we have multiplied
(you can do it double–clicking on their names of the layer in the table of contents and looking at their
properties), you will see that they are not the same, since the extent covered by the flow accumulation
layer is smaller that the extent of the full DEM.
That means that those layers do not match, and that they cannot be multiplied directly without
homogenizing those sizes and extents by resampling one or both layers. However, we did not do anything.
QGIS takes care of this situation and automatically resamples input layers when needed. The output
extent is the minimum covering extent calculated from the input layers, and the minimum cell size of
their cellsizes.
In this case (and in most cases), this produces the desired results, but you should always be aware of
the additional operations that are taking place, since they might affect the result. In cases when this
behaviour might not be the desired, manual resampling should be applied in advance. In later chapters,
we will see more about the behaviour of algorithms when using multiple raster layers.
Let’s finish this lesson with another masking exercise. We are going to calculate the slope in all areas
with an elevation between 1000 and 1500 meters.
In this case, we do not have a layer to use as a mask, but we can create it using the calculator.
Run the calculator using the DEM as only input layer and the following formula

ifelse(abs(a-1250) < 250, 1, 0/0)

As you can see, we can use the calculator not only to do simple algebraic operations, but also to run
more complex calculation involving conditional sentences, like the one above.
The result has a value of 1 inside the range we want to work with, and no-data in cells outside of it.

The no-data value comes from the 0/0 expression. Since that is an undetermined value, SAGA will add
a NaN (Not a Number) value, which is actually handled as a no-data value. With this little trick you
can set a no-data value without needing to know what the no–data value of the cell is.
Now you just have to multiply it by the slope layer included in the project, and you will get the desired
result.
All that can be done in a single operation with the calculator. We leave that as an exercise for the reader.

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18.11 Vector calculator

Note: In this lesson we will see how to add new attributes to a vector layer based on a mathematical
expression, using the vector calculator.

We already know how to use the raster calculator to create new raster layers using mathematical
expressions. A similar algorithm is available for vector layers, and generates a new layer with the same
attributes of the input layer, plus an additional one with the result of the expression entered. The
algorithm is called Field calculator and has the following parameters dialog.

Note: In newer versions of Processing the interface has changed considerably, it’s more powerful and
easier to use.

Here are a few examples of using that algorithm.

First, let’s calculate the population density of white people in each polygon, which represents a census.
We have two fields in the attributes table that we can use for that, namely WHITE and SHAPE_AREA. We
just have to divide them and multiply by one million (to have density per square km), so we can use the
following formula in the corresponding field

( "WHITE" / "SHAPE_AREA" ) * 1000000

The parameters dialog should be filled as shown below.

This will generate a new field named WHITE_DENS
Now let’s calculate the ratio between the MALES and FEMALES fields to create a new one that indicates if
male population is numerically predominant over female population.

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Enter the following formula

"MALES" / "FEMALES"

This time the parameters window should look like this before pressing the OK button.

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In earlier version, since both fields are of type integer, the result would be truncated to an integer. In
this case the formula should be: 1.0 * "MALES"/ "FEMALES", to indicate that we want floating point
number a result.
We can use conditional functions to have a new field with male or female text strings instead of those
ratio value, using the following formula:

CASE WHEN "MALES" > "FEMALES" THEN 'male' ELSE 'female' END

The parameters window should look like this.

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A python field calculator is available in the Advanced Python field calculator, which will not be detailed
here

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18.12 Defining extents

Note: In this lesson we will see how to define extents, which are needed by some algorithms, especially
raster ones.

Some algorithms require an extent to define the area to be covered by the analysis they perform, and
usually to define the extent of the resulting layer.
When an extent is required, it can be defined manually by entering the four values that define it (min
X, min Y, max X, max Y), but there are other more practical and more interesting ways of doing it as
well. We will see all of them in this lesson.
First, let’s open an algorithm that requires an extent to be defined. Open the Rasterize algorithm, which
creates a raster layer from a vector layer.

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All the parameters, except for the last two ones, are used to define which layer is to be rasterized, and
configure how the rasterization process should work. The two last parameters, on the other hand, define
the characteristics of the output layer. That means that they define the area that is covered (which is not
necessarily the same area covered by the input vector layer), and the resolution/cellsize (which cannot
be infered from the vector layer, since vector layers do not have a cellsize).
The first thing you can do is to type the 4 defining values explained before, separated by commas.

That doesn’t need any extra explanation. While this is the most flexible option, it is also the less practical
in some cases, and that’s why other options are implemented. To access them, you have to click on the
button on the right–hand side of the extent text box.

Let’s see what each one of them does.

The first option is Use layer/canvas extent, which will show the selection dialog shown below.

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Here you can select the extent of the canvas (the extent covered by the current zoom), or the extension
any of the available layers. Select it and click on OK, and the text box will be automatically filled with
the corresponding values.
The second option is Select extent on canvas. In this case, the algorithm dialog disappears and you can
click and drag on the QGIS canvas to define the desired extent.

Once you release the mouse button, the dialog will reappear and the text box will already have the values
corresponding to the defined extent.
The last option is Use min covering extent from input layers, which is the default option. This will
compute the min covering extent of all layers used to run the algorithm, and there is no need to enter
any value in the text box. In the case of a single input layer, as in the algorithm we are running, the
same extent can be obtained by selecting that same input layer in the Use layer/canvas extent that we
already saw. However, when there are several input layers, the min covering extent does not correspond
to any of the input layer extent, since it is computed from all of them together.
We will use this last method to execute our rasterization algorithm.
Fill the parameters dialog as shown next, and press OK.

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Note: In this case, better use an Integer (1 byte) instead of a Floating point (4 byte), since the NAME
is an integer with maximum value=64. This will result in a smaller file size and faster computations.

You will get a rasterized layer that covers exactly the area covered by the original vector layer.

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In some cases, the last option, Use min covering extent from input layers, might not be available. This
will happen in those algorithm that do not have input layers, but just parameters of other types. In that
case, you will have to enter the value manually or use any of the other options.
Notice that, when a selection exist, the extent of the layer is that of the whole set of features, and the
selection is not used to compute the extent, even though the rasterization is executed on the selected
items only. In that case, you might want to actually create a new layer from the selection, and then use
it as input.

18.13 HTML outputs

Note: In this lesson we learn how QGIS handles outputs in HTML format, which are used to produce
text outputs and graphs.

All the outputs we have produced so far were layers (whether raster or vector). However, some algorithms
generate outputs in the form of text and graphics. All this outputs are wrapped in HTML files and
displayed in the so–called Results viewer, which is another element of the processing framework.
Let’s see one of those algorithms to understand how they work.
Open the project with the data to be used in this lesson and then open the Basic statistics for numeric
fields algorithm.

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The algorithm is rather simple, and you just have to select the layer to use and one of its field (a numeric
one). The output is of type HTML, but the corresponding box works exactly like the one that you can
find in the case of a raster or vector output. You can enter a filepath or leave it blank to save to a
temporary file. In this case, however, only the html and htm extensions are allowed, so there is no way
of altering the output format by using a different one.
Run the algorithm selecting the only layer in the project as input, and the POP2000 field, and a new
dialog like the one shown next will appear once the algorithm is executed and the parameters dialog is
closed.

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This is the Results viewer. It keeps all the HTML result generated during the current session, easily
accessible, so you can check them quickly whenever you need it. As it happens with layers, if you have
saved the output to a temporary file, it will be deleted once you close QGIS. If you have saved to a
non-temporary path, the file will remain, but it will not appear in the Results viewer the next time you
open QGIS.
Some algorithms generate text that cannot be divided into other more detailed outputs. That is the
case if, for instance, the algorithm captures the text output from an external process. In other cases, the
output is presented as text, but internally is divided into several smaller outputs, usually in the form
of numeric values. The algorithm that we have just executed is one of them. Each one of those values
is handled as a single output, and stored in a variable. This has no importance at all now, but once we
move to the graphical modeler, you will see that it will allow us to use those values as numeric inputs
for other algorithms.

18.14 First analysis example

Note: In this lesson we will perform some real analysis using just the toolbox, so you can get more
familiar with the processing framework elements.

Now that everything is configured and we can use external algorithms, we have a very powerful tool to
perform spatial analysis. It is time to work out a larger exercise with some real–world data.
We will be using the well-known dataset that John Snow used in 1854, in his groundbreaking work

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(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow_%28physician%29), and we will get some interesting results.

The analysis of this dataset is pretty obvious and there is no need for sofisticated GIS techniques to end
up with good results and conclusions, but it is a good way of showing how these spatial problems can be
analyzed and solved by using different processing tools.
The dataset contains shapefiles with cholera deaths and pump locations, and an OSM rendered map in
TIFF format. Open the corresponding QGIS project for this lesson.

The first thing to do is to calculting the Voronoi diagram (a.k.a. Thyessen polygons) of the pumps layer,
to get the influence zone of each pump. The Voronoi Diagram algorithm can be used for that.

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Pretty easy, but it will already give us interesting information.

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Clearly, most cases are within one of the polygons

To get a more quantitative result, we can count the number of deaths in each polygon. Since each point
represents a building where deaths occured, and the number of deaths is stored in an attribute, we cannot
just count the points. We need a weighted count, so we will use the Count points in polygon (weighted)
tool.

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The new field will be called DEATHS, and we use the COUNT field as weighting field. The resulting
table clearly reflects that the number of deaths in the polygon corresponding to the first pump is much
larger than the other ones.

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Another good way of visualizing the dependence of each point in the Cholera_deaths layer with a point
in the Pumps layer is to draw a line to the closest one. This can be done with the Distance to nearest hub
tool, and using the configuration shown next.

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The result looks like this:

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Although the number of lines is larger in the case of the central pump, do not forget that this does
not represent the number of deaths, but the number of locations where cholera cases were found. It is
a representative parameter, but it is not considering that some locations might have more cases than
other.
A density layer will also give us a very clear view of what is happening. We can create it with the Kernel
density algorithm. Using the Cholera_deaths layer, its COUNT field as weight field, with a radius of
100, the extent and cellsize of the streets raster layer, we get something like this.

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Remember that, to get the output extent, you do not have to type it. Click on the button on the
right-hand side and select Use layer/canvas extent.

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Select the streets raster layer and its extent will be automatically added to the text field. You must do
the same with the cellsize, selecting the cellsize of that layer as well.
Combining with the pumps layer, we see that there is one pump clearly in the hotspot where the maximum
density of death cases is found.

18.15 Clipping and merging raster layers

Note: In this lesson we will see another example of spatial data preparation, to continue using
geoalgorithms in real-world scenarios.

For this lesson, we are going to calculate a slope layer for an area surrounding a city area, which is given
in a vector layer with a single polygon. The base DEM is divided in two raster layers that, together,
cover an area much larger than that around the city that we want to work with. If you open the project
corresponding to this lesson, you will see something like this.

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These layers have two problems:

ˆ They cover an area that is too large for what we want (we are interested in a smaller region around
the city center)
ˆ They are in two different files (the city limits fall into just one single raster layer, but, as it’s been
said, we want some extra area around it).
Both of them are easily solvable with the appropriate geoalgorithms.
First, we create a rectangle defining the area that we want. To do it, we create a layer containing the
bounding box of the layer with the limits of the city area, and then we buffer it, so as to have a raster
layer that covers a bit more that the strictly necessary.
To calculate the bounding box , we can use the Polygon from layer extent algorithm

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To buffer it, we use the Fixed distance buffer algorithm, with the following parameter values.

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Warning: Syntax changed in recent versions; set both Distance and Arc vertex to .25

Here is the resulting bounding box obtained using the parameters shown above

It is a rounded box, but we can easily get the equivalent box with square angles, by running the Polygon
from layer extent algorithm on it. We could have buffered the city limits first, and then calculate the
extent rectangle, saving one step.

You will notice that the rasters has a different projection from the vector. We should therefore reproject
them before proceeding further, using the Warp (reproject) tool.

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Note: Recent versions have a more complex interface. Make sure at least one compression method is
selected.

With this layer that contains the bounding box of the raster layer that we want to obtain, we can crop
both of the raster layers, using the Clip raster with polygon algorithm.

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Once the layers have been cropped, they can be merged using the GDAL Merge algorithm.

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Note: You can save time merging first and then cropping, and you will avoid calling the clipping
algorithm twice. However, if there are several layers to merge and they have a rather big size, you will
end up with a large layer than it can later be difficult to process. In that case, you might have to call the
clipping algorithm several times, which might be time consuming, but don’t worry, we will soon see that
there are some additional tools to automate that operation. In this example, we just have two layers, so
you shouldn’t worry about that now.

With that, we get the final DEM we want.

Now it is time to compute the slope layer.

A slope layer can be computed with the Slope, Aspect, Curvature algorithm, but the DEM obtained in
the last step is not suitable as input, since elevation values are in meters but cellsize is not expressed
in meters (the layer uses a CRS with geographic coordinates). A reprojection is needed. To reproject a
raster layer, the Warp (reproject) algorithm can be used again. We reproject into a CRS with meters as
units (e.g. 3857), so we can then correctly calculate the slope, with either SAGA or GDAL.
With the new DEM, slope can now be computed.

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And here is the resulting slope layer.

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The slope produced by the Slope, Aspect, Curvature algorithm can be expressed in degrees or radians;
degrees are a more practical and common unit. In case you calculated it in radians, the Metric conversions
algorithm will help us to do the conversion (but in case you didn’t know that algorithm existed, you
could use the raster calculator that we have already used).

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Reprojecting the converted slope layer back with the Reproject raster layer, we get the final layer we
wanted.

Warning: todo: Add image

The reprojection processes might have caused the final layer to contain data outside the bounding box
that we calculated in one of the first steps. This can be solved by clipping it again, as we did to obtain
the base DEM.

18.16 Hydrological analysis

Note: In this lesson we will perform some hydrological analysis. This analysis will be used in some of
the following lessons, as it constitutes a very good example of an analysis workflow, and we will use it
to demonstrate some advanced features.

In this lesson, we are going to do some hydrological analysis. Starting with a DEM, we are going to
extract a channel network, delineate watersheds and calculate some statistics.
The first thing is to load the project with the lesson data, which just contains a DEM.

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The first module to execute is Catchment area (in some SAGA versions it is called Flow accumulation
(Top Down) ). You can use anyone of the others named Catchment area. They have different algorithms
underneath, but the results are basically the same.
Select the DEM in the Elevation field, and leave the default values for the rest of parameters.

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Some algorithms calculate many layers, but the Catchment Area one is the only one we will be using.
You can get rid of the other ones if you want.
The rendering of the layer is not very informative.

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To know why, you can have a look at the histogram and you will see that value are not evenly distributed
(there are a few cells with very high value, those corresponding to the channel network). Calculating the
logarithm of the catchment area value yields a layer that conveys much more information (you can do it
using the raster calculator).

The catchment area (also known as flow accumulation), can be used to set a threshold for channel
initiation. This can be done using the Channel network algorithm. Here is how you have to set it up
(note the Initiation threshold Greater than 10.000.000).

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Use the original catchment area layer, not the logarithm one. That one was just for rendering purposes.
If you increase the Initiation threshold value, you will get a more sparse channel network. If you decrease
it, you will get a denser one. With the proposed value, this is what you get.

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The image above shows just the resulting vector layer and the DEM, but there should be also a raster
one with the same channel network. That raster one will be, in fact, the one we will be using.
Now, we will use the Watersheds basins algorithm to delineate the subbasins corresponding to that
channel network, using as outlet points all the junctions in it. Here is how you have to set the
corresponding parameters dialog.

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And this is what you will get.

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This is a raster result. You can vectorise it using the Vectorising grid classes algorithm.

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Now, let’s try to compute statistics about the elevation values in one of the subbasins. The idea is to
have a layer that just represents the elevation within that subbasin and then pass it to the module that
calculates those statistics.
First, let’s clip the original DEM with the polygon representing a subbasin. We will use the Clip raster
with polygon algorithm. If we select a single subbasin polygon and then call the clipping algorithm, we
can clip the DEM to the area covered by that polygon, since the algorithm is aware of the selection.
Select a polygon,

and call the clipping algorithm with the following parameters:

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The element selected in the input field is, or course, the DEM we want to clip.
You will get something like this.

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This layer is ready to be used in the Raster layer statistics algorithm.

The resulting statistics are the following ones.

We will use both the basin calculations procedure and the statistics calculation in other lessons, to find

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out how other elements can help us automate both of them and work more effectively.

18.17 Starting with the graphical modeler

Note: In this lesson we will use the graphical modeler, a powerful component that we can use to define
a workflow and run a chain of algorithms.

A normal session with the processing tools includes more than running a single algorithm. Usually several
of them are run to obtain a result, and the outputs of some of those algorithms are used as input for
some of the other ones.
Using the graphical modeler, that workflow can be put into a model, which will run all the necessary
algorithms in a single run, thus simplifying the whole process and automating it.
To start this lesson, we are going to calculate a parameter named Topographic Wetness Index. The
algorithm that computes it is called Topographic wetness index (twi)

As you can see, there are two mandatory inputs: Slope and Catchment area. There is also an optional
input, but we will not be using it, so we can ignore it.
The data for this lesson contains just a DEM, so we do not have any of the required inputs. However,
we know how to calculate both of them from that DEM, since we have already seen the algorithms to
compute slope and catchment area. So we can first compute those layers and then use them for the TWI
algorithm.
Here are the parameter dialogs that you should use to calculate the 2 intermediate layers.

Note: Slope must be calculated in radians, not in degrees.

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And this is how you have to set the parameters dialog of the TWI algorithm.

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This is the result that you will obtain (the default singleband pseudocolor inverted palette has been used
for rendering). You can use the twi.qml style provided.

What we will try to do now is to create an algorithm that calculates the TWI from a DEM in just one

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single step. That will save us work in case we later have to compute a TWI layer from another DEM,
since we will need just one single step to do it instead of the 3 ones above. All the processes that we need
are found in the toolbox, so what we have to do is to define the workflow to wrap them. This is where
the graphical modeler comes in.
Open the modeler by selecting its menu entry in the processing menu.

Two things are needed to create a model: setting the inputs that it will need, and defining the algorithm
that it contains. Both of them are done by adding elements from the two tabs in the left–hand side of
the modeler window: Inputs and Algorithms
Let’s start with the inputs. In this case we do not have much to add. We just need a raster layer with
the DEM, and that will be our only input data.
Double click on the Raster layer input and you will see the following dialog.

Here we will have to define the input we want. Since we expect this raster layer to be a DEM, we will
call it DEM. That’s the name that the user of the model will see when running it. Since we need that
layer to work, we will define it as a mandatory layer.

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Here is how the dialog should be configured.

Click on OK and the input will appear in the modeler canvas.

Now let’s move to the Algorithms tab. The first algorithm we have to run is the Slope, aspect, curvature
algorithm. Locate it in the algorithm list, double–click on it and you will see the dialog shown below.

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This dialog is very similar to the one that you can find when running the algorithm from the toolbox,
but the element that you can use as parameter values are not taken from the current QGIS project,
but from the model itself. That means that, in this case, we will not have all the raster layers of our
project available for the Elevation field, but just the ones defined in our model. Since we have added
just one single raster input named DEM, that will be the only raster layer that we will see in the list
corresponding to the Elevation parameter.
Output generated by an algorithm are handled a bit differently when the algorithm is used as a part of
a model. Instead of selecting the filepath where you want to save each output, you just have to specify
if that ouput is an intermediate layer (and you do not want it to be preserved after the model has been
executed), or it is a final one. In this case, all layers produced by this algorithm are intermediate. We will
only use one of them (the slope layer), but we do not want to keep it, since we just need it to calculate
the TWI layer, which is the final result that we want to obtain.
When layers are not a final result, you should just leave the corresponding field. Otherwise, you have to
enter a name that will be used to identify the layer in the parameters dialog that will be shown when
you run the model later.
There is not much to select in this first dialog, since we do not have but just one layer in or model (The
DEM input that we created). Actually, the default configuration of the dialog is the correct one in this
case, so you just have to press OK. This is what you will now have in the modeler canvas.

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The second algorithm we have to add to our model is the catchment area algorithm. We will use the
algorithm named Catchment area (Paralell). We will use the DEM layer again as input, and none of the
ouputs it produces are final, so here is how you have to fill the corresponding dialog.

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Now your model should look like this.

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The last step is to add the Topographic wetness index algorithm, with the following configuration.

In this case, we will not be using the DEM as input, but instead, we will use the slope and catchment
area layers that are calculated by the algorithms that we previously added. As you add new algorithms,
the outputs they produce become available for other algorithms, and using them you link the algorithms,
creating the workflow.

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In this case, the output TWI layer is a final layer, so we have to indicate so. In the corresponding textbox,
enter the name that you want to be shown for this output.
Now our model is finished and it should look like this.

Enter a name and a group name in the upper part of the model window, and then save it clicking on the
Save button.

You can save it anywhere you want and open it later, but if you save it in the models folder (which is
the folder that you will see when the save file dialog appears), you model will also be available in the
toolbox as well. So stay on that folder and save the model with the filename that you prefer.
Now close the modeler dialog and go to the toolbox. In the Models entry you will find you model.

You can run it just like any normal algorithm, double–clicking on it.

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As you can see, the parameters dialog, contain the input that you added to the model, along with the
outputs that you set as final when adding the corresponding algorithms.
Run it using the DEM as input and you will get the TWI layer in just one single step.

18.18 More complex models

Note: In this lesson we will work with a more complex model in the graphical modeler.

The first model that we created in the previous chapter was a very simple one, with just one input and
3 algorithms. More complex models can be created, with different types of inputs and containing more
step. For this chapter we will work with a model that creates a vector layer with watersheds, based on a
DEM and a threshold value. That will be very useful for calculating several vector layers corresponding
to different thresholds, without having to repeat each single step each time.
This lesson does not contain instructions about how to create you model. You already know the necessary
steps (we saw them in a previous lesson) and you have already seen the basic ideas about the modeler,
so you should try it yourself. Spend a few minutes trying to create your model, and don’t worry about
making mistakes. Remember: first add the inputs and then add the algorithms that use them to create
the workflow.
In case you could not create the full model yourself and you need some extra help, the data folder
corresponding to this lesson contains an almost‘ finished version of it. Open the modeler and then open
’
the model file that you will find in the data folder. You should see something like this.

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This model contains all the steps needed to complete the calculation, but it just has one input: the DEM.
That means that the threshold for channel definition use a fixed value, which makes the model not as
useful as it could be. That is not a problem, since we can edit the model, and that is exactly what we
will do.
First, let’s add a numerical input. That will ask the user for a numerical input that we can use when
such a value is needed in any of the algorithms included in our model. Click on the Number entry in the
inputs tree, and you will see the corresponding dialog. Fill it with the values shown next.

Now your model should look like this.

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The input that we have just added is not used, so the model hasn’t actually changed. We have to link
that input to the algorithm that uses it, in this case the Channel network one. To edit an algorithm that
already exists in the modeler, just click on the pen icon on the corresponding box in the canvas. If you
click on the Channel network algorithm, you will see something like this.

The dialog is filled with the current values used by the algorithm. You can see that the threshold
parameter has a fixed value of 1,000,000 (this is also the default value of the algorithm, but any other
value could be put in there). However, you might notice that the parameter is not entered in a common

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text box, but in an option menu. If you unfold it, you will see something like this.

The input that we added is there and we can select it. Whenever an algorithm in a model requires a
numerical value, you can hardcode it and directly type it, or you can use any of the available inputs and
values (remember that some algorithms generate single numerical values. We will see more about this
soon). In the case of a string parameter, you will also see string inputs and you will be able to select one
of them or type the desired fixed value.
Select the Threshold input in the Threshold parameter and click on OK to apply the changes to your
model. Now the design of the model should look like this.

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The model is now complete. Try to run it using the DEM that we have used in previous lessons, and with
different threshold values. Here you have a sample of the result obtained for different values. You can
compare with the result for the default value, which is the one we obtained in the hydrological analysis
lesson.

Threshold = 100,000

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Threshold = 1,0000,000

18.19 Numeric calculations in the modeler

Warning: Beware, this chapter is not well tested, please report any issue; images are missing

Note: In this lesson we will see how to use numeric outputs in the modeler

For this lesson, we are going to modify the hydrological model that we created in the last chapter (open
it in the modeler before starting), so we can automate the calculation of a valid threshold value and we
do not have to ask the user to enter it. Since that value refers to the variable in the threshold raster
layer, we will extract it from that layer, based on some simple statistical analysis.
Starting with the aforementioned model, let’s do the following modifications:
First, calculate statistics of the flow accumulation layer using the Raster layer statistics algorithm.

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This will generate a set of statistical values that will now be available for all numeric fields in other
algorithms.
If you edit the Channel network algorithm, as we did in the last lesson, you will see now that you have
other options apart from the numeric input that you added.

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However, none of this values is suitable for being used as a valid threshold, since they will result in
channel networks that will not be very realistic. We can, instead, derive some new parameter based on
them, to get a better result. For instance, we can use the mean plus 2 times the standard deviation.
To add that arithmetical operation, we can use the calculator that you will find in the
Geoalgorithms/modeler/modeler-tools group. This group contains algorithms that are not very useful
outside of the modeler, but that provide some useful functionality when creating a model.
The parameters dialog of the calculator algorithm looks like this:

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As you can see, the dialog is different to the other ones we have seen, but you have in there the same
variables that were available in the Threshold field in the Channel network algorithm. Enter the above
formula and click on OK to add the algorithm.

If you expand the outputs entry, as shown above, you will see that the model is connected to two of
the values, namely the mean and the standard deviation, which are the ones that we have used in the
formula.
Adding this new algorithm will add a new numeric value. If you go again to the Channel network
algorithm, you can now select that value in the Threshold parameter.

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Click on OK and your model should look like this.

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We are not using the numeric input that we added to the model, so it can be removed. Right–click on it
and select Remove

Warning: todo: Add image

Our new model is now finished.

18.20 A model within a model

Warning: Beware, this chapter is not well tested, please report any issue; images are missing

Note: In this lesson we will see how to use a model within a bigger model.

We have already created a few models, and in this lesson we are going to see how we can combine them
on a single bigger one. A model behaves like any other algorithm, which means that you can add a model
that you have already created as part of another one that you create after that.
In this case, we are going to expand our hydrological model, by adding the mean TWI value in each of
the basins that it generates as result. To do that, we need to calculate the TWI, and to compute the
statistics. Since we have already created a model to calculate TWI from a DEM, it is a good idea to
reuse that model instead of adding the algorithms it contains individually.
Let’s start with the model we used as starting point for the last lesson.

Warning: todo: Add image

First, we will add the TWI model. For it to be available, it should have been saved on the models folder,
since otherwise it will not be shown in the toolbox or the algorithms list in the modeler. Make sure you
have it available.
Add it to the current model and use the input DEM as its input. The output is a temporary one, since
we just want the TWI layer to compute the statistics. The only output of this model we are creating will
still be the vector layer with the watersheds.
Here is the corresponding parameters dialog:

Warning: todo: Add image

Now we have a TWI layer that we can use along with the watersheds vector layer, to generate a new one
which contains the values of the TWI corresponding to each watershed.
This calculation is done using the Grid statistics in polygons algorithm. Use the layers mentioned above
as input, to create the final result.

Warning: todo: Add image

The output of the Vectorize grid classes algorithm was originally our final output, but now we just want
it as an intermediate result. To change that, we have to edit the algorithm. Just double–click on it to
see its parameters dialog, and delete the name of the output. That will make it a temporary output, as
it is by default.

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Warning: todo: Add image

This is how the final model should look like:

Warning: todo: Add image

As you see, using a model in another model is nothing special, and you can add it just like you add
another algorithm, as long as the model is saved in the models folder and is available in the toolbox.

18.21 Using modeler-only tools for creating a model

Note: This lesson shows how to use some algorithms that are only available in the modeler, to provide
additional functionality to models.

The goal of this lesson is to use the modeler to create an interpolation algorithm that takes into account
the current selection, not just to use only selected features, but to use the extent of that selection to
create the interpolated raster layer.
The interpolation process involves two steps, as it has been already explained in previous lessons:
rasterizing the points layer and fill the no-data values that appear in the rasterized layer. In case the
points layer has a selection, only selected points will be used, but if the output extent is set to be
automatically adjusted, the full extent of the layer will be used. That is, the extent of the layer is always
considered to be the full extent of all features, not the one computed from just the selected ones. We will
try to fix that by using some additional tools into our model.
Open the modeler and start the model by adding the required inputs. In this case we need a vector layer
(restricted to points) and an attribute from it, with the values that we will use for rasterizing.

The next step is to compute the extent of the selected features. That’s where we can use the model-only
tool called Vector layer bounds. First, we will have to create a layer that has the extent of those selected

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features. Then, we can use this tool on that layer.

An easy way of creating a layer with the extent of the selected features is to compute a convex hull of
the input points layer. It will use only the selected point, so the convex hull will have the same bounding
box as the selection. Then we can add the Vector layer bounds algorithm, and use the convex hull layer
as input. It should look this in the modeler canvas:

The result from the Vector layer bounds is a set of four numeric values and a extent object. We will use
both the numeric outputs and the extent for this exercise.

We can now add the algorithm that rasterizes the vector layer, using the extent from the Vector layer
bounds algorithm as input.
Fill the parameters of the algorithm as shown next:

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The canvas should now look like.

Finally, fill the no-data values of the raster layer using the Close gaps algorithm.

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The algorithm is now ready to be saved and added to the toolbox. You can run it and it will generate
a raster layer from interpolating the selected points in the input layer, and the layer will have the same
extent as the selection.
Here’s an improvement to the algorithm. We have used a harcoded value for the cellsize when rasterizing.
This value is fine for our test input layer, but might not be for other cases. We could add a new parameter,
so the user enters the desired value, but a much better approach would be to have that value automatically
computed.
We can use the modeler-only calculator, and compute that value from the extent coordinates. For
instance, to create a layer with a fixed width of 100 pixels, we can use the following formula in the
calculator.

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Now we have to edit the rasterize algorithm, so it uses the output of the calculator instead of the
hardcoded value.
The final algorithm should look like this:

18.22 Interpolation

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Note: This chapter shows how to interpolate point data, and will show you another real example of
performing spatial analysis

In this lesson, we are going to interpolate points data to obtain a raster layer. Before doing it, we will
have to do some data preparation, and after interpolating we will add some extra processing to modify
the resulting layer, so we will have a complete analysis routine.
Open the example data for this lesson, which should look like this.

The data correspond to crop yield data, as produced by a modern harvester, and we will use it to get a
raster layer of crop yield. We do not plan to do any further analysis with that layer, but just to use it
as a background layer for easily identifying the most productive areas and also those where productivity
can be improved.
The first thing to do is to clean–up the layer, since it contains redundant points. These are caused by the
movement of the harvester, in places where it has to do a turn or it changes its speed for some reason.
The Points filter algorithm will be useful for this. We will use it twice, to remove points that can be
considered outliers both in the upper and lower part of the distribution.
For the first execution, use the following parameter values.

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Now for the next one, use the configuration shown below.

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Notice that we are not using the original layer as input, but the output of the previous run instead.
The final filter layer, with a reduced set of points, should look similar to the original one, but it contains
a smaller number of points. You can check that by comparing their attribute tables.
Now let’s rasterize the layer using the Rasterize algorithm.

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The Filtered points layer refers to the resulting one of the second filter. It has the same name as the one
produced by the first filter, since the name is assigned by the algorithm, but you should not use the first
one. Since we will not be using it for anything else, you can safely remove it from your project to avoid
confusion, and leave just the last filtered layer.
The resulting raster layer looks like this.

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It is already a raster layer, but it is missing data in some of its cells. It only contain valid values in those
cells that contained a point from the vector layer that we have just rasterized, and a no–data value in
all the other ones. To fill the missing values, we can use the Close gaps algorithm.

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The layer without no–data values looks like this.

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To restrict the area covered by the data to just the region where crop yield was measured, we can clip
the raster layer with the provided limits layer.

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And for a smoother result (less accurate but better for rendering in the background as a support layer),
we can apply a Gaussian filter to the layer.

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With the above parameters you will get the following result

18.23 More interpolation

Note: This chapter shows another practical case where interpolation algorithms are used.

Interpolation is a common technique, and it can be used to demonstrate several techniques that can be
applied using the QGIS processing framework. This lesson uses some interpolation algorithms that were
already introduced, but has a different approach.
The data for this lesson contains also a points layer, in this case with elevation data. We are going to
interpolate it much in the same way as we did in the previous lesson, but this time we will save part of
the original data to use it for assessing the quality of the interpolation process.
First, we have to rasterize the points layer and fill the resulting no–data cells, but using just a fraction
of the points in the layer. We will save 10% of the points for a later check, so we need to have 90% of
the points ready for the interpolation. To do so, we could use the Split shapes layer randomly algorithm,
which we have already used in a previous lesson, but there is a better way to do that, without having to
create any new intermediate layer. Instead of that, we can just select the points we want to use for the
interpolation (the 90% fraction), and then run the algorithm. As we have already seen, the rasterizing
algorithm will use only those selected points and ignore the rest. The selection can be done using the
Random selection algorithm. Run it with the following parameters.

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That will select 90% of the points in the layer to rasterize

The selection is random, so your selection might differ from the selection shown in the above image.

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Now run the Rasterize algorithm to get the first raster layer, and then run the Close gaps algorithm to
fill the no–data cells [Cell resolution: 100 m].

To check the quality of the interpolation, we can now use the points that are not selected. At this point,
we know the real elevation (the value in the points layer) and the interpolated elevation (the value in the
interpolated raster layer). We can compare the two by computing the differences between those values.
Since we are going to use the points that are not selected, first, let’s invert the selection.

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The points contain the original values, but not the interpolated ones. To add them in a new field, we
can use the Add raster values to points algorithm

The raster layer to select (the algorithm supports multiple raster, but we just need one) is the resulting

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one from the interpolation. We have renamed it to interpolate and that layer name is the one that will
be used for the name of the field to add.
Now we have a vector layer that contains both values, with points that were not used for the interpolation.

Now, we will use the fields calculator for this task. Open the Field calculator algorithm and run it with
the following parameters.

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If your field with the values from the raster layer has a different name, you should modify the above
formula accordingly. Running this algorithm, you will get a new layer with just the points that we haven’t
used for the interpolation, each of them containing the difference between the two elevation values.
Representing that layer according to that value will give us a first idea of where the largest discrepancies
are found.

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Interpolating that layer will get you a raster layer with the estimated error in all points of the interpolated
area.

You can also get the same information (difference between original point values and interpolated ones)

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directly with GRASS → v.sample.

Your results might differ from these ones, since there is a random component introduced when running
the random selection, at the beginning of this lesson.

18.24 Iterative execution of algorithms

Note: This lesson shows a different way of executing algorithms that use vector layers, by running them
repeatedly, iterating over the features in an input vector layer

We already know the graphical modeler, which is one way of automating processing tasks. However, in
some situations, the modeler might not be what we need to automate a given task. Let’s see one of those
situations and how to easily solve it using a different functionality: the iterative execution of algorithms.
Open the data corresponding to this chapter. It should look like this.

You will recognize our well-known DEM from previous chapters and a set of watersheds extracted from
it. Imagine that you need to cut the DEM into several smaller layers, each of them containing just the
elevation data corresponding to a single watershed. That will be useful if you later want to calculate
some parameters related to each watershed, such as its mean elevation or it hypsographic curve.
This can be a lengthy and tedious task, especially if the number of watersheds is large. However, it is a
task that can be easily automated, as we will see.
The algorithm to use for clipping a raster layer with a polygon layer is called Clip raster with polygons,
and has the following parameters dialog.

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You can run it using the watersheds layer and the DEM as input, and you will get the following result.

As you can see, the area covered by all the watershed polygons is used.
You can have the DEM clipped with just a single watershed by selecting the desired watershed and then

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running the algorithm as we did before.

Since only selected features are used, only the selected polygon will be used to crop the raster layer.

Doing this for all the watersheds will produce the result we are looking for, but it doesn’t look like a
very practical way of doing it. Instead, let’s see how to automate that select and crop routine.
First of all, remove the previous selection, so all polygons will be used again. Now open the Clip raster
with polygon algorithm and select the same inputs as before, but this time click on the button that you

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will find in the right–hand side of the vector layer input where you have selected the watersheds layer.

This button will cause the selected input layer to be split into as many layer as feature are found in
it, each of them containing a single polygon. With that, the algorithm will be called repeatedly, one for
each one of those single-polygon layers. The result, instead of just one raster layer in the case of this
algorithm, will be a set of raster layers, each one of them corresponding to one of the executions of the
algorithm.
Here’s the result that you will get if you run the clipping algorithm as explained.

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For each layer, the black and white color palette, (or whatever palette you are using), is adjusted
differently, from its minimum to its maximum values. That’s the reason why you can see the different
pieces and the colors do not seem to match in the border between layers. Values, however, do match.
If you enter an output filename, resulting files will be named using that filename and a number
corresponding to each iteration as suffix.

18.25 More iterative execution of algorithms

Note: This lesson shows how to combine the iterative execution of algorithms with the modeler to get
more automation.

The iterative execution of algorithms is available not just for built-in algorithms, but also for the
algorithms that you can create yourself, such as models. We are going to see how to combine a model
and the iterative execution of algorithms, so we can obtain more complex results with ease.
The data the we are going to use for this lesson is the same one that we already used for the last one. In
this case, instead of just clipping the DEM with each watershed polygon, we will add some extra steps
and calculate a hypsometric curve for each of them, to study how elevation is distributed within the
watershed.
Since we have a workflow that involves several steps (clipping + computing the hypsometric curve), we
should go to the modeler and create the corresponding model for that workflow.
You can find the model already created in the data folder for this lesson, but it would be good if you first
try to create it yourself. The clipped layer is not a final result in this case, since we are just interested in
the curves, so this model will not generated any layers, but just a table with the curve data.
The model should look like this:

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Add the model to you models folder, so it is available in the toolbox, and now execute it.

Select the DEM and watersheds basins, and do not forget to toggle the button that indicates that the
algorithm has to be run iteratively.
The algorithm will be run several times, and the corresponding tables will be created and open in your
QGIS project.

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We can make this example more complex by extending the model and computing some slope statistics.
Add the Slope, aspect, curvature algorithm to the model, and then the Raster statistics algorithm, which
should use the slope output as its only input.

If you now run the model, apart from the tables you will get a set of pages with statistics. These pages
will be available in the results dialog.

18.26 The batch processing interface

Note: This lesson introduces the batch processing interface, which allows to execute a single algorithm
with a set of different input values.

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Sometimes a given algorithm has to be executed repeteadly with different inputs. This is, for instance,
the case when a set of input files have to be converted from one format to another, or when several layers
in a given projection must be converted into another projection.
In that case, calling the algorithm repeatedly on the toolbox is not the best option. Instead, the batch
processing interface should be used, which greatly simplifies performing a multiple execution of a given
algorithm. To run an algorithm as a batch process, find it in the toolbox, and instead of double–clicking
on it, right–click on it and select Run as batch process.

For this example, we will use the Reproject algorithm, so find it and do as described above. You will get
to the following dialog.

If you have a look at the data for this lesson, you will see that it contains a set of three shapefiles, but
no QGIS project file. This is because, when an algorithm is run as a batch process, layer inputs can be
selected either from the current QGIS project or from files. That makes it easier to process large amounts
of layers, such as, for instance, all the layers in a given folder.
Each row in the table of the batch processing dialog represents a single execution of the algorithm. Cells
in a row correspond to the parameter needed by the algorithm, which are not arranged one above the
other, as in the normal single–execution dialog, but horizontally in that row.
Defining the batch process to run is one by filling the table with the corresponding values, and the dialog
itself contains several tools to make this task easier.
Let’s start filling the fields one by one. The first column to fill is the Input layer one. Instead of entering
the names of each one of the layers we want to process, you can select all of them and let the dialog
put one in each row. Click on the button in the upper-left cell, and in the file selection dialog that will

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popup, select the three files to reproject. Since only one of them is needed for each row, the remaining
ones will be used to fill the rows underneath.

The default number of rows is 3, which is exactly the number of layers we have to convert, but if you
select more layers, new rows will be added automatically. If you want to fill the entries manually, you
can add more rows using the Add row button.
We are going to convert all those layers to the EPSG:23029 CRS, so we have to select that CRS in the
second field. We want the same on for all rows, but we do not have to do it for every single row. Instead,
set that CRS for the first row (the one at the top) using the button in the corresponding cell, and then
double click on the column header. That causes all the cells in the column to be filled using the value of
the top cell.

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Finally, we have to select an output file for each execution, which will contain the corresponding
reprojected layer. Once again, let’s do it just for the first row. Click on the button in the upper cell
and, in a folder where you want to put your output files, enter a filename (for instance, reprojected.
shp).
Now, when you click OK on the file selection dialog, the file does not automatically gets written to the
cell, but an input box like the following one is shown instead.

If you select the first option, only the current cell will be filled. If you select any of the other ones, all the
rows below will be filled with a given pattern. In this case, we are going to select the Fill with parameter
value option, and then the Input Layer value in the drop down menu below. That will cause the value
in the Input Layer (that is, the layer name) to be added to the filename we have added, making each
output filename different. The batch processing table should now look like this.

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The last column sets whether or not to add the resulting layers to the current QGIS project. Leave the
default Yes option, so you can see your results in this case.
Click on OK and the batch process will be run. If everything went fine, all your layers will have been
processed, and 3 new layers would have been created.

18.27 Models in the batch processing interface

Warning: Beware, this chapter is not well tested, please report any issue; images are missing

Note: This lesson shows another example of the batch processing interface, but this time using a model
instead of a built-in algorithm

Models are just like any other algorithm, and they can be used in the batch processing interface. To
demonstrate that, here is a brief example that we can do using our already well-known hydrological
model.
Make sure you have the model added to your toolbox, and then run it in batch mode. This is what the
batch processing dialog should look like.

Warning: todo: Add image

Add rows up to a total of 5. Select the DEM file corresponding to this lesson as the input for all of them.
Then enter 5 different threshold values as shown next.

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Warning: todo: Add image

As you see the batch processing interface can be run not just to run the same process on different datasets
but also on the same dataset with different parameters.
Click on OK and you should get 5 new layers with watersheds corresponding to the specified 5 threshold
values.

18.28 Pre- and post-execution script hooks

Note: This lesson shows how to use pre- and post-execution hooks, which allow to perform additional
operations before and after actual processing.

Pre- and post-execution hooks are Processing scripts that run before and after actual data processing
is performed. This can be used to automate tasks that should be performed whenever an algorithm is
executed.
The syntax of the hooks is identical to the syntax of Processing scripts, see the corresponding chapter
in the QGIS User Guide for more details.
In addition to all scripts features, in hooks you can use a special global variable named alg, which
represents the algorithm that has just been (or is about to be) executed.
Here is an example post-execution script. By default, Processing stores analysis results in temporary
files. This script will copy outputs to a specific directory, so they won’t be deleted after closing QGIS.

import os
import shutil
from processing.core.outputs import OutputVector, OutputRaster, OutputFile

MY_DIRECTORY = '/home/alex/outputs'

for output in alg.outputs:

if isinstance(output, (OutputVector, OutputRaster, OutputFile)):
dirname = os.path.split(output.value)[0]
shutil.copytree(dirname, MY_DIRECTORY)

In the first two lines we import the required Python packages: os — for path manipulations, e.g. extracting
file name, and shutil — for various filesystem operations like copying files. In the third line we import
Processing outputs. This will be explained in more detail later in this lesson.
Then we define a MY_DIRECTORY constant, which is the path to the directory where we want to copy
analysis results.
At the end of the script, we have the main hook code. In the loop we iterate over all algorithm outputs
and check if this output is a file-based output and can be copied. If so, we determine top-level directory
in which output files are located and then copy all files to our directory.
To activate this hook we neeed to open the Processing options, find the entry named Post-execution
script file in the General group, and specify the filename of the hook script there. the specified hook will
be executed after each Processing algorithm.
In a similar way, we can implement pre-execution hooks. For example, let’s create a hook to check input
vectors for geometry errors.

from qgis.core import QgsGeometry, QgsFeatureRequest

from processing.core.parameters import ParameterVector

for param in alg.parameters:

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if isinstance(param, ParameterVector):
layer = processing.getObject(param.value)
for f in layer.getFeatures(QgsFeatureRequest().setSubsetOfAttributes([])):
errors = f.geometry().validateGeometry()
if len(errors) > 0:
progress.setInfo('One of the input vectors contains invalid geometries!')

As in the previous example, first we import required QGIS and Processing packages.
Then we iterate over all the algorithm parameters and if a ParameterVector parameter is found, we get
the corresponding vector layer object from it. We loop over all the features of the layer and check them
for geometry errors. If at least one feature contains an invalid geometry, we print a warning message.
To activate this hook we need enter its filename in the Pre-execution script file option in the Processing
configuration dialog. The hook will be executed before running any Processing algorithm.

18.29 Other programs

Module contributed by Paolo Cavallini - Faunalia

Note: This chapter shows how to use additional programs from inside Processing. To complete it, you
must have installed, with the tools of your operating system, the relevant packages.

18.29.1 GRASS

GRASS is a free and open source GIS software suite for geospatial data management and analysis, image
processing, graphics and maps production, spatial modeling, and visualization.
It is installed by default on Windows through the OSGeo4W standalone installer (32 and 64 bit), and it
is packaged for all major Linux distributions.

18.29.2 R

R is a free and open source software environment for statistical computing and graphics.
It has to be installed separately, together with a few necessary libraries (LIST).
The beauty of Processing implementation is that you can add your own scripts, simple or complex ones,
and they may then be used as any other module, piped into more complex workflows, etc.
Test some of the preinstalled examples, if you have R already installed (remember to activate R modules
from the General configuration of Processing).

18.29.3 Други

LASTools is a set of mixed, free and proprietary commands to process and analyze LiDAR data.
Availability in various operating system varies.
More tools are available through additional plugins, e.g.:
ˆ LecoS: a suite for land cover statistics and landscape ecology
ˆ lwgeom: formerly part of PostGIS, this library brings a few useful tools for geometry cleanup
ˆ Animove: tools to analyse the home range of animals.
More will come.

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18.29.4 Comparison among backends

Buffers and distances

Let’s load points.shp and type buf in the filter of the Toolbox, then double click on:
ˆ Fixed distance buffer : Distance 10000
ˆ Variable distance buffer : Distance field SIZE
ˆ v.buffer.distance : distance 10000
ˆ v.buffer.column : bufcolumn SIZE
ˆ Shapes Buffer : fixed value 10000 (dissolve and not), attribute field (with scaling)
See how speed is quite different, and different options are available.
Exercise for the reader: find the differences in geometry output between different methods.
Now, raster buffers and distances:
ˆ first, load and rasterize the vector rivers.shp with GRASS → v.to.rast.value ; beware: cell size
must be set to 100 m, otherwise the computation time will be enormous; resulting map will have
1 and NULLs
ˆ same, with SAGA → Shapes to Grid → COUNT (resulting map: 6 to 60)
ˆ then, proximity (value= 1 for GRASS, a list of rivers ID for SAGA), r.buffer with parameters
1000,2000,3000, r.grow.distance (the first of the two maps; the second will show the areas pertaining
to each river, if done on the SAGA raster).

Разлагане
Dissolve features based on a common attribute:
ˆ GRASS → v.dissolve municipalities.shp on PROVINCIA
ˆ QGIS → Dissolve municipalities.shp on PROVINCIA
ˆ OGR → Dissolve municipalities.shp on PROVINCIA
ˆ SAGA → Polygon Dissolve municipalities.shp on PROVINCIA (NB: Keep inner boundaries
must be unselected)

Note: The last one is broken in SAGA <=2.10

Exercise for the reader: find the differences (geometry and attributes) between different methods.

18.30 Interpolation and contouring

Module contributed by Paolo Cavallini - Faunalia

Note: This chapter shows how to use different backends to calculate different interpolations.

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18.30.1 Interpolation

The project shows a gradient in rainfall, from south to north. Let’s use different methods for interpolation,
all based on vector points.shp, parameter RAIN:

Warning: Set cell size to 500 for all analyses.

ˆ GRASS → v.surf.rst
ˆ SAGA → Multilevel B-Spline Interpolation
ˆ SAGA → Inverse Distance Weighted [Inverse distance to a power; Power: 4; Search radius: Global;
Search range: all points]
ˆ GDAL → Grid (Inverse Distance to a power) [Power:4]
ˆ GDAL → Grid (Moving average) [Radius1&2: 50000]
Then measure variation among methods and correlate it with distance to points:
ˆ GRASS → r.series [Unselect Propagate NULLs, Aggregate operation: stddev]
ˆ GRASS → v.to.rast.value on points.shp
ˆ GDAL → Proximity
ˆ GRASS → r.covar to show the correlation matrix; check the significance of the correlation e.g.
with http://vassarstats.net/rsig.html.
Thus, areas far from points will have less accurate interpolation.

18.30.2 Изолинии

Various methods to draw contour lines [always step= 10] on the stddev raster:
ˆ GRASS → r.contour.step
ˆ GDAL → Contour
ˆ SAGA → Contour lines from grid [NB: in some older SAGA versions, output shp is not valid,
known bug]

18.31 Vector simplification and smoothing

Module contributed by Paolo Cavallini - Faunalia

Note: This chapter shows how simplify vectors, and smooth out sharp corners.

Sometimes we need a simplified version of a vector, to have a smaller file size and get rid of unnecessary
details. Many tools do this in a very rough way, and miss the adjacency and sometimes the topological
correctness of polygons. GRASS is the ideal tool for this: being a topological GIS, adjacency and
correctness are preserved even at very high simplification levels. In our case, we have a vector resulting
from a raster, thus showing a „saw“ pattern at borders. Applying a simplification results in straight lines:
ˆ GRASS → v.generalize [Maximal tolerance value: 30 m]
We can also do the reverse, and make a layer more complex, smoothing out sharp corners:
ˆ GRASS → v.generalize [method: chaiken]

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Try to apply this second command both to original vector and to the one from the first analysis, and see
the difference. Note that adjacency is not lost.
This second option can be applied e.g. to contour lines resulting from a coarse raster, to GPS tracks with
sparse vertices, etc.

18.32 Planning a solar farm

Module contributed by Paolo Cavallini - Faunalia

Note: This chapter shows how to use several criteria to locate the areas suitable for installing a
photovoltaic power station

First of all, create an aspect map from DTM:

ˆ GRASS → r.aspect [Data type: int; cell size:100]
In GRASS, aspect is calculated in degrees, counterclockwise starting from East. To extract only South
facing slopes (270 degrees +- 45), we can reclassify it:
ˆ GRASS → r.reclass
with the following rules:

225 thru 315 = 1 south

* = NULL

You can use the text file reclass_south.txt provided. Note that with these simple text files we can
create also very complex reclassifications.
We want to build a large farm, so we select only large (> 100 ha) contiguous areas:
ˆ GRASS → r.reclass.greater
Finally, we convert to a vector:
ˆ GRASS → r.to.vect [Feature type: area; Smooth corners: yes]
Exercise for the reader: repeat the analysis, replacing GRASS commands with analogous from other
programs.

18.33 Use R scripts in Processing

Module contributed by Matteo Ghetta - funded by Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
Processing allows to write and run R scripts inside QGIS.

Warning: R has to be installed on your computer and the PATH has to correctly set up. Moreover
Processing just calls the external R packages, it is not able to install them. So be sure to install
external packages directly in R. See the related chapter in the user manual.

Note: If you have some packages problem, maybe it is related to missing mandatory packages required
by Processing, like sp, rgdal and raster.

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18.33.1 Adding scripts

Adding a script is very simple. Open the Processing toolbox and just click on the R → Tools → Create
new R script.

Note: If you cannot see R in Processing, you have to activate it in Processing → Options → Providers

It opens a script editor window in which you have to specify some parameters before you can add the
script body.

18.33.2 Creating plots

In this tutorial we are going to create a boxplot of a vector layer field.

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Open the r_intro.qgs QGIS project under the exercise_data/processing/r_intro/ folder.

Script parameters
Open the editor and start writing at the beginning of it.
You must specify some parameters before the script body:
1. the name of the group in which you want to put your script:

##plots=group

so you will find your script in the plots group in the Processing toolbox.
2. you have to tell Processing that you want to display a plot (just in this example):

##showplots

this way in the Result Viewer of Processing you’ll see the plot.
3. You need also to tell Processing with which kind of data you are working with. In this example we
want to create a plot from a field of a vector layer:

##Layer=vector

Processing knows now that the input is a vector. The name Layer is not important, what matters
is the vector parameter.
4. Finally, you have to specify the input field of the vector layer you want to plot:

##X=Field Layer

So Processing knows that you have called X the Field Layer.

Script body
Now that you have set up the heading of the script you can add the function:

boxplot(Layer[[X]])

Notice that boxplot is the name of the R function itself that calls Layer as dataset and X as the field
of the dataset.

Warning: The parameter X is within a double square bracket [[]]

The final script looks like this:

##Vector processing=group
##showplots
##Layer=vector
##X=Field Layer
boxplot(Layer[[X]])

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Save the script in the default path suggested by Processing. The name you choose will be the same as
the name of the script you’ll find in the Processing toolbox.

Note: You can save the script in other paths, but Processing isn’t able to upload them automatically
and you have to upload all the scripts manually

Now just run it using the button on the top of the editor window:

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Otherwise, once the editor window has been closed, use the text box of Processing to find your script:

You are now able to fill the parameters required in the Processing algorithm window:
ˆ as Layer choose the sample points one
ˆ fill the X field with the value parameter
Click on Run.

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The Result window should be automatically opened, if not, just click on Processing → Result
Viewer. . . .
This is the final result you’ll see:

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Note: You can open, copy and save the image by right clicking on the plot

18.33.3 Create a vector

With an R script you can also create a vector and automatically load it in QGIS.
The following example has been taken from the Random sampling grid script that you can download
from the online collection R → Tools → Download R scripts from the on-line collection.
The aim of this exercise is to create a random point vector in a layer extent using the spsample function
of the sp package.

Script parameters
As before we have to set some parameters before the script body:
1. specify the name of the group in which you want to put your script, for example Point pattern
analysis :
##Point pattern analysis=group

2. set the layer that will contain the random points:

##Layer=vector

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3. set the number of points that are going to be created:

##Size=number 10

Note: 10 is going to be the default value. You can change this number or you can leave the
parameter without a default number

4. specify that the output is a vector layer:

##Output= output vector

Script body
Now you can add the body of the function:
1. run the spsample function:

pts=spsample(Layer,Size,type="random")

this way the function takes the extent of the Layer, the number of points is taken from the Size
parameter and the point generation is random
2. Write the line that contains the parameters of the output:

Output=SpatialPointsDataFrame(pts, as.data.frame(pts))

The final script looks like this:

##Point pattern analysis=group

##Layer=vector
##Size=number 10
##Output= output vector
pts=spsample(Layer,Size,type="random")
Output=SpatialPointsDataFrame(pts, as.data.frame(pts))

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Save it and run it, clicking on the running button.

In the new window type in the right parameters:

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and click on run.

Resulting points will be displayed in the map canvas

18.33.4 R - Processing syntax

Beware that Processing uses some special syntax to get the results out of R:

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ˆ > before your command, as in >lillie.test(Layer[[Field]]) means the result should be sent
to R output (Result viewer)
ˆ + after a plot to call overlay plots. For example plot(Layer[[X]], Layer[[Y]]) +
abline(h=mean(Layer[[X]]))

18.34 R Syntax in Processing scripts

Module contributed by Matteo Ghetta - funded by Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
Writing R scripts in Processing could be quite tricky because of the syntax that has to be adopted.
Each script starts with the Input and Output preceded with ##.

18.34.1 Inputs

Before you specify teh inputs you can also set the algorithm group in which your script will be put. If the
group already exists, the algorithm will be added to the other, else a new group will be automatically
created:
1. group creation, ##My Group=group
Then you have to specify all the input types and eventually the additional parameters. You can have
different inputs:
1. vector, ##Layer = vector
2. vector Field, ##F = Field Layer (where Layer is the name of the input Layer)
3. raster, ##r = raster
4. table, ##t = table
5. number, ##Num = number
6. string, ##Str = string
7. boolean, ##Bol = boolean
you can also have a dropdown menu with all the parameters you want; the items must be separated with
semicolons ;:
8. ##type=selection point;lines;point+lines

18.34.2 Outputs

As for the inputs, each output has to be defined at the beginning of the script:
1. vector, ##output= output vector
2. raster, ##output= output raster
3. table, ##output= output table
4. plots, ##showplots
5. R output in the Result Viewer, just put inside the script > before the output you want to display

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18.34.3 Script body

The script body follows an R style syntax and the Log panel can help you if something went wrong with
your script.
Remember that in the script you have to load all the additional libraries:
library(sp)

Example with vector output

Let’s take an algorithm from the online collection that creates random points from the extent of an input
layer:

##Point pattern analysis=group

##Layer=vector
##Size=number 10
##Output= output vector
library(sp)
pts=spsample(Layer,Size,type="random")
Output=SpatialPointsDataFrame(pts, as.data.frame(pts))

and get through the lines:

1. Point pattern analysis is the group of the algorithm
2. Layer is the input vector layer
3. Size is the numerical parameter with a default value of 10
4. Output is the vector layer that will be created by the algorithm
5. library(sp) loads the sp library (that should be already installed in your computer and that
installation has to be made in R)
6. call the spsample function of the sp library and pass it to all the input defined above
7. create the output vector with the SpatialPointsDataFrame function
That’s it! Just run the algorithm with a vector layer you have in the QGIS Legend, choose a number of
the random point and you will get them in the QGIS Map Canvas.

Example with raster output

The following script will perform a basic ordinary kriging and will create a raster map of the interpolated
values:

##Basic statistics=group
##Layer=vector
##Field=Field Layer
##Output=output raster
require("automap")
require("sp")
require("raster")
table=as.data.frame(Layer)
coordinates(table)= ~coords.x1+coords.x2
c = Layer[[Field]]
kriging_result = autoKrige(c~1, table)
prediction = raster(kriging_result$krige_output)
Output<-prediction

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from a vector and its field in input the algorithm will use the autoKrige function of the automap R
package and it will first calculate the kriging model and then create a raster.
The raster is created with the raster function of the raster R package.

Example with table output

Let’s edit the Summary Statistics algorithm so that the output is a table file (csv).
The script body is the following:

##Basic statistics=group
##Layer=vector
##Field=Field Layer
##Stat=Output table
Summary_statistics<-data.frame(rbind(
sum(Layer[[Field]]),
length(Layer[[Field]]),
length(unique(Layer[[Field]])),
min(Layer[[Field]]),
max(Layer[[Field]]),
max(Layer[[Field]])-min(Layer[[Field]]),
mean(Layer[[Field]]),
median(Layer[[Field]]),
sd(Layer[[Field]])),row.names=c("Sum:","Count:","Unique values:","Minimum value:","Maximum␣
˓→value:","Range:","Mean value:","Median value:","Standard deviation:"))

colnames(Summary_statistics)<-c(Field)
Stat<-Summary_statistics

The third line specifies the Vector Field in input and the fourth line tells the algorithm that the output
should be a table.
The last line will take the Stat object created in the script and convert it into a csv table.

Example with console output

We can take the previous example and instead of creating a table, print the result in the Result Viewer:

##Basic statistics=group
##Layer=vector
##Field=Field Layer
Summary_statistics<-data.frame(rbind(
sum(Layer[[Field]]),
length(Layer[[Field]]),
length(unique(Layer[[Field]])),
min(Layer[[Field]]),
max(Layer[[Field]]),
max(Layer[[Field]])-min(Layer[[Field]]),
mean(Layer[[Field]]),
median(Layer[[Field]]),
sd(Layer[[Field]])),row.names=c("Sum:","Count:","Unique values:","Minimum value:","Maximum␣
˓→value:","Range:","Mean value:","Median value:","Standard deviation:"))

colnames(Summary_statistics)<-c(Field)
>Summary_statistics

The script is exactly the same of above with just 2 edits:

1. no more output specified (the fourth line has been removed)
2. the last line begins with > that tells Processing to print the object in the result viewer

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Example with plot

Creating plots is very simple. You have to use the ##showplots parameter as the following script shows:

##Basic statistics=group
##Layer=vector
##Field=Field Layer
##showplots
qqnorm(Layer[[Field]])
qqline(Layer[[Field]])

the script takes a field of the vector layer in input and creates a QQ Plot to test the normality of the
distribution.
The plot is automatically added to the Result Viewer of Processing.

18.35 R Syntax Summary table for Processing

Module contributed by Matteo Ghetta - funded by Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
Processing allows a lot of different input and output parameter that can be used in the script body. Here
a summary table:

18.35.1 Input parameters

Parameter Syntax example Returning objects

vector Layer = vector SpatialDataFrame object, default object of rgdal package
vector point Layer = vector point SpatialPointDataFrame object, default object of rgdal
package
vector line Layer = vector line SpatialLineDataFrame object, default object of rgdal
package
vector Layer = vector polygon SpatialPolygonsDataFrame object, default object of rgdal
polygon package
multiple Layer = multiple vector SpatialDataFrame objects, default object of rgdal package
vector
table Layer = table dataframe conversion from csv, default object of read.csv
function
field Field = Field Layer name of the Field selected, e.g. "Area"
raster Layer = raster RasterBrick object, default object of raster package
multiple Layer = multiple raster RasterBrick objects, default object of raster package
raster
number N = number integer or floating number chosen
string S = string string added in the box
longstring LS = longstring string added in the box, could be longer then the normal
string
selection S = selection string of the selected item chosen in the dropdown menu
first;second;third
crs C = crs string of the resulting CRS chosen, in the format:
"EPSG:4326"
extent E = extent Extent object of the raster package, you can extract
values as E@xmin
point P = point when clicked on the map, you have the coordinates of the
point
file F = file path of the file chosen, e.g. „/home/matteo/file.txt“
folder F = folder path of the folder chosen, e.g. „/home/matteo/Downloads“

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Any of the input could be also OPTIONAL, that means that you have a handy way to tell the script
to ignore this parameter.
In order to set an input as optional, you just have to add the string optional before the input, e.g:

##Layer = vector
##Field1 = Field Layer
##Field2 = optional Field Layer

18.35.2 Output parameters

Output parameters take the Input names you gave at the beginning of the script and write the object
you want.

Parameter Syntax example

vector Output = output vector
raster Output = output raster
table Output = output table
file Output = output file

Note: for the plot input type, you can save the plot as png directly from the Processing Result Viewer
or you can choose to save the plot directly from the algorithm interface.

18.35.3 Examples

In order to better understand all the input and output parameters, please have a look at the R Syntax
chapter .

18.36 Predicting landslides

Module contributed by Paolo Cavallini - Faunalia

Note: This chapter shows how to create an oversimplified model to predict the probability of landslides.

First, we calculate slope (choose among various backends; the interested reader can calculate the
difference between the outputs):
ˆ GRASS → r.slope
ˆ SAGA → Slope, Aspect, Curvature
ˆ GDAL Slope
Then we create a model of predicted rainfall, based on the interpolation of rainfall values at meteo
stations:
ˆ GRASS → v.surf.rst (resolution: 500 m)
The probability of a landslide will be very roughly related to both rainfall and slope (of course a real
model will use more layers, and appropriate parameters), let’s say (rainfall * slope )/100:
ˆ SAGA → Raster calculator rain, slope: (a*b)/100 (or: GRASS → r.mapcalc )
ˆ then let’s calculate what are the municipalities with the greatest predicted risk of rainfall: SAGA
→ Raster statistics with polygons (the parameters of interest are Maximum and Mean )

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Module: Using Spatial Databases in QGIS

In this module you will learn about how to use Spatial Databases with QGIS to manage, display and
manipulate data in the database as well as performing analysis by querying. We will primarily use
PostgreSQL and PostGIS (which were covered in previous sections), but the same concepts are applicable
to other spatial database implementations including spatialite.

19.1 Lesson: Working with Databases in the QGIS Browser

In the previous 2 modules we looked at the basic concepts, features and functions of relational databases
as well as extensions that let us store, manage, query and manipulate spatial data in a relational database.
This section will dive deeper into how to effectively use spatial databases in QGIS.
The goal for this lesson: To learn how to interact with spatial databases using the QGIS Browser
interface.

19.1.1 Follow Along: Adding Database Tables to QGIS using the Browser

We have already briefly looked at how to add tables from a database as QGIS layers, now lets look at
this in a bit more detail and look at the different ways this can be done in QGIS. Lets start by looking
at the new Browser interface.
ˆ Start a new empty map in QGIS.
ˆ Open the Browser by clicking the Browser tab at the bottom of the Layer Panel
ˆ Open the PostGIS portion of the tree and you should find your previously configured connection
available (you may need to click the Refresh button at the top of the browser window).

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ˆ Double clicking on any of the table/layers listed here will add it to the Map Canvas.
ˆ Right Clicking on a table/layer in this view will give you a few options. Click on the Properties
item to look at the properties of the layer.

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Note: Of course you can also use this interface to connect to PostGIS databases hosted on a server
external to your workstation. Right clicking on the PostGIS entry in the tree will allow you to specify
connection paramaters for a new connection.

19.1.2 Follow Along: Adding a filtered set of records as a Layer

Now that we have seen how to add an entire table as a QGIS layer it might be nice to learn how to add a
filtered set of records from a table as a layer by using queries that we learned about in previous sections.
ˆ Start a new empty map with no layers
ˆ Click the Add PostGIS Layers button or select Layer → Add PostGIS Layers from the menu.
ˆ In the Add PostGIS Table(s) dialog that comes up, connect to the postgis_demo connection.
ˆ Expand the public schema and you should find the three tables we were working with previously.
ˆ Click the lines layer to select it, but instead of adding it, click the Set Filter button to bring up
the Query Builder dialog.
ˆ Construct the following expression using the buttons or by entering it directly:

"roadtype" = 'major'

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ˆ Click OK to complete editing the filter and click Add to add the filtered layer to your map.
ˆ Rename the lines layer in the tree to roads_primary.
You will notice that only the Primary Roads have been added to your map rather than the entire layer.

19.1.3 In Conclusion

You have seen how to interact with spatial databases using the QGIS Browser and how to add layers to
your map based on a query filter.

19.1.4 What’s Next?

Next you’ll see how to work with the DB Manager interface in QGIS for a more complete set of database
management tasks.

19.2 Lesson: Using DB Manager to work with Spatial Databases

in QGIS
We have already seen how to perform many database operations with QGIS as well as with other tools,
but now it’s time to look at the DB Manager tool which provides much of this same functionality as well
as more management oriented tools.
The goal for this lesson: To learn how to interact with spatial databases using the QGIS DB Manager.

19.2.1 Follow Along: Managing PostGIS Databases with DB Manager

You should first open the DB Manager interface by selecting Database –> DB Manager –> DB Manager
on the menu or by selecting the DB Manager icon on the toolbar.

You should already see the previous connections we have configured and be able to expand the myPG
section and its public schema to see the tables we have worked with in previous sections.
The first thing you may notice is that you can now see some metadata about the Schemas contained in
your database.

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Schemas are a way of grouping data tables and other objects in a PostgreSQL database and a container
for permissions and other constraints. Managing PostgreSQL schemas is beyond the scope of this manual,
but you can find more information about them in the PostgreSQL documentation on Schemas. You can
use the DB Manager to create new Schemas, but will need to use a tool like pgAdmin III or the command
line interface to manage them effectively.
DB Manager can also be used to manage the tables within your database. We have already looked at
various ways to create and manage tables on the command line, but now lets look at how to do this in
DB Manager.
First, its useful to just look at a table’s metadata by clicking on its name in tree and looking in the Info
tab.

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In this panel you can see the General Info about the table as well the information that the PostGIS
extension maintains about the geometry and spatial reference system.
If you scroll down in the Info tab, you can see more information about the Fields, Constraints and
Indexes for the table you are viewing.

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Its also very useful to use DB Manager to simply look at the records in the database in much the same
way you might do this by viewing the attribute table of a layer in the Layer Tree. You can browse the
data by selecting the Table tab.

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There is also a Preview tab which will show you the layer data in a map preview.
Right-clicking on a layer in the tree and clicking Add to Canvas will add this layer to your map.
So far we have only been viewing the database its schemas and tables and their metadata, but what if
we wanted to alter the table to add an additional column perhaps? DB Manager allows you to do this
directly.
ˆ Select the table you want to edit in the tree
ˆ Select Table → Edit Table from the menu to open the Table Properties dialog.

You can use this dialog to Add Columns, Add geometry columns, edit existing columns or to remove a
column completely.
Using the Constraints tab, you can manage which fields are used as the primary key or to drop existing
constraints.

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The Indexes tab can be used to add and delete both spatial and normal indexes.

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19.2.2 Follow Along: Creating a New Table

Now that we have gone through the process of working with existing tables in our database, let’s use DB
Manager to create a new table.
ˆ If it is not already open, open the DB Manager window, and expand the tree until you see the list
of tables already in your databse.
ˆ From the menu select Table –> Create Table to bring up the Create Table dialog.
ˆ Use the default Public schema and name the table places.
ˆ Add the id, place_name, and elevation fields as shown below
ˆ Make sure the id field is set as the primary key.
ˆ Click the checkbox to Create geometry column and make sure it is set to a POINT type and leave it
named geom and specify 4326 as the SRID.
ˆ Click the checkbox to Create spatial index and click Create to create the table.

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ˆ Dismiss the dialog letting you know that the table was created and click Close to close the Create
Table Dialog.
You can now inspect your table in the DB Manager and you will of course find that there is no data in
it. From here you can Toggle Editing on the layer menu and begin to add places to your table.

19.2.3 Follow Along: Basic Database Administration

The DB Manager will also let you do some basic Database Administration tasks. It is certainly not a
substitute for a more complete Database Administration tool, but it does provide some functionality
that you can use to maintain your database.
Database tables can often become quite large and tables which are being modified frequently can end up
leaving around remnants of records that are no longer needed by PostgreSQL. The VACUUM command
takes care of doing a kind of garbage collection to compact and optional analyze your tables for better
performance.
Lets take a look at how we can perform a VACUUM ANALYZE command from within DB Manager.
ˆ Select one of your tables in the DB Manager Tree.
ˆ Select Table → Run Vacuum Analyze from the menu.
Thats it! PostgreSQL will perform the operation. Depending on how big your table is, this may take
some time to complete.

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You can find more information about the VACUUM ANALYZE process in the PostgreSQL
Documentation on VACUUM ANALYZE.

19.2.4 Follow Along: Executing SQL Queries with DB Manager

DB Manager also provides a way for you to write queries against your database tables and to view the
results. We have already seen this type of functionality in the Browser panel, but lets look at it again
here with DB Manager.
ˆ Select the lines table in the tree.
ˆ Select the SQL window button in the DB Manager toolbar.

ˆ Compose the following SQL query in the space provided:

select * from lines where roadtype = 'major';

ˆ Click the Execute (F5) button to run the query.

ˆ You should now see the records that match in the Result panel.

ˆ Click the checkbox for Load as new layer to add the results to your map.
ˆ Select the id column as the Column with unique integer values and the geom column as the
Geometry column.
ˆ Enter roads_primary as the Layer name (prefix).

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ˆ Click Load now! to load the results as a new layer into your map.

The layers that matched your query are now displayed on your map. You can of course use this query tool
to execute any arbitrary SQL command including many of the ones we looked at in previous modules
and sections.

19.2.5 Importing Data into a Database with DB Manager

We have already looked at how to import data into a spatial database using command line tools, so now
let’s learn how to use DB Manager to do imports.
ˆ Click the Import layer/file button on the toolbar in the DB Manager dialog.

ˆ Select the urban_33S.shp file from exercise_data/projected_data as the input dataset.

ˆ Click the Update Options button to pre-fill some of the form values.
ˆ Make sure that the Create new table option is selected
ˆ Specify the Source SRID as 32722 and the Target SRID as 4326.
ˆ Enable the checkbox to Create Spatial Index
ˆ Click OK to perform the import.

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ˆ Dismiss the dialog letting you know that the import was successful
ˆ Click the Refresh button on the DB Manager Toolbar.
You can now inspect the table in your database by clicking on it in the Tree. Verify that the data has
been reprojected by checking that the Spatial ref: is listed as WGS 84 (4326)

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Right clicking on the table in the Tree and a selecting Add to Canvas will add the table as a layer in
your map.

19.2.6 Exporting Data from a Database with DB Manager

Of course DB Manager can also be used to export data from your spatial databases, so lets take a look
at how that is done.
ˆ Select the lines layer in the Tree and click the Export to File button on the toolbar to open the
Export to vector file dialog.
ˆ Click the . . . button to select the Output file and save the data to your exercise_data directory
as urban_4326.
ˆ Set the Target SRID as 4326.
ˆ Click OK to initialize the export.

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ˆ Dismiss the dialog letting you know the export was successful and close the DB Manager.
You can now inspect the shapefile you created with the Browser panel.

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19.2.7 In Conclusion

You have now seen how to use the DB Manager interface in QGIS to Manage your spatial databases, to
execute sql queries against your data and how to import and export data.

19.2.8 What’s Next?

Next, we will look at how to use many of these same techniques with spatialite databases.

19.3 Lesson: Working with spatialite databases in QGIS

While PostGIS is generally used on a server to provide spatial database capabilities to multiple users at
the same time, QGIS also supports the use of a file format called spatialite that is a lightweight, portable
way to store an entire spatial database in a single file. Obviously, these 2 types of spatial databases
should be used for different purposes, but the same basic principles and techniques apply to both. Let’s
create a new spatialite database and explore the functionality provided to work with these databases in
QGIS.
The goal for this lesson: To learn how to interact with spatialite databases using the QGIS Browser
interface.

19.3.1 Follow Along: Creating a Spatialite database with the Browser

Using the Browser panel, we can create a new spatialite database and get it setup for use in QGIS.
ˆ Right click on the Spatialite entry in the Browser tree and select Create Database.
ˆ Specify where on your filesystem you want to store the file and name it qgis-sl.db.
ˆ Again right click on the Spatialite entry in the Browser tree and now select the New Connection
item. Find the file you created in the last step and open it.
Now that you have configured your new database you will find that the entry in Browser tree has nothing
underneath it and the only thing you can do at this point is to delete the connection. This is of course
because we haven’t added any tables to this database. Let’s go ahead and do that.
ˆ Find the button to create a new layer and use the dropdown to create a new new Spatialite layer,
or select Layer → New → New Spatialite Layer.

ˆ Select the database we created in the previous steps in the drop down.
ˆ Give the layer the name places.
ˆ Tick the checkbox next to Create an auto-incrementing primary key.
ˆ Add 2 attributes as shown in below
ˆ Click OK to create the table.

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ˆ Click the refresh button at the top of the Browser and you should now see your places table listed.

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You can right click on the table and view its properties as we did in the previous exercise.
From here you can start an editing session and start adding data to your new database directly.
We also learned about how to import data into a database using the DB Manager and you can use this
same technique to import data into your new spatialite DB.

19.3.2 In Conclusion

You have seen how to create spatialite databases and add tables to them and to use these tables as layers
in QGIS.

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Appendix: Contributing To This Manual

To add materials to this course, you must follow the guidelines in this Appendix. You are not to alter the
conditions in this Appendix except for clarification. This is to ensure that the quality and consistency of
this manual can be maintained.

20.1 Downloading Resources

The source of this document is available at GitHub. Consult GitHub.com for instructions on how to use
the git version control system.

20.2 Manual Format

This manual is written using Sphinx, a Python document generator using the reStructuredText markup
language. Instructions on how to use these tools are available on their respective sites.

20.3 Adding a Module

ˆ To add a new module, first create a new directory (directly under the top-level of the
qgis-training-manual directory) with the name of the new module.
ˆ Under this new directory, create a file called index.rst. Leave this file blank for now.
ˆ Open the index.rst file under the top-level directory. Its first lines are:

.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 2

foreword/index
introduction/index

You will note that this is a list of directory names, followed by the name index. This directs the top-level
index file to the index files in each directory. The order in which they are listed determines the order
they will have in the document.

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ˆ Add the name of your new module (i.e., the name you gave the new directory), followed by /index,
to this list, wherever you want your module to appear.
ˆ Remember to keep the order of the modules logical, such that later modules build on the knowledge
presented in earlier modules.
ˆ Open your new module’s own index file ([module name]/index.rst).
ˆ Along the top of the page, write a line of 80 asterisks (*). This represents a module heading.
ˆ Follow this with a line containing the markup phrase |MOD| (which stands for „module“), followed
by the name of your module.
ˆ End this off with another line of 80 asterisks.
ˆ Leave a line open beneath this.
ˆ Write a short paragraph explaining the purpose and content of the module.
ˆ Leave one line open, then add the following text:

.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 2

lesson1
lesson2

. . . where lesson1, lesson2, etc., are the names of your planned lessons.
The module-level index file will look like this:

*******************************************************************************
|MOD| Module Name
*******************************************************************************

Short paragraph describing the module.

.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 2

lesson1
lesson2

20.4 Adding a Lesson

To add a lesson to a new or existing module:
ˆ Open the module directory.
ˆ Open the index.rst file (created above in the case of new modules).
ˆ Ensure that the name of the planned lesson is listed underneath the toctree directive, as shown
above.
ˆ Create a new file under the module directory.
ˆ Name this file exactly the same as the name you provided in the module’s index.rst file, and add
the extension .rst.

Note: For editing purposes, a .rst file works exactly like a normal text file (.txt).

ˆ To begin writing the lesson, write the markup phrase |LS|, followed by the lesson name.

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ˆ In the next line, write a line of 80 equal signs (=).

ˆ Leave a line open after this.
ˆ Write a short description of the lesson’s intended purpose.
ˆ Include a general introduction to the subject matter. See the existing lessons in this manual for
examples.
ˆ Beneath this, start a new paragraph, beginning with this phrase:

**The goal for this lesson:**

ˆ Briefly explain the intended outcome of completing this lesson.

ˆ If you can’t describe the goal of the lesson in one or two sentences, consider breaking the subject
matter up into multiple lessons.
Each lesson will be subdivided into multiple sections, which will be addressed next.

20.5 Adding a Section

There are two types of sections: „follow along“ and „try yourself“.
ˆ A „follow along“ section is a detailed set of directions intended to teach the reader how to use a
given aspect of QGIS. This is typically done by giving click-by-click directions as clearly as possible,
interspersed with screenshots.
ˆ A „try yourself“ section gives the reader a short assignment to try by themselves. It is usually
associated with an entry in the answer sheet at the end of the documentation, which will show or
explain how to complete the assignment, and will show the expected outcome if possible.
Every section comes with a difficulty level. An easy section is denoted by |basic|, moderate by
|moderate|, and advanced by |hard|.

20.5.1 Adding a „follow along“ section

ˆ To start this section, write the markup phrase of the intended difficulty level (as shown above).
ˆ Leave a space and then write |FA| (for „follow along“).
ˆ Leave another space and write the name of the section (use only an initial capital letter, as well as
capitals for proper nouns).
ˆ In the next line, write a line of 80 minuses/dashes (-). Ensure that your text editor does not replace
the default minus/dash character with a long dash or other character.
ˆ Write a short introduction to the section, explaining its purpose. Then give detailed (click-by-click)
instructions on the procedure to be demonstrated.
ˆ In each section, include internal links, external links and screenshots as needed.
ˆ Try to end each section with a short paragraph that concludes it and leads naturally to the next
section, if possible.

20.5.2 Adding a „try yourself “ section

ˆ To start this section, write the markup phrase of the intended difficulty level (as shown above).
ˆ Leave a space and then write |TY| (for „try yourself“).
ˆ In the next line, write a line of 80 minuses/dashes (-). Ensure that your text editor does not replace
the default minus/dash character with a long dash or other character.

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ˆ Explain the exercise that you want the reader to complete. Refer to previous sections, lessons or
modules if necessary.
ˆ Include screenshots to clarify the requirements if a plain textual description is not clear.
In most cases, you will want to provide an answer regarding how to complete the assignment given in
this section. To do so, you will need to add an entry in the answer sheet.
ˆ First, decide on a unique name for the answer. Ideally, this name will include the name of the lesson
and an incrementing number.
ˆ Create a link for this answer:

:ref:`Check your results <answer-name>`

ˆ Open the answer sheet (answers/answers.rst).

ˆ Create a link to the „try yourself“ section by writing this line:

.. _answer-name:

ˆ Write the instructions on how to complete the assignment, using links and images where needed.
ˆ To end it off, include a link back to the „try yourself“ section by writing this line:

:ref:`Back to text <backlink-answer-name>`

ˆ To make this link work, add the following line above the heading to the „try yourself“ section:

.. _backlink-answer-name:

Remember that each of these lines shown above must have a blank line above and below it, otherwise it
could cause errors while creating the document.

20.6 Add a Conclusion

ˆ To end a lesson, write the phrase |IC| for „in conclusion“, followed by a new line of 80
minuses/dashes (-). Write a conclusion for the lesson, explaining which concepts have been covered
in the lesson.

20.7 Add a Further Reading Section

ˆ This section is optional.
ˆ Write the phrase FR for „further reading“, followed by a new line of 80 minuses/dashes (-).
ˆ Include links to appropriate external websites.

20.8 Add a What’s Next Section

ˆ Write the phrase |WN| for „what’s next“, followed by a new line of 80 minuses/dashes (-).
ˆ Explain how this lesson has prepared students for the next lesson or module.
ˆ Remember to change the „what’s next“ section of the previous lesson if necessary, so that it refers
to your new lesson. This will be necessary if you have inserted a new lesson among existing lessons,
or after an existing lesson.

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20.9 Using Markup

To adhere to the standards of this document, you will need to add standard markup to your text.

20.9.1 New concepts

ˆ If you are explaining a new concept, you will need to write the new concept’s name in italics by
enclosing it in asterisks (*).

This sample text shows how to introduce a *new concept*.

20.9.2 Emphasis

ˆ To emphasize a crucial term which is not a new concept, write the term in bold by enclosing it in
double asterisks (**).
ˆ Use this sparingly! If used too much, it can seem to the reader that you are shouting or being
condescending.

This sample text shows how to use **emphasis** in a sentence. Include the
punctuation mark if it is followed by a **comma,** or at the **end of the
sentence.**

20.9.3 Images

ˆ When adding an image, save it to the folder _static/lesson_name/.

ˆ Include it in the document like this:

.. image:: img/image_file.extension
:align: center

ˆ Remember to leave a line open above and below the image markup.

20.9.4 Internal links

ˆ To create an anchor for a link, write the following line above the place where you want the link to
point to:

.. _link-name:

ˆ To create a link, add this line:

:ref:`Descriptive link text <link-name>`

ˆ Remember to leave a line open above and below this line.

20.9.5 External links

ˆ To create an external link, write it out like this:

`Descriptive link text <link-url>`_

ˆ Remember to leave a line open above and below this line.

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20.9.6 Using monospaced text

ˆ When you are writing text that the user needs to enter, a path name, or the name of a database
element such as a table or column name, you must write it in monospaced text. For example:

Enter the following path in the text box: :kbd:`path/to/file`.

20.9.7 Labeling GUI items

ˆ If you are referring to a GUI item, such as a button, you must write its name in the GUI label
format. For example:
To access this tool, click on the :guilabel:`Tool Name` button.

ˆ This also applies if you are mentioning the name of a tool without requiring the user to click a
button.

20.9.8 Menu selections

ˆ If you are guiding a user through menus, you must use the menu → selection → format. For
example:

To use the :guilabel:`Tool Name` tool, go to :menuselection:`Plugins -->

Tool Type --> Tool Name`.

20.9.9 Adding notes

ˆ You might need to a note in the text, which explains extra details that can’t easily be made part
of the flow of the lesson. This is the markup:

[Normal paragraph.]

.. note:: Note text.

New line within note.

New paragraph within note.

[Unindented text resumes normal paragraph.]

20.9.10 Adding a sponsorship/authorship note

If you are writing a new module, lesson or section on behalf of a sponsor, you must include a short
sponsor message of their choice. This must notify the reader of the name of the sponsor and must appear
below the heading of the module, lesson or section that they sponsored. However, it may not be an
advertisement for their company.
If you have volunteered to write a module, lesson or section in your own capacity, and not on behalf of
a sponsor, you may include an authorship note below the heading of the module, lesson or section that
you authored. This must take the form This [module/lesson/section] contributed by [author
name]. Do not add further text, contact details, etc. Such details are to be added in the „Contributors“
section of the Foreword, along with the name(s) of the part(s) you added. If you only made enhancements,
corrections and/or additions, list yourself as an editor.

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20.10 Thank You!

Thank you for contributing to this project! By so doing, you are making QGIS more accessible to users
and adding value to the QGIS project as a whole.

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21.1 Results For Adding Your First Layer

21.1.1 Preparation
In the main area of the dialog you should see many shapes with different colors. Each shape belongs to
a layer you can identify by its color in the left panel (your colors may be different from the ones below):

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21.2 Results For An Overview of the Interface

21.2.1 Overview (Part 1)

Refer back to the image showing the interface layout and check that you remember the names and
functions of the screen elements.
Back to text

21.2.2 Overview (Part 2)

1. Save as
2. Zoom to layer
3. Help
4. Rendering on/off
5. Measure line
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21.3 Results For Working with Vector Data

21.3.1 Attribute data

ˆ There should be 9 fields in the rivers layer:
1. Select the layer in the Layers panel.

2. Right-click and choose Open Attribute Table, or press the button on the Attributes Toolbar.
3. Count the number of columns.

Tip: A quicker approach could be to double-click the rivers layer, open the Layer properties →
Source Fields tab, where you will find a numbered list of the table’s fields.

ˆ Information about towns is available in the places layer. Open its attribute table as you did with
the rivers layer: there are two features whose place attribute is set to town: Swellendam and
Buffeljagsrivier. You can add comment on other fields from these two records, if you like.
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21.3.2 Data loading

Your map should have seven layers:
ˆ protected_areas
ˆ places
ˆ rivers
ˆ roads

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ˆ landuse
ˆ buildings (taken from training_data.gpkg) and
ˆ water (taken from exercise_data/shapefile).
Back to text

21.4 Results For Symbology

21.4.1 Colors
ˆ Verify that the colors are changing as you expect them to change.

ˆ It is enough to select the water layer in the legend and then click on the
Open the Layer Styling panel button. Change the color to one that fits the water layer.

Note: If you want to work on only one layer at a time and don’t want the other layers to distract you,
you can hide a layer by clicking in the checkbox next to its name in the layers list. If the box is blank,
then the layer is hidden.

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21.4.2 Symbol Structure

Your map should now look like this:

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If you are a Beginner-level user, you may stop here.

ˆ Use the method above to change the colors and styles for all the remaining layers.
ˆ Try using natural colors for the objects. For example, a road should not be red or blue, but can be
gray or black.
ˆ Also feel free to experiment with different Fill style and Stroke style settings for the polygons.

Back to text

21.4.3 Symbol Layers

Customize your buildings layer as you like, but remember that it has to be easy to tell different layers
apart on the map.
Ето пример:

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Back to text

21.4.4 Symbol Levels

To make the required symbol, you need three symbol layers:

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The lowest symbol layer is a broad, solid gray line. On top of it there is a slightly thinner solid yellow
line and finally another thinner solid black line.
If your symbol layers resemble the above but you’re not getting the result you want:
1. Check that your symbol levels look something like this:

2. Вашата карта сега трябва да изглежда така:

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Back to text

21.4.5 Symbol Levels

1. Adjust your symbol levels to these values:

2. Experiment with different values to get different results.

3. Отворете оригиналната карта отново преди да продължите със следващото упражнение.
Back to text

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21.5 Outline Markers

Here are examples of the symbol structure:

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Back to text

21.5.1 Geometry generator symbology

ˆ Click on the button to add another Symbol level.

ˆ Move the new symbol at the bottom of the list clicking the button.
ˆ Choose a good color to fill the water polygons.
ˆ Click on Marker of the Geometry generator symbology and change the circle with another shape
as your wish.
ˆ Try experimenting other options to get more useful results.
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21.6 Results For Attribute Data

21.6.1 Attribute Data

The name field is the most useful to show as labels. This is because all its values are unique for every
object and are very unlikely to contain NULL values. If your data contains some NULL values, do not
worry as long as most of your places have names.

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Back to text

21.7 Results For The Label Tool

21.7.1 Label Customization (Part 1)

Your map should now show the marker points and the labels should be offset by 2.0 mm: The style of
the markers and labels should allow both to be clearly visible on the map:

Back to text

21.7.2 Label Customization (Part 2)

One possible solution has this final product:

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За да получите този резултат:

ˆ Use a font size of 10, a Label distance of 1,5 mm, Symbol width and Symbol size of 3.0 mm.
ˆ In addition, this example uses the Wrap label on character option:

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ˆ Enter a space in this field and click Apply to achieve the same effect. In our case, some of the
place names are very long, resulting in names with multiple lines which is not very user friendly.
You might find this setting to be more appropriate for your map.
Back to text

21.7.3 Using Data Defined Settings

ˆ Still in edit mode, set the FONT_SIZE values to whatever you prefer. The example uses 16 for towns,
14 for suburbs, 12 for localities and 10 for hamlets.
ˆ Remember to save changes and exit edit mode.
ˆ Return to the Text formatting options for the places layer and select FONT_SIZE in the Attribute
field of the font size data override dropdown:

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Your results, if using the above values, should be this:

Back to text

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21.8 Results For Classification

21.8.1 Refine the Classification

ˆ Use the same method as in the first exercise of the lesson to get rid of the borders:

The settings you used might not be the same, but with the values Classes = 6 and Mode = Natural
Breaks (Jenks) (and using the same colors, of course), the map will look like this:

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Back to text

21.9 Results For Creating a New Vector Dataset

21.9.1 Digitizing
The symbology doesn’t matter, but the results should look more or less like this:

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21.9.2 Topology: Add Ring Tool

The exact shape doesn’t matter, but you should be getting a hole in the middle of your feature, like this
one:

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ˆ Undo your edit before continuing with the exercise for the next tool.
Back to text

21.9.3 Topology: Add Part Tool

ˆ First select the Bontebok National Park:

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ˆ Сега добавате вашата нова част:

ˆ Undo your edit before continuing with the exercise for the next tool.
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21.9.4 Merge Features

ˆ Use the Merge Selected Features tool, making sure to first select both of the polygons you wish to
merge.
ˆ Use the feature with the OGC_FID of 1 as the source of your attributes (click on its entry in the
dialog, then click the Take attributes from selected feature button):

Note:
If you’re using a different dataset, it is highly likely that your original polygon’s OGC_FID
will not be 1. Just choose the feature which has an OGC_FID.

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Note: Using the Merge Attributes of Selected Features tool will keep the geometries distinct, but give
them the same attributes.

Back to text

21.9.5 Forms
For the TYPE, there is obviously a limited amount of types that a road can be, and if you check the
attribute table for this layer, you’ll see that they are predefined.
ˆ Set the widget to Value Map and click Load Data from Layer.
ˆ Select roads in the Label dropdown and highway for both the Value and Description options:

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ˆ Click Ok three times.

ˆ If you use the Identify tool on a street now while edit mode is active, the dialog you get should
look like this:

Back to text

21.10 Results For Vector Analysis

21.10.1 Distance from High Schools

ˆ Your buffer dialog should look like this:

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The Buffer distance is 1 kilometer.

ˆ The Segments to approximate value is set to 20. This is optional, but it’s recommended, because
it makes the output buffers look smoother. Compare this:

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To this:

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The first image shows the buffer with the Segments to approximate value set to 5 and the second shows
the value set to 20. In our example, the difference is subtle, but you can see that the buffer’s edges are
smoother with the higher value.
Back to text

21.10.2 Distance from Restaurants

To create the new houses_restaurants_500m layer, we go through a two step process:
ˆ First, create a buffer of 500m around the restaurants and add the layer to the map:

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ˆ Next, extract buildings within that buffer area:

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Your map should now show only those buildings which are within 50m of a road, 1km of a school and
500m of a restaurant:

Back to text

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21.11 Results For Network Analysis

21.12 Fastest path

Open Network Analysis → Shortest Path (Point to Point) and fill the dialog as:

Make sure that the Path type to calculate is Fastest.

Click on Run and close the dialog.
Open now the attribute table of the output layer. The cost field contains the travel time between the
two points (as fraction of hours):

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Back to text

21.13 Results For Raster Analysis

21.13.1 Calculate Aspect

ˆ Set your Aspect dialog up like this:

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Вашият резултат:

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21.13.2 Calculate Slope (less than 2 and 5 degrees)

ˆ Set your Raster calculator dialog up like this:

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ˆ For the 5 degree version, replace the 2 in the expression and file name with 5.
Your results:
ˆ 2 градуса:

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ˆ 5 градуса:

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21.14 Results For Completing the Analysis

21.14.1 Raster to Vector

ˆ Open the Query Builder by right-clicking on the all_terrain layer in the Layers panel, and selecting
the Properties → Source tab.
ˆ Then build the query "suitable- 1.
ˆ Click OK to filter out all the polygons where this condition isn’t met.
When viewed over the original raster, the areas should overlap perfectly:

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ˆ You can save this layer by right-clicking on the all_terrain layer in the Layers panel and choosing
Save As. . . , then continue as per the instructions.
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21.14.2 Inspecting the Results

You may notice that some of the buildings in your new_solution layer have been „sliced“ by the Intersect
tool. This shows that only part of the building - and therefore only part of the property - lies on suitable
terrain. We can therefore sensibly eliminate those buildings from our dataset
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21.14.3 Refining the Analysis

At the moment, your analysis should look something like this:

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Consider a circular area, continuous for 100 meters in all directions.

If it is greater than 100 meters in radius, then subtracting 100 meters from its size (from all directions)
will result in a part of it being left in the middle.

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Therefore, you can run an interior buffer of 100 meters on your existing suitable_terrain vector layer.
In the output of the buffer function, whatever remains of the original layer will represent areas where
there is suitable terrain for 100 meters beyond.
To demonstrate:
ˆ Go to Vector → Geoprocessing Tools → Buffer(s) to open the Buffer(s) dialog.
ˆ Set it up like this:

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ˆ Use the suitable_terrain layer with 10 segments and a buffer distance of -100. (The distance is
automatically in meters because your map is using a projected CRS.)
ˆ Save the output in exercise_data/residential_development/ as
suitable_terrain_continuous100m.shp.
ˆ If necessary, move the new layer above your original suitable_terrain layer.
Your results will look like something like this:

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ˆ Now use the Select by Location tool (Vector → Research Tools → Select by location ).
ˆ Set up like this:

ˆ Select features in new_solution that intersect features in suitable_terrain_continuous100m.shp.

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This is the result:

The yellow buildings are selected. Although some of the buildings fall partly outside the new
suitable_terrain_continuous100m layer, they lie well within the original suitable_terrain layer
and therefore meet all of our requirements.
ˆ Save the selection under exercise_data/residential_development/ as final_answer.shp.
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21.15 Results For WMS

21.15.1 Adding Another WMS Layer

Your map should look like this (you may need to re-order the layers):

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21.15.2 Adding a New WMS Server

ˆ Use the same approach as before to add the new server and the appropriate layer as hosted on that
server:

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ˆ If you zoom into the Swellendam area, you’ll notice that this dataset has a low resolution:

Therefore, it’s better not to use this data for the current map. The Blue Marble data is more suitable
at global or national scales.
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21.15.3 Finding a WMS Server

You may notice that many WMS servers are not always available. Sometimes this is temporary, sometimes
it is permanent. An example of a WMS server that worked at the time of writing is the World Mineral

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Deposits WMS at http://apps1.gdr.nrcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/worldmin_en-ca_ows. It does not require fees

or have access constraints, and it is global. Therefore, it does satisfy the requirements. Keep in mind,
however, that this is merely an example. There are many other WMS servers to choose from.
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21.16 Results For GRASS Integration

21.16.1 Add Layers to Mapset

You can add layers (both vector and raster) into a GRASS Mapset by drag and drop them in the Browser
(see Follow Along: Load data using the QGIS Browser ) or by using the v.in.gdal.qgis for vector and
r.in.gdal.qgis for raster layers.
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21.16.2 Reclassify raster layer

To discover the maximum value of the raster run the r.info tool: in the console you will see that the
maximum value is 1699.
You are now ready to write the rules. Open a text editor and add the following rules:

0 thru 1000 = 1
1000 thru 1400 = 2
1400 thru 1699 = 3

save the file as a my_rules.txt file and close the text editor.
Run the r.reclass tool, choose the g_dem layer and load the file containing the rules you just have
saved.
Click on Run and then on View Output. You can change the colors and the final result should look like
the following picture:

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21.17 Results For Database Concepts

21.17.1 Address Table Properties

For our theoretical address table, we might want to store the following properties:

House Number
Street Name
Suburb Name
City Name
Postcode
Country

When creating the table to represent an address object, we would create columns to represent each of
these properties and we would name them with SQL-compliant and possibly shortened names:

house_number
street_name
suburb
city
postcode
country

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21.17.2 Normalising the People Table

The major problem with the people table is that there is a single address field which contains a person’s
entire address. Thinking about our theoretical address table earlier in this lesson, we know that an
address is made up of many different properties. By storing all these properties in one field, we make it
much harder to update and query our data. We therefore need to split the address field into the various
properties. This would give us a table which has the following structure:

id | name | house_no | street_name | city | phone_no

--+---------------+----------+----------------+------------+-----------------
1 | Tim Sutton | 3 | Buirski Plein | Swellendam | 071 123 123
2 | Horst Duester | 4 | Avenue du Roix | Geneva | 072 121 122

Note: In the next section, you will learn about Foreign Key relationships which could be used in this
example to further improve our database’s structure.

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21.17.3 Further Normalisation of the People Table

Our people table currently looks like this:

id | name | house_no | street_id | phone_no

---+--------------+----------+-----------+-------------
1 | Horst Duster | 4 | 1 | 072 121 122

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The street_id column represents a one to many‘ relationship between the people object and the related
’
street object, which is in the streets table.
One way to further normalise the table is to split the name field into first_name and last_name :

id | first_name | last_name | house_no | street_id | phone_no

---+------------+------------+----------+-----------+------------
1 | Horst | Duster | 4 | 1 | 072 121 122

We can also create separate tables for the town or city name and country, linking them to our people
table via one to many‘ relationships:
’
id | first_name | last_name | house_no | street_id | town_id | country_id
---+------------+-----------+----------+-----------+---------+------------
1 | Horst | Duster | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1

An ER Diagram to represent this would look like this:

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21.17.4 Create a People Table

The SQL required to create the correct people table is:

create table people (id serial not null primary key,

name varchar(50),
house_no int not null,
street_id int not null,
phone_no varchar null );

The schema for the table (enter \d people) looks like this:

Table "public.people"

Column | Type | Modifiers

-----------+-----------------------+-------------------------------------

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id | integer | not null default

| | nextval('people_id_seq'::regclass)
name | character varying(50) |
house_no | integer | not null
street_id | integer | not null
phone_no | character varying |
Indexes:
"people_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (id)

Note: For illustration purposes, we have purposely omitted the fkey constraint.

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21.17.5 The DROP Command

The reason the DROP command would not work in this case is because the people table has a Foreign
Key constraint to the streets table. This means that dropping (or deleting) the streets table would leave
the people table with references to non-existent streets data.

Note: It is possible to force‘ the streets table to be deleted by using the CASCADE command, but
’
this would also delete the people and any other table which had a relationship to the streets table. Use
with caution!

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21.17.6 Insert a New Street

The SQL command you should use looks like this (you can replace the street name with a name of your
choice):

insert into streets (name) values ('Low Road');

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21.17.7 Add a New Person With Foreign Key Relationship

Here is the correct SQL statement:

insert into streets (name) values('Main Road');

insert into people (name,house_no, street_id, phone_no)
values ('Joe Smith',55,2,'072 882 33 21');

If you look at the streets table again (using a select statement as before), you’ll see that the id for the
Main Road entry is 2.
That’s why we could merely enter the number 2 above. Even though we’re not seeing Main Road written
out fully in the entry above, the database will be able to associate that with the street_id value of 2.

Note: If you have already added a new street object, you might find that the new Main Road has an
ID of 3 not 2.

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21.17.8 Return Street Names

Here is the correct SQL statement you should use:

select count(people.name), streets.name

from people, streets
where people.street_id=streets.id
group by streets.name;

Резултат:

count | name
------+-------------
1 | Low Street
2 | High street
1 | Main Road
(3 rows)

Note: You will notice that we have prefixed field names with table names (e.g. people.name and
streets.name). This needs to be done whenever the field name is ambiguous (i.e. not unique across all
tables in the database).

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21.18 Results For Spatial Queries

21.18.1 The Units Used in Spatial Queries

The units being used by the example query are degrees, because the CRS that the layer is using is WGS
84. This is a Geographic CRS, which means that its units are in degrees. A Projected CRS, like the
UTM projections, is in meters.
Remember that when you write a query, you need to know which units the layer’s CRS is in. This will
allow you to write a query that will return the results that you expect.
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21.18.2 Creating a Spatial Index

CREATE INDEX cities_geo_idx
ON cities
USING gist (the_geom);

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21.19 Results For Geometry Construction

21.19.1 Creating Linestrings

alter table streets add column the_geom geometry;
alter table streets add constraint streets_geom_point_chk check
(st_geometrytype(the_geom) = 'ST_LineString'::text OR the_geom IS NULL);
insert into geometry_columns values ('','public','streets','the_geom',2,4326,
'LINESTRING');
create index streets_geo_idx
on streets
using gist
(the_geom);

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21.19.2 Linking Tables

delete from people;
alter table people add column city_id int not null references cities(id);

(capture cities in QGIS)

insert into people (name,house_no, street_id, phone_no, city_id, the_geom)

values ('Faulty Towers',
34,
3,
'072 812 31 28',
1,
'SRID=4326;POINT(33 33)');

insert into people (name,house_no, street_id, phone_no, city_id, the_geom)

values ('IP Knightly',
32,
1,
'071 812 31 28',
1,F
'SRID=4326;POINT(32 -34)');

insert into people (name,house_no, street_id, phone_no, city_id, the_geom)

values ('Rusty Bedsprings',
39,
1,
'071 822 31 28',
1,
'SRID=4326;POINT(34 -34)');

If you’re getting the following error message:

ERROR: insert or update on table "people" violates foreign key constraint

"people_city_id_fkey"
DETAIL: Key (city_id)=(1) is not present in table "cities".

then it means that while experimenting with creating polygons for the cities table, you must have deleted
some of them and started over. Just check the entries in your cities table and use any id which exists.
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21.20 Results For Simple Feature Model

21.20.1 Populating Tables

create table cities (id serial not null primary key,
name varchar(50),
the_geom geometry not null);
alter table cities
add constraint cities_geom_point_chk
check (st_geometrytype(the_geom) = 'ST_Polygon'::text );

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21.20.2 Populate the Geometry_Columns Table

insert into geometry_columns values
('','public','cities','the_geom',2,4326,'POLYGON');

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21.20.3 Adding Geometry

select people.name,
streets.name as street_name,
st_astext(people.the_geom) as geometry
from streets, people
where people.street_id=streets.id;

Резултат:

name | street_name | geometry

--------------+-------------+---------------
Roger Jones | High street |
Sally Norman | High street |
Jane Smith | Main Road |
Joe Bloggs | Low Street |
Fault Towers | Main Road | POINT(33 -33)
(5 rows)

As you can see, our constraint allows nulls to be added into the database.
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Индекси и таблици

ˆ genindex
ˆ modindex
ˆ search

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