1.1 QGIS

QGIS is a leading free and open source desktop GIS. It allows to create, edit, visualize, analyze and publish geospatial information on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, BSD, and Android.
QGIS is released under the GNU Public License (GPL) Version 2 or any later version. Using QGIS under this license enables users to inspect and modify the source code and guarantees access to a GIS program that is free of cost and can be freely modified.¹²

QGIS supports raster, vector, mesh, and point cloud data in a range of standard formats:

• Raster formats: GeoPackage, GeoTIFF, GRASS, ArcInfo binary and ASCII grids, ERDAS Imagine SDTS, WMS, WCS, PostgreSQL/PostGIS, and other GDAL supported formats.
• Vector formats: GeoPackage, ESRI Shapefiles, GRASS, SpatiaLite, PostgreSQL/PostGIS, MSSQL, Oracle, WFS, Vector Tiles, and other OGR supported formats.
• Mesh formats: NetCDF, GRIB, 2DM, and other MDAL supported formats.
• Point-cloud format: LAS/LAZ and EPT datasets.

In this guide the QGIS version is 3.12.3-București. Different versions might have slight differences in the user interface.

Figure 1.1: QGIS Desktop User Interface [12]

In this guide, we will upload 2 types of data layers to analyze them using various tools from the QGIS desktop platform -

1.vector layers - data that provides a way to represent real world features within the GIS environment using geometry. The geometry is made up of one or more interconnected vertices creating a point, line or polygon feature.
2.raster layers - are made up of a matrix of pixels (also called cells), each containing a value that represents the conditions for the area covered by that cell. (See 1.2 )¹³

Figure 1.2: Vector and Raster Layers [13]

To download QGIS Desktop click here. For the full QGIS Documentation including a user guide and training manual click here.

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12. Welcome to the QGIS project!. Retrieved 25 August 2021, from https://qgis.org/en/site/↩︎

13. Intro to GIS. Retrieved November 2021, from https://serc.carleton.edu/eyesinthesky2/week5/intro_gis.html↩︎