Workshop Introduction to Digital Mapping with QGIS

Instructor: Victoria Sarmiento [email protected]

February 16, 2022
Access the data here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m_ACQZOv7RA2PRNWL-A02kmvDvO7CeFa/view?usp=sharing

Open QGIS, and let´s start a new empty project.

Depending on your Operating System, you should be seeing a similar screen like the
screenshot below. Let´s get familiar with the main components of QGIS:
1. Menu Bar; 2. Toolbars; 3. Panels; 4. Map View; 5. Status Bar
Exercise 1. Adding data – Projections – Saving Project

1. Locate the box next to “Coordinate” in the status bar and type in “world.”

2. Let´s play around with the projection. Again, in the status bar, locate the option

named EPSG and click on it.

The new window displays information about the Coordinate Reference Systems
or CRS set by the first layer added to the project. In this case, we are working
with a Geographic Coordinate System called WGS 84. It uses degrees of latitude
and longitude, and it is useful for representing spatial information on a global
scale (small scale).

Trying to change the CRS by typing 3857 in the first box:

Then select the new CRS from the “Predefined Coordinate Reference Systems” menu,
and hit the OK button. Now see how the global map changed in the map view.

Change the CRS again to EPSG:4326, following the previous steps.

3. Adding the airport’s layer: Locate the “Layer” option in the top menu. Then select
“Add Vector Layer” from the drop-down menu.

In the “Data Source Manager” window, locate the box next to “Vector Dataset”
under the “Source” panel. Then hit the button with the ellipsis.

In the new window, locate the data folder provided for this workshop, and search
for the “ne_10m_airports folder”. Open it and select the file
“ne_10m_airports.shp”. Click open and then click Add.

We have added a vector of points in the map view. Now focus on the panel
Layers. You should have a list of two layers: airports and World map.

4. Getting familiar with the attributes of the airport’s shapefile. Right-click on the
layer airports and select “Open Attribute Table.”
 5. Changing the color, size, and symbol. Right-click on
the layer and select “Properties.”

In the “Layer Properties” window, select the “Symbology” tab in the left panel, and
locate the “All Symbols” menu with different markers options. Select the topo airport
marker. Change the color and size using the respective options and hit Apply.
 6. Finally, save your project. Locate Project in the top menu > Select Save as.
Create a new folder named outputs and name your project. Be sure to select
`.qgz´ as the format of your project. You can also use this to save the project
while you are progressing on it.

You have created a world map of the airports!

Exercise 2. Working with base maps – Installing plugins

1. In the top Menu > Select Plugins> Manage and Install Plugins>Click tab All
2. Search for “QuickMapServices” and then hit Install Plugin
3. Locate your new tool in the Toolbar , click and explore the menu
4. From the menu, select OSM and then double on OSM Standard
5. Check Layer Properties: Select the layer from the Layer panel list>Right
click>Properties
6. Review tab “Information” on the left. What is the CRS?
7. In the top menu, select “Project” > Properties
8. In the window “Project Properties - CRS” search for “3857” and click OK.
9. Explore the newly added base map!
10. Locate the toolbar to pan de map, zoom in, and
zoom out.
11. Zoom in to Philadelphia.
Exercise 3. Adding a CSV layer

1. Keep the base map added in the last exercise

2. In the top menu select Layer> Add Layer > Add Delimited Text Layer
3. Locate the Browse button next to “File name”
4. In the data folder select “Registered_Community_Gardens.CSV”. Click Open
5. In the “Data Source Manager” window, make sure the CRS is set to EPSG:4326

6. From the Layer list, select the newly added layer and right-click
>Properties>Zoom to Layer
7. Zoom in or zoom out to locate the points in the map view
8. Change symbology: Select layer from the Layer list panel> Right click>Properties
9. Change the marker from the Symbols Menu. Change the size and color
10. In the Layer list panel, turn on and off the layers. Consider the order of the layers,
it matters for visualization in the Map view.
Exercise 4. DEM – Blending
1. Load the DEM twice: Layer> Add Layer>Add Raster Layer and browse the file in
your data folder named “DEMPhilly.tif”
This raster represents elevation values from -21 to 613
2. Change the symbology of the top layer: Select layer from the Layer list> Right
click>Properties> Symbology

In the “Render type” menu select ´Singleband pseudocolor´

Make sure you have at least five classes. You can add or delete classes, with
these buttons . If you need to eliminate classes, select them first and then
use the minus button. * You can change the way the data is classified under the
“Mode” menu but it is not necessary for this exercise.

In the “Color ramp” menu select “Create New Color Ramp”> Catalog: cpt-city

In the new window, locate “Topography” under the panel on the left side. Choose
any color ramp and hit OK

On the “Layer Properties” window, locate the “Color Rendering” section, and next
to the “Blending mode” menu select “Overlay”> Apply> OK

3. Change the symbology of the second DEM layer (the layer underneath): Select
layer from the Layer panel list > Right click> Properties> Symbology.

In the “Render type” menu select ´Hillshade´. Leave the rest of the setting as
default and hit Apply>OK

This is what your result should look like! The difference in elevation looks more
dramatic now!
Exercise 5. Composing and Printing your Digital Map – Layout Composer

For this exercise, we are going to use the layers added in Exercise 3, the community
gardens.csv, and the OSM base map.

1. Locate the tool “New Print Layout” from the top toolbar. Give a name to
your new map in the pop-up window “Create Print Layout” and hit OK.
2. There is a new view, with new tools and menus. Here is where you are going to
design and create your map for printing.
 Here will be the list of
the elements or items
your map will include

Here is the canvas where you are going to design the map
In this panel you will be
able to set the
properties for each of
the items included in
the map

3. The first thing I recommend is to set the size of the page. Right-click on the main
white area, the “canvas” and select “Page Properties…”

A new menu with the “Page size” options should appear on the right side.

I use the size “Letter” for maps that I want to include in word documents. The
orientation will depend on the configuration of the elements you want to show.
For this case, we can use Landscape.
4. Add the map to the canvas: Locate the tool “Add map”, from the toolbar on
the left side. The cursor will change into a cross. Click and drag the cross over
the canvas, drawing a box, covering as much area as you can. It is possible to
resize the map later, by clicking and dragging the boxes on the edges.

5. On the left side panel, a new item called “Map 1” will appear. Set the scale as
200000 in the “Main Properties” options.

A useful feature in QGIS Layout composer is the ability to lock the items, both the
position of the item in the map as well as the way it is displayed. This is useful
because sometimes you would like to check something in the Map view, and you
will pan over the map, zoom in or zoom out; but not necessarily want to make
changes to the map you are composing in the canvas. The map view and the
map composer are linked and whatever you do in the map view is going to
change the map in the composer. If you don´t want this to happen you can check
the boxes “Lock layers” and “Lock styles for layers” in the Layers panel.
 Also, you can check the box in the Items panel. This way the
position of the item in the canvas will be locked. You will see that the boxes of
the edges will disappear.

6. Useful tools:
This tool allows moving the elements/items in the canvas.
This tool allows resizing the items in the canvas
In this case, this tool allows for pan the Layout. Don´t confuse it with Pan
map

7. Add the north arrow by clicking . Click and drag a box over the canvas in the
position you want the arrow to be located.
8. Add the bar scale by clicking . Click and drag a box over the canvas in the
position you want the scale to be located. You can customize the scale bar in the
left side panel, using the different options here.
 9. Add the legend . Click and drag a box over the canvas in the position you
want the legend to be located.

You can rename the Community Gardens layers by going back to the Project. Then
select the layer from the Layers panel list > right click> Rename Layer and type
Community Gardens or any other name that you like.

Back to the Layout composer, in the panel on the left, locate “Legend Items”, in case the
legend hasn´t been updated, hit the button .

Uncheck the box “Auto update”. Then select the “OSM Standard” and click the minus
button to eliminate that layer from the legend.
10. The above are the basic elements a map should have. You could explore more
things to include in the toolbar on the left side. But at this point, the map is ready to
print.
Using these tools you can export the map in different formats. For this
exercise select which save as jpeg. Indicate the name and the location of the file,
and save it.

A new window, “Image Exports Options” will appear. I recommend using 72 dpi for this
map, to maintain the quality of the labels of the base map. If the resolution is higher the
size of the labels will be so small that they will be illegible.

Voilà! Here is your Map

SOURCES
Airports
https://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/airports/

Community gardens
https://www.opendataphilly.org/dataset/registered-community-
gardens/resource/d1c77b2a-1e48-4254-a1b7-a622eb630f88

City landmarks (for Philadelphia)

https://www.opendataphilly.org/dataset/city-landmarks/resource/2cd2eae7-4021-4a7f-
87ab-b13c7d327ff7

DEM – Digital Elevation Model for Philadelphia

https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ You need to create an account to download the data
Information about the DEM
https://www.usgs.gov/centers/eros/science/usgs-eros-archive-digital-elevation-shuttle-
radar-topography-mission-srtm-void?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-
science_center_objects

Open data for Philadelphia Region

https://www.opendataphilly.org/

QGIS user manual

QGIS training manual

https://docs.qgis.org/3.16/en/docs/training_manual/map_composer/map_composer.html
#basic-fa-basic-map-composition

Climatic data
https://www.worldclim.org/

GIS data by Country

https://www.diva-gis.org/gdata