QGIS Mega Course: GIS and Remote Sensing –Beginner to Expert

Discover QGIS, the free, open-source GIS software, and master its desktop and browser tools, plugins, and geospatial analysis for vector, raster, and database formats.

Install QGIS on your PC by choosing between the current 3.20.2 and the long-term Hanover release; prefer long-term releases for stability across Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android.

Learn to download the QGIS installer for Windows from the official site, select the long term release for stability, run the installer, and launch QGIS with GRASS integration.

Learn how to install stable and older QGIS versions and the required plugins, such as the semi-automatic classification plugin, to maintain compatibility across updates.

Explore the QGIS interface by opening and saving projects, managing layers with the layer panel, and customizing panels and toolbars; use identify and coordinate tools to analyze spatial data.

Learn how to install and manage QGIS plugins to enhance GIS analysis, including the semi automatic classification plugin and Sentinel Hub for supervised classification and Copernicus data.

Define geographic information systems as a framework to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage and present geographic data, integrating layers into maps for interactive queries and smarter decisions.

Explore geodata basics by distinguishing vector data (points, lines, polygons with latitude and longitude) and raster data (pixels representing continuous or discrete values).

Learn to load vector data into QGIS by adding shapefiles as vector layers, handling coordinate system prompts, and arranging subway stations, green spaces, facilities, and boundaries in the correct order.

Learn to visualize vector layers in QGIS by adjusting layer properties and symbology, choosing colors and line styles for roads, subway stations, green spaces, and boundaries.

Learn to add and visualize raster layers in QGIS 3.16, adjust and invert color ramps, view a boundary layer, and analyze nitrogen dioxide pollution rasters using histogram and identity tools.

Save your QGIS project using save as to preserve symbology, labeling, and the current zoom of all loaded layers, keeping files in the same folder and saving frequently before analysis.

Find free GIS data sources for your project, from natural resources data and open data to satellite imagery via Google Maps, Sentinel Hub, USGS Earth Explorer, and Google Earth Engine.

Learn to import non-spatial data into QGIS, convert text data with longitude and latitude to a point vector layer, and export as a shapefile for analysis.

Learn how to join data from an Excel sheet to a polygon layer in QGIS using a common id field, and export the joined layer to preserve changes.

Discover how attribute tables in QGIS attach excel-like tables to vector data, view and edit features, perform queries, and compute new attributes and geometry operations.

Learn to select features in QGIS attribute tables: use select all, invert selection, select by expression, and export subsets; plus map-based polygon, freehand, and radius selections.

Learn to add geometry attribute columns to a QGIS attribute table and compute area and perimeter with the geometry attributes tool, using a projected coordinate system and square feet units.

Learn how to edit attribute tables in QGIS by activating editing mode, deleting or duplicating features, updating fields, and saving changes, with methods to modify columns and calculate new features.

Organize attribute table columns and add a new field with the field calculator. Convert area from square feet to square meters by multiplying by 0.09.

Export your QGIS map to image or PDF from the project export menu, adjusting extent and resolution to create presentation-ready screenshots of OpenStreetMap locations.

Create your first GIS map in QGIS by loading a shapefile, applying categorized region styling, and building a print layout with legend and scale bar.

Explore how to choose optimal color schemes for maps using the Call a Brewer tool, tailoring sequential, qualitative, and divergent data visuals, overlays, and exports.

This lecture introduces core vector analysis, covering basic geometric vector operations, vector overlay, and how to compute distances, areas, intersections, and overlays for points, lines, and polygons in GIS.

Explore core vector analysis in GIS, covering editing and cleanup operations like clipping, updating, dissolving, merging, and eliminating, plus buffer zone techniques for polygons and lines.

Learn how to create buffers around roads in QGIS, choosing distance, end cap style, and whether to dissolve results to produce either a single polygon or multiple polygons.

Apply QGIS to create a variable distance buffer around lakes by assigning buffer distances per size class using field calculator and select by attributes, then dissolve the result.

Learn to perform a vector erase overlay to remove lake areas from a polygon buffer. Select the lake layer as the overlay and save the result as a permanent buffer.

Master vector overlay in QGIS by applying a union of road and lake buffers to reveal polygons within both proximity zones, then save the selected suitable areas for camping.

Learn how to split a single polygon into multiple polygons using QGIS vector geometry tools, specifically multipart to single part, and save the result for future analysis.

Use QGIS vector analysis to calculate polygon areas and perform field statistics, including creating an area field, converting square meters to hectares, and summing suitable sites.

Explore local raster analysis and map algebra, performing per-pixel boolean and arithmetic operations on multiple layers, including and, or, and scalar multiplications.

Add two raster datasets to the QGIS project, compare their pixel sizes (nine and three meters) and the UTM 15 coordinate system, then adjust the color ramp.

Compute topographic variables from digital elevation models in raster format using sugar software, loading Walli three and Wolin nine rasters to derive shade, slope, and aspect.

Learn to compute slope and aspect from a DEM in QGIS, choosing slope in percent, selecting formulas, and visualizing results with a spectral color ramp.

learn how to reclassify rasters in QGIS using the SAGA toolbox, converting no-data values to zero or another value while preserving original elevations for high-resolution rasters.

Resample raster data in qgis using the saga toolbox to change spatial resolution from nine to three meters, selecting nearest neighbor or linear interpolation and setting output extent.

Use the Saga toolbox raster calculator to fuse a 3-meter reclassified raster with a dem, substituting zero values from underlay with the second layer, and generate a heal shade image.

Apply a low pass filter in saga toolbox to smooth raster artifacts in a digital elevation model. It prepares the data for further GIS and remote sensing analysis.

Learn to create a cost surface in QGIS by converting roads to a raster cost layer, applying slope and distance costs, and budgeting under 25,000.

Learn to calculate slope from a digital elevation model using the QGIS raster analysis tool, keep default settings, run the slope calculation, and save and view the resulting slope values.

Learn to remove decimal values from a slope raster by using the Saga toolbox's raster calculator in QGIS, applying an integer formula, saving the output, and continuing analysis.

Compute the cost of potential buildings by applying a slope-based formula to a decimal-free slope input, using the calculator tool and saving the resulting cost layer.

Add a new integer field to the roads layer's attribute table, initialize it to zero via field calculator, to support distance cost calculations in a QGIS project.

Edit the roads field to assign values, then rasterize the vector roads using slope-based dimensions, and save the resulting road raster.

Calculate proximity from the roads layer by using the proximity raster tool, set distance units and maximum distance, save as float, and apply a color ramp to visualize changing distances.

Multiply the distance raster by a scalar value of 25 using the raster calculator in QGIS to convert distances into cost per meter based on road proximity.

Combine the two rasters to compute a construction cost using slope and distance, then save and visualize with a color ramp showing cheaper darker areas versus expensive lighter areas.

Use raster overlay to mask the total cost layer with a 0/1 mask from reclassifying under 5000 USD. Multiply the mask with the cost layer to reveal suitable construction sites.

Define remote sensing as using electromagnetic radiation sensors to record Earth images for interpretation, and examine its advantages—up-to-date, synoptic, low-cost data from multiple satellites—along with processing needs and limitations.

Explore remote sensing with satellite imagery, illustrating environmental monitoring, urban growth, disaster risk reduction, and agricultural and forest management through real-world Landsat, Ikonos, and Aster examples.

Explain digital images as grids of discrete pixels, each holding an average radiance value for its ground area and, in multispectral cases, multiple spectral band numbers.

Learn to use the semi-automatic classification plugin in QGIS for supervised classification and image processing. Prepare inputs, apply dark object subtraction, run classification, and perform validation with documentation and support.

Download satellite imagery for land use mapping using the semi-automatic classification plugin in QGIS, creating portal logins and selecting coordinates, dates, and cloud cover for Landsat data.

Examine spatial, temporal, spectral, and radiometric resolutions of satellite imagery, including pixel size, revisit frequency, spectral bands from multispectral to hyperspectral, and true versus false color composites.

Learn to display Landsat 8 imagery in QGIS by stacking spectral bands, creating true and false color composites, and visualize vegetation for deforestation mapping using near-infrared band.

Plan satellite image analysis workflows for land use land cover mapping by selecting appropriate images, applying cosmetic operations, radiometric, atmospheric, and geometric corrections, and performing classification and change detection.

Load a Landsat five image into A.j.'s software, inspect band histograms, and apply contrast, brightness, and local histogram stretches for improved feature detection.

Compute NDVI with QGIS using Landsat bands 4 and 3, via raster calculator or plugins, to monitor vegetation, assess biomass, and support land use and land cover classification.

Compute the NDVI from Landsat bands 4 and 3 in QGIS, visualize vegetation changes, and classify land cover with thresholds to map water, bare soil, and vegetation.

learn to create a ready-to-use map layout in QGIS for NDVI analysis, adding a map, legend, title, scale bar, labels, and exporting as an image for reports and presentations.

Monitor drought using MODIS 250-meter imagery and NDVI anomalies in a time-series. Compare July 2015 against July 2001–2010 in QGIS, scaling data with a raster calculator.

Learn drought monitoring with MODIS NDVI time series in QGIS by cropping to land areas with clip raster by extent, saving cropped layers, and applying a pseudo color palette.

Compute a July 2015 NDVI anomaly by averaging 2001–2010 MODIS NDVI images and subtracting this mean from the 2015 image, highlighting drought indicators.