QGIS 101

Robin Tolochko

@tolomaps

robin.tolochko@gmail.com

www.tolomaps.com

Thanks to

• Mike Foster
• Alan McConchie

For your resources

what is qgis and why should i care?

geographic information system 

(in other words, it's software that allows you to open geographic files, edit them, analyze them, and make maps)

FREE

That's generally good, right?!

OPEN-SOURCE

Also generally good

Let's get to know the interface

Map view

Manage Layers

Status bar

Tool bars​

(Yours might look slightly different.

That's OK.)

Adding/Removing Tool Bars

let's make a map!

But wait, what are we making a map of?

Before we can make a map, we need to get data.

Natural Earth Data:

Great for general reference data

World Bank: 

Lots of worldwide datasets used in development
(with decent data from previous years, too)
 

Downloads:

Countries (from Natural Earth)

GDP per capita (original link from World Bank here)

Adding data

1. Add vector data
(countries)

2. Add CSV data
(GDP per capita)

Adding your CSV

Projections

Now we need to connect our GDP data to our map data.

Examine our attribute tables

Open Attribute Table button

Right-click on the layer

--> Open attribute table

Adding a join

Add Join

Adding a join, part 2

Save your new, joined file and add it to the map

Styling the map

#1

#2 

#3 

#4 

Explore the other properties

Exporting your map: Print Composer

One of the pros + cons of QGIS: Plugins

now go forth and make maps!

But don't be afraid to ask for help. 

• Stack Exchange
• QGIS User Guide

We are happy to answer questions here, and there are also wonderful online resources: 

GrACIAS.

Thanks to MaptimeHQ for your support and inspiration.

Thanks again to Mike Foster from Maptime Boston for your QGIS presentation.

And, of course, thanks to CartoDB for the free pizza.