Geological Remote sensing (ES415A)

Lab 1: Georeferencing and Map composing

Introduction to QGIS

1. Starting QGIS

Go to Start > All programs> QGIS.

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1. Menu Bar
2. Tool Bar
3. Map legend
4. Map view
5. Processing Toolbar
6. Status Bar

Menu Bar:- The menu bar provides access to various QGIS features using standard
hierarchical menu.
Tool Bar:- Toolbar provides access to most of the tools for interacting with the map.
Map Legend:- Used to set visibility and ordering of layer. Layer listed on the top are drwan
over the layer listed below in the legend.
Map view:- The map will displayed in the window. All the results of the operations we perform
are displayed in the Map view section. Map view and legend are tightly bound to each other.
The changes we will make to the legend are reflected in the Map.
Processing toolbar:- Provides some additional toolbar used for processing map.
Status bar:- It shows the position of the cursor in map coordinates. The right side displays the
coordinate reference system used in the map.

Georeferencing Overview
Georeferencing is the process of assigning locations to geographical/digital objects within a
geographic frame of reference. A non-georeferenced image is georeferenced to an existing
image that already has embedded geographic information. It is the process of taking a digital
image (i.e., an air photo, a scanned geologic map, or a picture of a topographic map) and adding
geographic information to the image so that GIS or mapping software can place the image in
its appropriate real-world location. This process is completed by selecting pixels in the digital
image and assigning them geographic coordinates.

• Go to programme> open QGIS> go to open data source manager > browse your
toposheet entitled as “Sukhna lake toposheet.jpg” > click on add> then your raster file
will be open in the map view window in the QGIS.

• Go to menu bar> click on Raster> Georeferencer> a new Georeferencer dialogue box

will appear> In the menu bar click on Raster icon and load the raster image entitled
as “Sukhna lake toposheet.jpg”.

NOTE: If you are not finding the Georeferencer option, choose Plugins > Manage and install
plugins. Type "Georeferencer GDAL" in the search box and make sure you marked tick on the
plugin and install the plugin.

➢ Click on Add Point icon >click on the upper left corner of your toposheet map>
new dialogue box will appear name as “enter map coordinates”. For e.g. in the X/East
coordinate write 76 45’> In the Y/ North 30 45’ (we are entering the coordinates in
degree minute format). you must enter at least 4 X and Y coordinates (4 corners)
➢ Then click on settings in the menu bar> Transformation settings and select polynomial
1 in transformation type, resembling method as “Nearest neighbour”, Target SRS
EPSG:4326-WGS 84, put your desirable output file location, compression
“None”>check the box of save GCP points and the box of “Load in project when done”
and uncheck all other boxes > click ok.
➢ Check the polynomial1 mean error value in the lower right corner of the georeferencer
dialogue box. Acceptable mean error should be <5. click on Start georeferencing icon
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(Nearest Neighbor: The point in the new grid simply acquires the DN values of that point in
the older grid which lies closest to it.)

• After completion, close the georeferencer dialogue box >a new georeferencer modified
image will be open in the map view window.
NOTE: After georeferencing is done please open your modified file and over the google
satellite that can be open using quickmapservice plugin. You can install this plugin.
Go to plugins> type “Quickmapservice”>Install.

Map composing
• Go to project in menu bar> new print layout> create print layout dialogue box will
appear> enter Chandigarh toposheet >click ok. This will open an empty map canvas.
• zoom in to the empty map canvas so that it can fit to your screen> in the toolbox bar

click on add map icon > draw a rectangle in empty map canvas> your map will be
added> click on move item content icon ( you can zoom in and out using the move
item content icon so that it can fit to your canvas) > click on select/move item icon
to move canvas.
• From page properties adjust the canvas. In the items layout click on Chandigarh
toposheet> go to item properties> select project CRS: EPSG: 4326 – WGS 84> Go to
grids> Click on add a new grid button > click on grid 1> go to modify grid> check
the box of enable grid > select x axis value 0.05 and y axis 0.05> choose grid type
“frame and notation only”> frame style “zebra”> frame size “1mm”> check the box of
draw coordinates> format “degree, minutes with suffix”> in left and right choose “show
all”, “Outside frame” and “vertically ascending”> coordinate precision 0> distance to
map frame “1mm”.
• Go to add scale bar icon >click on scale bar item> go to scale bar in item> go to
item properties > style” single box”> scalebar units’ “kilometres”> Label unit multiplier
“1”.
• Add the North icon . Adjust the size of the icon. Add the legend using legend icon
. You can change the legend icon by unchecking the auto update box> add text using
the add label icon in upper middle of toposheet > add background. Within the text
box write “Lab-1 Georeferencing”. In the lower right corner of toposheet write “your
name and roll no.”> add background.
• To save file >Click on the Layout in the menu bar and click on export as image > save
at your desirable location in pdf format> save.
NOTE: -The name format of your file should be “Your name _Your roll no._Lab-1”.