MODULE 1:

FAMILIARIZATION WITH QUANTUM GIS

Training on Geographic Information System using Quantum GIS

NATIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT COORDINATION STAFF
November 5 9, 12 16, 2012

OVERVIEW:
GIS stands for 'Geographical Information System'. A GIS consists of:

Digital Data the geographical information that you will view and analyse using computer hardware and
software.
Computer Hardware computers used for storing data, displaying graphics and processing data.
Computer Software computer programs that run on the computer hardware and allow you to work with
digital data. A software program that forms part of the GIS is called a GIS Application. An example of a GIS
application is Quantum GIS.

With Quantum GIS (or QGIS) you can open digital maps in your computer similar to opening and working with
document files in Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Word Processor. With QGIS you can create new spatial map
information from old spatial data, design and create printed maps easily, and perform spatial analysis.

STARTING A QGIS SESSION:

QGIS is a user friendly Open Source Geographic Information System (GIS) licensed under the GNU General Public
License. The current version as of the writing of this manual is v 2.4.0 Chugiak. The installer can be downloaded
from the download page of QGIS website http://www.qgis.org. It is assumed that the software will be running in
Windows OS.
After installation, there are two main options in running the application: Starting a new session or Opening an
existing session.

STARTING A NEW SESSION THRU THE WINDOWS START MENU:

Press the Start Menu, usually on the lower left of the Computer Desktop Interface, and then select All Programs.
From here, select the program folder QGIS Chugiak, and then QGIS Desktop (2.4.0). The QGIS banner will appear
and shortly the main interface of QGIS will show and QGIS Tips window. You have a working QGIS session now.
Read and close the QGIS Tips window and study the main interface.

Press the
windows Start
menu
Select All
Programs
Select QGIS
Desktop (2.4.0)
QGIS starts

Module 1: Familiarization with Quantum GIS

OPENING AN EXISTING QGIS PROJECT SESSION:

If there is an existing QGIS session (NOTE: for this activity a project session is already been created), opening it is
simply done by double clicking the .qgs file. In your computer the folder Module 1 / Dataset contains shapefiles
(.shp, .dbf, .shx etc) and qgis file (.qgs). QGIS file saves the sessions environment (map scale, symbology etc) when
you are working on your GIS data. Opening this file will also load the GIS data in that session.

Double click the file

Module 1.qgs will
open the QGIS
project session

FAMILIARIZING THE QGIS INTERFACE:

Below is a snapshot of a QGIS working session with data already been loaded. QGIS application is design to have a
user friendly graphical user interface (GUI) that can be manipulated using the mouse and keyboard.

Menus
Toolbars
Browser
Layer List
Map View
Status Bar

Module 1: Familiarization with Quantum GIS

MENUS:
The application provides Menus near to the top of the window (File, Edit etc.) which, when clicked using the
mouse, shows a panel of actions. These actions provide a way for you to tell QGIS what you want to do. For
example you may use the menus to tell the GIS Application to add a new layer to the display output.

Click Layer
menu, then
Add Vector
Layer
Action will
make this
dialog box
appear

TOOLBARS:
Toolbars (rows of small pictures/icons that can be clicked with the mouse) normally sit just below the menus and
provide a quicker way to use frequently needed actions such as map navigations, adding data, or saving the
session. Holding your mouse over a picture will usually tell you what will happen when you click on it. This is called
a tooltip.
Hold your
mouse over
this icon
Tooltip
shows with
information
on the action

By default, when you first run the QGIS application, it will show a lot of unnecessary toolbars. For beginners, this is
somewhat overwhelming. To customize the interface and to show just the most needed toolbars, right click your
mouse on an area near the toolbars or menus.
Right click near
the Menus or
Toolbars
Select these 5
toolbars
See change in
the interface

Module 1: Familiarization with Quantum GIS

LAYER PANEL:
A basic function of QGIS is to display map layers. Layers are stored as files on a disk or as records in a database. An
example of common data format for map layers is the shapefile (.shp). The shapefile format defines the geometry
and attributes of geographically referenced features. More on this will be discussed on the next module. Normally
each map layer will represent something in the real world South_Cotabato_Bounds layer represents
administrative barangay boundary and South_Cotabato_POI_Tourism layer represents the tourism spots in the
area. The Layers Toolbar (or the Layer Panel) shows the spatial layer (be a shapefile or other files) loaded in your
QGIS session.
Data added in
QGIS session
appears here

Multiple data
loaded are
overlaid on top
of each other.

MAP VIEW:
When you open a layer in the QGIS it will appear in the map view. The Map View shows a graphic representing
your layer. It provides a dynamic visualization of the active data layers that can be mapped. When you add more
than one layer to a map view, the layers are overlaid on top of each other.

STATUS BAR:
Status bar provides some vital information about the current project settings. Information such as the coordinates
(X, Y) of the cursor position can be seen in the status bar. Scale of the zoom level and the coordinate and
projection system EPSG can also be found in the status bar. EPSG which stands for European Petroleum Survey
Group is a standard code to define geodetic parameters in mapping. Some of the most used EPSG codes are: EPSG:
4326 (WGS84) EPSG: 900913 (Google Projection) and EPSG: 32651 (UTM 51N/ WGS84)

NAVIGATING AND IDENTIFYING THE MAP:

Map navigation toolbar provides a simple set of tools to help you navigate with the display. This set includes pan
and zoom tools in different modes. In order to use the tool, you must enable it by clicking the respective icon in
the toolbar. Tooltip can help you identify the different modes of navigation.

Module 1: Familiarization with Quantum GIS

Aside from navigating the map, the usual operation in a GIS session is to instantly identify features from a layer.
Attribute toolbar provides a set of tools to instantly get information from an active layer. Aside from identify tool,
selecting/deselecting a feature are some of the most used tools in GIS session. Open attribute table is also found
in the Attribute tool which is very useful when dealing with the data stored in the database of the layer. Other
handy tools are the Measure, Map Tips (similar to Tooltip) and Selection Tools.

SAVING THE QGIS SESSION:

After you finish working with the QGIS session, saving the project in .qgs file will allow you to continue the current
GIS environment in another session (in another day). The File toolbar or the File menu has tools that deals with the
qgs file. The QGIS Project file will basically save the status and the working session environment of the QGIS.
NOTE: Saving the project will not save the edits you have done with the data layers. There is a separate saving
protocol for the layer which will be discussed in Module 5 and Module 6.

Click Save Project As in the File toolbar

OR the File menu
Type Module 1 A in the dialog box that
appears.

Module 1: Familiarization with Quantum GIS

WRAP UP
In this module, you have learned to work with the Quantum GIS user interface. Just like other modern GIS
application, Quantum GIS has this Windows look-and-feel that is easy to learn. In order to work with QGIS, the user
will actively select or pick a command from the different functions/ tools offered by QGIS. Dialog boxes and pop up
window similar to a wizard type instructions and steps will then guide the user to the succeeding procedure until
the final result is achieved.
For first time GIS users, GIS functions usually operate in multiple steps, with the user supplying information in the
parameters defined by the function. Thus it is important to read and follow the dialog boxes and pop up window
that show up in every command that you use in QGIS. For more details on the different tools, you can always refer
to the QGIS manual online or the downloaded pdf version of it. The site is
http://docs.qgis.org/html/en/docs/user_manual/index.html
For more tutorials online, you can also visit:
http://docs.qgis.org/html/en/docs/gentle_gis_introduction/index.html
http://qgis.spatialthoughts.com/

Module 1: Familiarization with Quantum GIS