Basic QGIS Operations
Engr. Ainalyn A. Nerves
Project Technical Specialist II
Philippine Space Agency
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Creating a New
Shapefile
Go to Layer > Create
Layer > New Shapefile
Layer
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Creating a New
Shapefile
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Creating a New
Shapefile
• Navigate to the folder
where you want to save
your shapefile.
• Set the shapefile name
to exercise-shp
• Click Save
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Creating a New
Shapefile
• You may set the
Geometry type to Point,
MultiPoint, LineString,
or Polygon. In this
exercise, set it to
LineString .
• Click OK.
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Creating a New
Shapefile
• You will notice
that a new
layer is added
under the
Layers Panel.
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Digitizing Features
• Digitizing is the process of manually drawing map features
in QGIS.
• These features can be represented as points, lines, or
polygons .
• It allows us to create new spatial data from a basemap,
satellite image, or other reference layer.
• This is useful for mapping features that are not yet
available as GIS data.
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Digitizing Features
• Zoom in to any area with visible roads.
• Select [Link] in the Layers Panel.
• In the Toolbars Panel, click on Toggle Editing ( ) icon.
• After clicking, the digitizing tools will be enabled.
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Digitizing Features
• After enabling the digitizing
tools, click on Add Line
Feature ( ) 1
• You can start digitizing
features that can be
represented as lines such as
roads and rivers. 2
• To delete the last point, click
on backspace. Right click
when done.
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3
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Digitizing Features
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Digitizing Features
• Click Save Layer Edits ( )
to save digitized feature.
• Click the Toggle Editing ( )
again if done adding and/or
editing features.
• The new line feature is now
stored in the shapefile.
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Editing Symbology
(Vector)
• Right-click the shapefile layer.
• Click Properties.
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Editing Symbology (Vector)
• Go to the Symbology
tab.
• On the dropdown, click
Single Symbol.
• Under Line, click on
Simple Line.
• Change the Color to your
preference. You may also
change the Stroke width
(thickness) of the line.
• Click Apply.
• Click OK.
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Editing Symbology (Vector)
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Editing Symbology (Raster)
• Open Properties > Symbology
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Editing Symbology (Raster)
6000
• Set the Min values
6000
to 0 and the Max
6000
values to 6000.
• Click OK
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Editing Symbology (Raster)
Before After
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Converting Tabular Data to Spatial Data
• Tabular data is data stored
in rows and columns.
• If the table (in .csv) has
coordinates, QGIS can plot
it on a map.
• Each row becomes one
point feature.
• Longitude = X coordinate
• Latitude = Y coordinate
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Converting Tabular Data to Spatial Data
• In the Layer menu, select
Add Layer > Add
Delimited Text Layer.
• Keyboard shortcut:
Ctrl + Shift + T
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Converting Tabular Data to Spatial Data
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Converting Tabular Data to Spatial Data
• Make sure that the X field
is set as Longitude and Y
field as Latitude.
• Click OK.
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Converting Tabular Data to Spatial Data
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Converting Tabular Data to Spatial Data
• Each row represents one feature.
• Each column represents an attribute field.
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Converting Tabular Data to Spatial Data
• Currently, the Tabular Data
is just being represented
as a point data.
• We need to Export this to
become a Vector data.
Right Click the Layer >
Export > Save Feature As..
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Converting Tabular Data to Spatial Data
• Save as [Link]
• Click OK.
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Converting Tabular Data to Spatial Data
• Each row represents one feature.
• Each column represents an attribute field.
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Common Spatial Analysis Tools
• Spatial analysis is a set of
techniques for analyzing spatial
data
• The results of spatial analysis
are dependent on the locations
of the objects being analyzed
• In QGIS, you can find these
tools in:
Vector > Geoprocessing Tools
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Common Spatial Analysis Tools
Buffer
Buffer is a common tool for addressing the proximity question, “what’s near what?”, in GIS,
which can be used on points, lines, or polygons (Schmitz, 2012; ESRI, n.d.).
Use of buffering tool on points, lines and polygons (Image credit to Schmitz (2012))
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Common Spatial Analysis Tools
Union
Union combines multiple input datasets of the same data type into a single, new
output dataset. This tool can be used on point, line, or polygon features (ESRI, n.d.).
Example of extracting attribute 1 of a feature using the select tool. (Image credit to Schmitz (2012)
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Common Spatial Analysis Tools
Clip
Clip extracts features from an input dataset that fall within the boundary of an overlay (clip)
dataset, producing a new output dataset limited to that extent. This tool can be used on
point, line, or polygon features.
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Contact the Philippine Space Agency
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
info@[Link]
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