About QGis

QGis is an open-source and free software used for geographic information systems. It is used to create, edit, visualize, analyze and publish geospatial information into maps. It’s the most used software among geographers and it is the modern form of creating maps.

The program is amazing, it has tons of functionalities and you can even add more with all the plugins available. On the latest 3.0.0 version, QGis added a Python console that helps the user to automate maps. With the creation of the Python console, with the qgis.utils.iface variable, the world of possibilities inside the software was drastically changed, leading to the beginning of PyQGis.

Functionalities

Some of PyQGis funcionalities are:

• Geocoding: the process of transforming place names or addresses into coordinates.
• Reprojecting: different maps can use different projections; reprojecting is the process of matching those different layers into a common CRS (Coordinate Reference System).
• Reading and converting data: using the Geopandas library, PyQGis is capable of reading and converting different formats such as Shapefile, GeoJSON, KML, and GPKG.
• Add and remove layers: vector or raster, you choose, with simple expressions you can edit your layers.
• Geometry conversion: transforming line to point, polygon to polyline, and vice versa.
• Automating map layout: adding and editing scale bars, legends, map titles, etc.

Work

The Geography Information Systems field is very interesting and is in need of qualified workers. A GIS Engineer is a specialist in managing spatial databases, creating maps and developing urban projects. You may become one GIS Engineer if you come from a Geography or Computer Science major, some universities even have GIS-focused courses. For this type of job you need analytical skills and to be very focused on details.

Learning Materials

There are many ways to learn more about Geography Information Systems. Some universities have GIS courses as majors or minors and there are a lot of online materials to study independently. Here are some that I recommend:

Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/c/DrChrisGeoscience

https://youtube.com/c/KatieScheurer

Websites:

https://autogis-site.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html

https://anitagraser.com/pyqgis-101-introduction-to-qgis-python-programming-for-non-programmers/

https://courses.spatialthoughts.com/pyqgis-in-a-day.html

https://www.geodose.com/p/pyqgis.html