QGIS

QGIS or Quantum GIS is a popular open source Geospatial Information System (GIS) package. Besides its intuitive user interface, a large portion of its popularity comes from modularity, which enables it to be extended by third party plugins and other GIS packages. Using QGIS is by no means required, though we recommend it as all corresponding exercises in this course use it.

Download and installation

Installation instructions for QGIS can be found in the download section of the project website. Opening the download section of the QGIS site might feel overwhelming at first due to the choice of different installer packages. For Windows, we recommend installing QGIS via the "OSGeo4W Network Installer (64-bit)", which installs other GIS tools (SAGA GIS, GRASS GIS, etc.) and makes them available via the QGIS user interface. When using the OSGeo4W installer, choose "Desktop Express Install" during the installation process. Installation procedure for other operating systems is also well documented on the website.

Getting started / external material

When starting out with QGIS or GIS in general, a natural starting point might be the well-prepared QGIS training manual with extensive exercises using preprepared data. The training manual covers many advanced topics, however this course only requires knowledge from the first couple of training modules (e.g., modules 1-8).

If online video tutorials are more up your alley, we recommend checking out introductory videos by GeoDelta Labs:

or Klas Karlsson:

Another solid option for an introduction to QGIS is the free "Getting started with QGIS" Crash Course by Udemy.

Overall we believe that GIS users coming to QGIS from other platforms are not going to struggle, and their learning curve will be mostly centered around looking through the user interface for tools they already know.