TRAINING ON FLOOD HAZARD MAPPING,

INTERPRETATION, ANALYSIS, AND APPLICATION

Introduction to QGIS

Geo-SAFER Mindanao Program

Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging
Technology Research and Development
Department of Science and Technology
Authors/Contributors
This training module was prepared/contributed by the following personnel of the Geo-SAFER
Mindanao Program:

Name Affiliation Type of Date of

Contribution Contribution/
Revision
Engr. Elizabeth Mindanao State University – Wrote the March 2014
Edan M. Albiento Iligan Institute of Technology, Manual and
Iligan City Collected the
data
Anthony E. Raterta Geo-SAFER Western Performed the March 8, 2018
Mindanao, Mindanao State procedure
University – Iligan Institute of
Mark Sanny T. Technology, Iligan City Reviewed the March 4, 2019
Perfecto manual
Engr. Daniel S. Reviewed the March 4, 2019
Mostrales manual

Engr. Arthur M. Geo-SAFER Mindanao Reviewed the March 8, 2019

Amora Agusan Project, Caraga manual
State University, Butuan City

Copyright Notice
Copyright © 2019 by All Authors/Contributors and Geo-SAFER Mindanao Program, Caraga
State University, Butuan City.

All Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, this module and all materials herein are
copyrighted by the entities indicated above.

No part of this module maybe reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, without either the prior written permission or authorization of the
Authors/Contributors and the Geo-SAFER Mindanao Program.

Please address any of your concerns to:

Engr. Alan E. Milano

Project Leader
Geo-SAFER Western Mindanao
Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology, Iligan City
Contact Number: (+63917) 168-9683
Email Address: geosafermin.msuiit@gmail.com

Engr. Meriam Makinano-Santillan

Program Leader
Geo-SAFER Mindanao Program
Caraga State University, Butuan City
Contact Number: (+63-85) 342-1889
E-mail Address: geosafer.mindanao@gmail.com

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Table of Contents
Authors/Contributors ............................................................................................................. 2
Copyright Notice ................................................................................................................... 2
Objective of this Exercise ...................................................................................................... 4
Expected Outcomes .............................................................................................................. 4
Requirements ....................................................................................................................... 4
About QGIS .......................................................................................................................... 4
Datasets to be used for this exercise .................................................................................... 4
Part 1. Installation of QGIS 2.18 ............................................................................................ 5
Part 2. Introduction to QGIS .................................................................................................. 7
Opening QGIS ................................................................................................................... 7
QGIS Graphical User Interface .......................................................................................... 7
Loading Vectors ................................................................................................................ 8
Getting Around a Map .................................................................................................... 9
Layer Properties............................................................................................................. 9
Loading Raster ................................................................................................................ 11

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Objective of this Exercise
This exercise aims to capacitate the participants regarding the installation and familiarization
of the open source software, Quantum GIS (QGIS).

The exercise is composed of the following:

 Part 1. Installation of QGIS
 Part 2. Introduction to QGIS

Expected Outcomes
After the exercise, the participants are expected to have:
 Installed QGIS on their computers
 Familiarized the parts and tools of QGIS

Requirements
 QGIS Version 2.18
 Laptop Computer and Mouse (with wheel)

About QGIS
Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS) is an open source software developed by
the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) which is downloadable in
https://qgis.org/en/site/forusers/download.html. In addition, it is available in different versions
and runs in Windows, MacOS X, Linux, and Android.

Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS) is equipped with a number of tools that
can perform and accommodate a number of vectors and rasters.

Datasets to be used for this exercise

All files that you will use for this exercise are contained in “C:\...\Desktop\LGU
Training\Area 3\Exercise No. 1\Data”. The files consist of such as training manual, Political
boundaries, flood hazard shapefiles, buildings, roads, bridges datasets, and Digital Elevation
Model (DEM)

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Part 1. Installation of QGIS 2.18
A number of latest and old versions are available for download in the QGIS website.
However, for this exercise, QGIS 2.18 or QGIS Las Palmas is used since it has been the
longest proven stable version among all the available versions.

 After acquiring a copy of the QGIS Las Palmas installer, double click the application
file and the setup window will appear.

 Clicking Next will lead to another window. Click “I Agree”.

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 Click “Next” and “Install” to continue installing.

 Finally, Click “Finish” to end the installation.

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Part 2. Introduction to QGIS
Opening QGIS
 Double click the QGIS Desktop icon ( ) to open QGIS.
 Upon opening the application, the Tips prompt appears.

*you can choose to read all the tips by clicking Next or you can tick the Checkbox
and click OK to dismiss the prompt.

QGIS Graphical User Interface

1
2
3

5 6
4

1 Title Bar
2 Menu Bar
3 Tools
4 Manage Layer Tools
5 Panels
6 Main Frame
7 Status Bar

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  Save your project by clicking the Save icon ( ) located below the Menu Bar.
Name your project as “<familyName_3.a.1>” in the designated Output folder
directory.

Loading Vectors

 Click on Add Vector Layer icon ( ).

 Click Browse ( ) button and navigate to the Data folder. Choose

MunicipalBoundary.shp click Add. Do the same for BrgyBoundary.shp.
 The boundary features will appear in the Layers panel and visible in the Main frame.

 Click on Zoom Full icon ( ) to see the full layer extent.

 Add another vector by navigating in the Browser panel. Locate the Data folder.
Expand the folder by clicking the plus (+) sign.
 Add hazard maps of your river basins i.e. 100yr_haz.shp,
25yr_haz.shp and 5yr_haz.shp by highlighting the feature then

click Add icon ( ) in the Browser panel.

 Add the remaining features i.e MunicipalBuildings.shp, MunicipalRoads.shp
and MunicipalBridges.shp by double clicking the features.
(Hint: Add the features one at a time)

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Getting Around a Map
 Zoom in to your respective municipal boundaries using the Zoom In tool on the
Map Navigation toolbar. When using the zoom tools, you can click and drag a box
around the area you would like to zoom in to.

Pan Zoom In Zoom Out Zoom Full Zoom Last Zoom Next Refresh

Pan Map Zoom to Zoom to Zoom to New New Show

to Native Selectio Layer Map Bookmark Bookmark
Selection Resolution n View s
 Use the Zoom In, Zoom Out, and Pan Map tools to move around the map, and the
Zoom to Full tool to go back to the full view. Zoom In to your municipal boundary
again after trying with these tools.
 Try also using the mouse wheel to Zoom In and Out the Map and long pressing the
mouse wheel and drag to Pan the map.
**Click on the box before the layers to turn off and on the layers in the Main Frame.

Layer Properties

 Select the BrgyBoundary.shp layer.

 Right click on one of the polygon layer then choose Properties. A Layer
Properties window will appear.
 Under Style, choose the color you want to render. You can also vary the
transparency of your layer under Layer rendering found in the lower part. Expand
by clicking .
 Click Apply then OK.

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 For the flood hazard layer, choose Categorized instead of Single Symbol.

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  In the Column option, choose field Var. Then choose YlOrRd in the Color Ramp.
 Click Classify.
 Edit the color combination based on the value.
 Click on the symbol to edit the color.
 Click on the Simple fill to show the symbol layer type.
 Select the Fill color: Yellow for 1, Orange for 2 and Red for 3.
 Select Transparent Stroke as the Stroke.

 Click OK.
 Adjust the transparency by moving the Layer transparency ruler.
 Click Apply then OK.
 Try also double clicking on the layers to show the Layer Properties window.
 After changing the colors of the boundaries and flood hazard maps, try also for the
roads and buildings.
 Explore on the Layer Properties window and compare the results.
 Save your project to your Output folder.

Loading Raster

 Click the Add Raster Layer icon ( ).

 Navigate to the DEMs file in the Data folder. Choose SAR.tif > click Add. The
SAR.tif raster layer will appear in the Layers panel and visible in the Main frame.

 Zoom In, Zoom Out on the image, and compare the difference with the vector
layers.

***
Congratulations!
You have successfully completed this exercise on Introduction to
QGIS.
***

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