QGIS is the main tool for working with spatial information. An overview of thematic resources for beginners.

Seals are always worried about the IT community. But the development of geographic information systems is not always worried. Previously, the field of GIS was a narrow and specific area in the IT industry, where all participants knew each other. However, with the advent of popular Internet mapping services, as well as mobile applications, every housewife was able to master the technologies that were previously available to the gurus in the field of GIS and remote sensing data .

Yandex and Google have done everything to ensure that users have a comfortable life when using map applications. However, when a man in the street begins to allow himself more, his life becomes much more complicated. This review is intended to reduce the circles of hell in the development of a new specialty. There is nothing complicated here, however, as in any specialization, there are a lot of nuances.

In a zoo, software that works with spatial information is easy to get lost. Therefore, I recommend starting this unpretentious industry with desktop GIS applications. The most popular applications are ArcGIS, MapInfo and QGIS. Objectively, the ESRI gis product line is the best. If you have an extra “lam” in your bosom, you can start with ArcGIS. However, we are for open source communism all over the world , so we will start with QGIS, since it is becoming prettier every day and there are less and less objective reasons to use proprietary products.

QGIS works on all popular OS, even under Android. All installation information can be read on the project page . For lovers of full import substitution, QGIS is assembled by the domestic office of NextGIS .
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After installing QGIS, you must first start QGIS Desktop. QGIS Browser will be needed in future work, but not now.

There are currently many QGIS manuals. In runet, they mainly concentrate on gis-lab.info . First of all, I would recommend starting with a “Brief Introduction to GIS” . Then read articles on interests, the benefit in the section of the article, you can rank publications by keywords.

In addition, you can refer to the official documentation on the project website . Those who do not want to digest a lot of letters can watch videos , for example, this one . And then download the training project and practice on cats. Owning Python and C ++ can add QGIS functionality as a plugin .

If suddenly you did not find the answer to your question, you can contact the gis-lab.info forum or use other channels of informal communication, for example, ask a question on Facebook, the “Household Cartography” group , or download gis.stackexchange.com .

So, we got acquainted with the tool, but we need data that can cost a lot of money. In the case of highly detailed space imagery, you really have to fork out. However, for most tasks open data is enough. This is primarily OpenStreetMap , as well as remote sensing data laid out at the expense of American taxpayers. For example, Landsat, MODIS, SRTM, ASTER DEM, etc. The most complete overview of open data is presented here .

In conclusion, I would like to note that, despite the growing interest in geographic information systems, the useful information on GIS is highly fragmented. I hope this review partially closes this gap.

useful links

1. QGIS project website
2. Popular in runet resource in the field of GIS and remote sensing Gis-Lab.info
3. Article on Habré "Visualize it"
4. Group Facebook "Household Cartography"
5. Popular English-speaking GIS forum