If Filipinos who are enjoying their only day off by having a picnic at the park will be turned away, then where are they supposed to go? In a foreign land where most of the domestic helpers live with their employers, and most of them playing crucial daily roles but remaining unseen, where do they fit in?
Now that you have QGIS 3.4 installed and running, what do you do next? In this post I will show you where to get your GIS (geographic information system) data, and how to open them in QGIS.
1. Download GIS files. We’ll start off easy—we need to download GIS shapefiles from Natural Earth. If shapefile is a foreign word for you, don’t panic! A shapefile is basically a geospatial vector data format that GIS software can read. A shapefile is made up of atleast three different files and you will notice it when you unzip your downloads; .shp, .dbf and .shx. This post from GIS Lounge explains it well.
You can download all the cultural files in one go (link on top of the page) or you can start with these layers:
Admin 0- Countries
Admin 0- Boundary Lines
Admin 0 – Breakaway, Disputed Areas
Admin 1 – States, Provinces
Optional layers from the Physical Vectors page:
Coastline
Ocean
After unzipping the files, I placed them in one folder for easy access.
2. Drag and drop all the .shp layers to QGIS. I will start with two layers, so it won’t be two overwhelming. Here I have the countries shapefile, and the disputed areas shapefile. You can see your layers on the Layers Panel on the left side of the screen.
The next step is to learn how to style the layers (unless you want to keep your map purple—or whatever color QGIS picked for you) and to familiarize yourself with the Layer Properties window, or the Layer Styling column. We can explore that in the next post.
-Hx
Presented during FOSS4G SoTM Oceania, November 21, 2018.
@hannahdormido | [email protected]
Here is the video of the presentation:
I am Hannah, and I see myself as a full-time journalist, part-time mermaid, and a QGIS sorceress in training. I am a journalist by training and profession, but learned mapping using QGIS as I specialized on data visualization.
Why am I a sorceress in training?
Sorceress: Because when I first encountered QGIS and all that came with it, I asked myself “what kind of sorcery is this?”
In training: Because every single time I feel like I’ve mastered QGIS, something new comes along, or someone else does something cool that of course I want to learn how to do. So never a master, always in training! Don’t you fret, it is a good thing!
This was me doing a freelance gig a while back—way before my GIS days. Those were the days when I had no clue what a shapefile was, or what a kml was for.
2. I followed GIS people on social media and joined groups. Even though I am based in Hong Kong. QGIS Australia has kindly adopted me into their community. You can find us on Twitter and check out the website. You can also join The Spatial Community on Slack. There is a channel for #QGIS, among other spatial-related topics.
3. I read a lot of blogs, like Anita Graser’s Free and Open Source GIS Ramblings. I also bought and read books on QGIS, mapping and data visualization.
Choking on Our Harvest
(Can’t take all the credit for these three gorgeous maps, I had design help from my colleague Adrian Leung in Hong Kong).
If you are someone who wants to learn more about QGIS but don’t know where or how to start, please feel free to message me. I would be more than happy to share what I know, and help however I can. QGIS and mapping might appear intimidating at first, but you are not alone in learning—there’s a huge QGIS and open source GIS community that have your back: all you have to do is reach out!
Thanks,
Hannah
@hannahdormido
[email protected]
Presented during the Asian American Journalists Association’s Digital N3 #DN3
What is QGIS?
It’s a free and open-source mapping software for processing geospatial data.
Previously known as Quantum GIS. (GIS means Geographical Information System).
How can I use this in my reporting?
You can visualize your data using maps.
What does QGIS look like?
How can I learn QGIS?
I learned QGIS via Youtube tutorials created by my former Graphics mentor.
Where do I start?
1. Download and install QGIS.
2. Download base map data.
3. Watch some Youtube video tutorials, or get in touch with me if you questions!
A few more things:
1. Join The Spatial Community on Slack. You’ll find people from all over the world who are happy to help you out. Check out the #qgis channel!
2. Follow #gistribe and #augistribe on Twitter.
Thank you,
Hannah
@hannahdormido | [email protected]