Beginners QGIS for Ecologists and Conservation Practitioners (Ireland)

The course is designed to enable you to become a competent QGIS user with a practical focus on digitising and analysing data derived from your surveys and producing survey maps.

This course introduces you to the open source (free) QGIS software which is now an industry standard in the ecological, conservation and consultancy sectors. It is suitable for complete beginners to GIS. The course is designed to enable you to become a competent GIS user with a practical focus on producing survey maps and analysing data derived from your surveys. We will cover basics including GIS concepts, the QGIS interface, and how to display and explore ecological data in order to effectively interpret it. We will also learn how to source existing environmental data, create new species records and habitat maps, undertake basic analysis, and prepare maps for inclusion in reports. Participants should allow time in advance of the course to install the QGIS software and supporting files (links to these will be provided prior to the training).

All ecologists and conservation practitioners, including ecological consultants, local authority biodiversity officers, state and semi-state ecologists, rangers and land managers, and NGOs.

Beginner

No existing knowledge of GIS is required. Good general computer literacy is expected.

• Outline basic GIS concepts.
• Display and explore ecological data using QGIS.
• Create (digitise) species records and habitat mapping data.
• Prepare maps for inclusion in reports.