Introduction and Course Overview

Introduction to QGIS

Ujaval Gandhi
ujaval@spatialthoughts.com

CC BY-4.0
Introduction
● Background in GIS and Remote Sensing
○ Intern at Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), Dehradun, India
○ MS in Geospatial Information Engineering from University of Wisconsin -
Madison, USA
● 15 years of professional experience
○ One of the early employees at Google Inc.
■ Moved to India in 2006 and established the maps team
■ Led the GIS and Aerial Imagery team in India from 2007-2019
○ Developed expertise in Google Earth Engine and trained 1000+ scientists
and researchers across India
● Presently Ujaval Gandhi
○ Creating free and open learning resources
■ spatialthoughts.com/resources
○ Providing QGIS/Open-source GIS training through Spatial Thoughts
Introduction
● Masters in Remote Sensing
● Interest in Automating Workflows
● Training Associate
○ Class logistics
○ Project support

Vigna Purohit
QGIS
● Most popular open-source desktop GIS software
○ ~500K daily users, ~10M monthly users (QGIS Usage Dashboard)
● Project is over 20 years old and is very actively developed
● Mature organization structure. Registered legal entity, Project Steering
Committee, large community of users and developers
QGIS Applications
● QGIS Desktop: Create, edit, visualise, analyse and publish geospatial
information.
● QGIS Server: Publish your QGIS projects and layers as OGC compatible
WMS and WFS services.
● QGIS Web Client: Publish your QGIS projects on the web with ease.
● QGIS on Mobile: Focus on data collection.
○ Inputapp.io - Open source project maintained by Lutra Consulting. Works on Android and
iOS. Primarily cloud based workflow.
○ QField - Open source project maintained by OPENGIS.ch. Works on Android and iOS.
Primarily local workflow. (cloud based sync in beta)
Course Overview
Day 1 Day 2

● Creating Maps (Hands-on) ● Georeferencing

○ Data Import ○ Using Basemaps
○ QGIS Expressions ○ Using the Georeferencer
○ Symbology ● Data Editing
○ Labelling ○ Attribute Forms
○ Print Layout ○ Digitizing Polygons
● Joins and Data Normalization ● Geoprocessing
Techniques (Lecture) ○ Downloading OpenStreetMap Data
● Visualizing Spatial Data (Hands-on) ○ Reproject and Buffer
○ Table Join ○ Calculate Zonal Statistics
○ Creating a Choropleth Map
Course Structure
● The live-sessions are a mix of lectures + hands-on exercises
● We will have 2 breaks of 10-minutes each during the 4-hour session
○ 1st break ~90 minutes mark
○ 2nd break ~3-hour mark
● The sessions are highly interactive. You are encouraged to ask questions at
any point.
○ Don’t hold back. Ask clarifications early!
Course Structure
● Each section starts with a brief explanation of the concepts, followed by a
hands-on exercise.
● Participants are presented with a challenge at the end of each section.
● All participants must attempt the challenge and submit the solution.
○ Take a screenshot and submit via Zoom chat
Certification
● Certificate will be issued by QGIS.org and
given to all participants at the end of the
course.
● To receive the certificate, participants
must
○ Must be enrolled in an instructor-led
session
○ Attend the full course live (both sessions)
○ Complete all the class exercises
○ Complete the quizzes during the class
Let’s get started