Introduction to

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 What is QGIS?
• Quantum GIS or QGIS is an open source (Free) GIS processing
software
• It offers various functions such as different vector and raster analysis,
including the production of maps.
• This tutorial will;
❑ Show how to install current version of QGIS software
❑ Show some examples of GIS processing;
1. Georeferencing and Digitizing
2. Vector Analysis (Reproject, Importing and Exporting Coordinates)
❑Producing Simple Map

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 How To Install QGIS
• Browse to QGIS website (https://www.qgis.org/en/site/)
• Click the “Download Now” Button

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 How To Install QGIS
• Two version of the Standalone installer from OSGeo4W packages
available : Latest release and Long term release
• Latest release includes more features while Long term release is
more stable (Choose stable version to reduce software crash)
• Select QGIS standalone Installer Version 3.16 (64 bit if your laptop/pc
has 64 bit operating system)
• Wait for installer to finish download

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 How To Install QGIS
• In “Downloads” folder, double click on the QGIS installer
• The Setup window will appear. Click Next → I Agree

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 How To Install QGIS
• Set destination folder →C:\Program Files\QGIS 3.16
• Click Next

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 How To Install QGIS
• In Choose Components Window, do not select the other Data Sets
(to save space)
• Click Install

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 How To Install QGIS
• Click Finish once the installation is completed

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 How To Install QGIS
• QGIS software should appear in your “Recently added” tab in start
menu
• Click on QGIS Desktop 3.16.7

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 QGIS Interface

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 Setting up Project in QGIS

• Click New Empty Project

• To save the project, click the Save button or go to “Project”,
click “Save”
• Browse to desired directory in your Laptop / PC and name the
project
• Click Save

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 Changing CRS of Project

• Coordinate Reference System of the project can be changed

• In bottom right corner, Click “EPSG:4326”
• Project Properties Window will appear
• In “CRS” Tab, Browse and Select WGS 84 (Authority ID EPSG:4326)
• Click OK

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 Changing Coordinate Display

• Coordinates of the project can also be changed

• In bottom right corner, Click “EPSG:4326”
• Project Properties Window will appear
• Select “General” Tab
• In coordinate and bearing display, coordinates can be changed to Map
units (degrees); Decimal Degrees; Degrees, minutes; Degrees, minutes,
seconds
• Select desired coordinate display and click OK

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 Examples of GIS Process
(Georeferencing)
• Georeference is the process in which we set the coordinates of an
image / scanned map that has no coordinate system
• Images or maps in JPEG format are examples of data that has no
coordinate systems
• Two Methods in Georeferencing
1. Inputting known coordinates into points
2. Using reference image

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 Georeferencing

• In “Raster” tab, select “Georeferencer”

• Georeferencer Window will appear

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 Georeferencing

• In Georeferencer window, Select “File” tab, select “Open Raster”

• Open raster window will appear, select image that needs to be
georeferenced
• Image selected will appear in Georeferencer window
• Select “Transformation Settings”
• Set “Transformation Type” to desired choice
• Set “Target SRS” to EPSG:4326 – WGS 84
• Set “Output Raster” directory
• Tick ( ) Save GCP points
• Tick ( ) Load in QGIS when done
• Click OK
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 Georeferencing (Method #1)

• Select “Add Point”

• The cursor in the georeferencer window will change to cross symbol
• Select area in the image to add the point
• Input the X and Y coordinates (Based on the values in the image)
• Input multiple points
• Click Run

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 Georeferencing (Method #1)

• Georeferenced image will appear in Project Window

• In “Layers” right click on georeferenced image and click properties
• Select Transparency Tab and change “Global Opacity” to 50% or less
• Click OK
• Add image or raster/vector with known coordinate system to check
whether the georeferenced image have been georeferenced correctly
• Check if the boundaries of the area match the reference image (Make
sure the reference image is below the georeferenced image in
“Layers” tab
• Alternative: in “Browser” Tab, find “XYZ tiles”. Drag
“OpenStreetMap” to the “Layers Tab”
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 Georeferencing (Notes)

• If georeferenced image does not match the reference image, go back

to “Georeferencer” window and add/delete/move the GCP
• You can delete or move the GCP using
• In bottom right of georeferenced window, make sure “Mean error”
has the smallest value (Larger value means larger error)

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 Georeferencing (Method #2)

• In “Layers” tab, add in a reference image with known coordinates

• Find areas that have similar features in both the reference image and
the image to be georeferenced
• When selecting the GCP (Add point), instead of inputting the
coordinates, click “From Map Canvas”
• Select the similar features from the reference image
• Input multiple points
• Click Run
• Next steps the same with Method #1

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 Digitizing

• Digitizing is a process where features from an image are “digitized” as

a vector layer (shapefile)
• A vector layer can be
1. Polygon
2. Lines
3. Points
4. Multipoints
• Vector layers are useful because they can be used as boundaries or
used to extract information from other datasets

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 Digitizing

• In Project window, Right click on the top toolbar

• “Panels” and “Toolbars” tab will appear
• In “Toolbars”, Tick ( )
• Advanced Digitizing Toolbar
• Shape Digitizing Toolbar
• Snapping Toolbar
• The selected toolbars will appear in the top toolbar

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 Digitizing

• Select “Layer” → “Create Layer” → “New Shapefile Layer”

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 Digitizing

• New Shapefile Layer window will appear

• In “File name” set the desired directory and name of the shapefile
• Set “Geometry Type” to desired choice (in this tutorial, select
polygon)
• Make sure CRS is set to EPSG:4326 – WGS 84

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 Digitizing

• In “New Field” section, type name of the field (Length of name is

limited so ensure name of field is short)
• Type in “For_Class” to represent forest class
• Set “Type” to the desired type of field
• For forest class field, select “Text Data”
• Set the length (number of letters that can be written inside the field)
• Click “Add to Field List”
• For_Class field will appear in “Field List” Section

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 Digitizing

• Add another field called “Area (ha)” to represent area of the polygons
that will be digitized
• Set “Type” to the desired type of field
• For area , select “Decimal Number”
• Set the length (number of digits that can be written inside the field)
• Set Precision to 6 (number of decimal places)
• Click “Add to Field List”
• Area (ha) field will appear in “Field List” Section
• Click OK

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 Digitizing

• The newly created shapefile will appear in the “Layers” tab

• Right click on the shapefile, click “Toggle Editing” or search the project
toolbar for the toggle editing button
• A pencil icon will appear in the box next to the name of the shapefile
selected

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 Digitizing

• In “Advanced Digitizing Toolbar”, click the “Enable Snapping” button

• Select “Avoid Overlap on Active Layer”

• Start digitizing the polygon by clicking the “Add Polygon Feature”

button in the “Data Source Manager Toolbar”

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 Digitizing

• Left click to digitize the area desired (trace the borders of the area)
• Right click to finish the polygon
• “Feature Attributes” window will appear
• Type in the information in each field section if known or leave NULL
if unknown
• Type in the polygon number in “id” field
• Type in the forest class number in “For_Class” field
• Click OK
• Polygon digitized will appear

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 Digitizing

• Start digitizing the next polygon from the vertices of the previous
polygons
• Enabling “Snap” function prior to digitizing will ensure no gaps
between neighbouring polygons (ensure all the areas are digitized)
• Enabling “Avoid Overlap on Active Layer” function prior to digitizing
will ensure the neighbouring polygons do not overlap with each
other
• Delete/Edit a polygon by browsing through “Advanced Digitizing
Toolbar”
• When all areas have been digitized, right click on the shapefile in the
“Layers” tab and click “Toggle Editing” to stop editing process. Click
Save in the “Stop Editing” window
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 Digitizing

• Digitizing can also be done when there is an active internet

connection → using base map as reference
• In “Browser” tab, find “XYZ Tiles”
• Drag “OpenStreetMap” to the “Layers” tab
• Open Street Map will be displayed

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 Digitizing

• Other base map can also be inserted inside the “XYZ Tiles”

1. Google Maps: https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=r&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}

2. Google Satellite:
http://www.google.cn/maps/vt?lyrs=s@189&gl=cn&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}
3. Google Satellite Hybrid:
https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=y&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}
4. Google Terrain: https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=p&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}
5. Google Roads: https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=h&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}
6. ESRI :
https://server.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Imagery/MapS
erver/tile/{z}/{y}/{x}

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 Digitizing

• Right click “XYZ Tiles”, select “New connection”

• XYZ Connection window will appear
• Type in the name of the base map
• Insert the URL of the base map
• Click OK
• Drag the base map into “Layer tab”
• Repeat steps to digitize

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 Vector Analysis

• Various analysis can be done on vector files

• This tutorial will show how to;
1. Reproject layers to different CRS
2. Import coordinates from CSV, GPX and KML files into QGIS
3. Extract coordinates from shapefile and export to CSV file

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 Vector Analysis (Reproject)

• The “Reproject” function changes the coordinate reference system

(CRS) of a layer
• QGIS can display layers with different CRS into the same project
(other softwares may not)
• Easiest way to know the CRS of a layer
• Right click on the layer, select “Layer CRS”
• The first line (or the grey coloured text) is the CRS of the layer
• Although the layers can be displayed in QGIS, some problems may
occur during further analysis if the CRS of each layer is not changed
• Ex: Different coordinates

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 Vector Analysis (Reproject)

• Select “Vector”→ “Data Management Tools” → “Reproject Layer”

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 Vector Analysis (Reproject)

• “Reproject Layer” window will appear

• Set “Input Layer” to the desired layer to reproject
• Set “Target CRS” to the desired CRS of the new layer
• In “Reprojected” section, select “Save to File” to save the new layer
• Tick ( ) Open output file after running algorithm
• Click Run

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 Vector Analysis (Importing Coordinates)

• Common files used to import coordinates to QGIS are from CSV,

GPX and KML files
• Comma-separated values (CSV) files are obtained from spreadsheets
• GPX files are obtained from GPS devices
• KML files are obtained from Google Earth Pro application

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 Vector Analysis (Importing Coordinates
from CSV files)
• Select “Layer”→ “Add Layer” → “Add Delimited Text Layer”

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 Vector Analysis (Importing Coordinates
from CSV files)
• “Data Source Manager Delimited Text” window will appear
• Browse CSV file from “File name”
• In “File Format” section, select CSV
• In “Geometry Definition” section, select “Point Coordinates”
• In “X field” select the x/Longitude coordinates
• In “Y field” select the y/Latitude coordinates
• Tick ( ) DMS coordinates if the coordinates are in Degree Minutes Second
format. Keep untick if coordinates are in Decimal Degree format
• Set “Geometry CRS” to the desired CRS
• Click “Add”

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 Vector Analysis (Importing Coordinates
from GPX and KML files)
• QGIS will automatically open files from GPS and KML files
• Browse the GPX and KML file from the “Browser” panel, click and
drag to the “Layers” panel

• When opening GPX file, “Select Vector Layers to Add” window will
appear. Select the desired layers

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 Vector Analysis (Importing Coordinates)

• Save the coordinates displayed in the project window as shapefile to

use in other analysis
• In “Layers” panel, right click the layer to export as shapefile
• Select “Export” → “Save Features As”

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 Vector Analysis (Importing Coordinates)

• “Save Vector Layer as” window will appear

• In “Format”, select “ESRI Shapefile”
• Browse the desired directory and name the shapefile in “File name”
• Set “CRS” to desired CRS
• Tick ( ) “Add saved file to map” if you want to display the shapefile
in the project windows
• Click OK

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 Vector Analysis (Extracting Coordinates
from Shapefile)
• Digitize points into the layer (Create a new Shapefile layer, set
geometry as point)
• Select “Vector” → “Geometry tools” → “Add Geometry Attributes”

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 Vector Analysis (Extracting Coordinates
from Shapefile)
• “Add Geometry Attributes” window will appear
• Select the layer desired in “Input Layer”
• In “Calculate using” section, select “Layer CRS” or “Project CRS”
• In “Added geom info” section, select “Save to File” to save the new
layer. Otherwise, select “Create temporary layer”
• Click Run
• Right click on the new layer and select “Open Attribute Table”
• The coordinates are displayed in decimal degrees as “xcoord” and
“ycoord”

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 Vector Analysis (Extracting Coordinates
from Shapefile)
• To change the coordinates extracted from Decimal Degrees to
Degree Minute Second (DMS) format, open attribute table of the
layer
• Select “Toggle editing mode” from the attribute table window
• Select “Open Field Calculator”

• “Field Calculator” window will appear

• Tick ( ) “Create a new field”
• Set “Output field name” to desired name (xcoord_dms)
• Set “Output field type” as “Text (string)”
• Set “Output field length” to “20”
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 Vector Analysis (Extracting Coordinates
from Shapefile)
• In “Expression” under “row_number” section, expand “Conversions”
• Double click “to_dms” function
• Function will appear in “Expression”

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 Vector Analysis (Extracting Coordinates
from Shapefile)
• In “Expression” under “row_number” section, expand “Field and
Values”
• Double click “xcoord”

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 Vector Analysis (Extracting Coordinates
from Shapefile)
• In “Expression” section, add in ,’x’,5)
• Click OK

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 Vector Analysis (Extracting Coordinates
from Shapefile)
• New field “xcoord_dms” will be added to the attribute table with
coordinates values in DMS format
• Repeat steps for y coordinates. Name field as “ycoord_dms”
• Click “Save edits” and “Toggle Editing” to finish

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 Vector Analysis (Exporting attribute table
to CSV file)
• Right click on the layer to export
• Select “Export” → “Save Feature as”
• “Save Vector Layer as” window will appear
• In “Format”, select “comma separated value [CSV]”
• Browse the desired directory and name the shapefile in “File name”
• Set “CRS” to desired CRS
• Tick ( ) “Add saved file to map” if you want to display the shapefile
in the project windows. Untick if otherwise
• Click OK

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 Producing Maps

• Maps can be produced in QGIS

• Ensure all the layers area displayed inside the “Layers” panel
• Select “Project” → “New Print Layout”
• “Create Print Layout” window will appear
• Name the print layout
• Click OK
• A new map window will appear

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 Producing Maps

• Ensure all the layers area displayed inside the “Layers” panel
• Select “Project” → “New Print Layout”
• “Create Print Layout” window will appear
• Name the print layout and click OK
• A new map window will appear

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 Producing Maps

• Right click on the empty canvas and click “Page properties” to change
the properties of the map (Details will appear in the “Items” panel)
• In the “Toolbox” panel click “Add map”
• Click and drag inside the canvas to desired size of the map
• The layers that are displayed in the “Layers” panel will appear
• Click “Move item content” to edit the position and size of the layers
• Left click and drag to reposition the layers
• Hold ‘CTRL’ key and scroll button of the mouse to adjust the size
• In the “Items” panel, under “Item Properties” section, expand “Main
Properties” and tick ( ) “Lock layers” to prevent the layers from
moving during map editing
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 Producing Maps

• To add gridlines to the map, under “Item Properties” section expand

“Grids”
• Add the grid and click “Modify Grid”
• Edit the appearance of the grid based on your preference
• Set “CRS” to desired CRS
• Set “Interval” to “Map Units”
• Set the X and Y interval
• Edit the frame based on your preference
• Tick ( ) “Draw Coordinates” to display the coordinates in the grid
• Edit the display of coordinates based on your preference

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 Producing Maps

• In the “Toolbox” panel click “Add Legend”

• Click and drag inside the canvas to desired size of the legend
• Edit the appearance of the legend based on your preference in the
“Item Properties” section
• In the “Toolbox” panel click “Add Scale Bar”
• Click and drag inside the canvas to desired size of the scale bar
• Edit the appearance of the scale bar based on your preference in the
“Item Properties” section
• In the “Toolbox” panel click “Add North Arrow”
• Click and drag inside the canvas to desired size of the north arrow
• Edit the appearance of the north arrow based on your preference in
the “Item Properties” section
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 Producing Maps

• To save the map, select “Layout” at the top toolbar → “Export as

Image”
• Set the desired directory of the image, the name and type of file.
Click save
• “Image Export Options” window will appear
• Set the desired export resolution in “Export Options”, click Save

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 -END-

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