OPEN

QGIS for

SOURCE
Hydrological
Applications
Second Edition

Recipes for
Catchment Hydrology
and Water Management

QGIS 3.22+

Hans van der Kwast

Kurt Menke
 QGIS FOR H YDROLOGICAL
A PPLICATIONS
Second Edition

R ECIPES FOR C ATCHMENT H YDROLOGY

AND WATER M ANAGEMENT

H ANS VAN DER K WAST

K URT M ENKE

QGIS 3.22+

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Credits & Copyright

QGIS for Hydrological Applications

Second Edition
Recipes for Catchment Hydrology and Water Management

by Hans van der Kwast and Kurt Menke

Published by Locate Press

C OPYRIGHT © 2022 L OCATE P RESS

ISBN ( E - BOOK ): 978-1734464382
A LL RIGHTS RESERVED .

Direct permission requests to [email protected] or mail:

Locate Press, Suite 433, 113-437 Martin St., Penticton, BC, Canada, V2A 5L1

Editor Gary Sherman

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Publisher Website http://locatepress.com
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No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval
system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.

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 Contents

Foreword 7
About This Book 9
1 Preparing Data from Hard Copy Maps 13
1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.2 Choosing the Projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.3 Importing the Scanned Map into the Georeferencer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.4 Setting the Transformation Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.5 Adding Ground Control Points (GCPs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.6 Reduce Errors and Perform the Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.7 Verify the Georeferenced Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.8 Digitizing Vector Layers from a Georeferenced Backdrop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.9 Styling the Mountains, Rivers, and Lakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2 Importing Tabular Data into QGIS 35
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.2 Check the Spreadsheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.3 Import Spreadsheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.4 Convert Spreadsheet to Vector Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.5 Join Attribute Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.6 Edit the Joined Attribute Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.7 Interpolate Point Features to Raster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.8 Styling the Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3 Spatial Analysis with Map Algebra 51
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.2 Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.3 Condition 1: Wells within 150 Meters of Houses or Roads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.4 Condition 2: No Industry, Mine, or Landfill within 300 m from Wells . . . . . . . 60
3.5 Condition 3: Wells Less than 40 Meters Deep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.6 Combine the Three Conditions and Report the Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4 Stream and Catchment Delineation 75
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4.2 Download DEM Tiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.3 Mosaic DEM Tiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.4 Reproject DEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4.5 Create a Subset of the DEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.6 Fill Sinks and Calculate Flow Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4.7 Delineate Streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
4.8 Define Outflow Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.9 Delineate the Catchment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
4.10 Clipping Layers to the Catchment Boundary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.11 Styling the Resulting Catchment Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4.12 Storing the Data in a GeoPackage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
5 Adding Open Data to Your Catchment 119
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.2 Adding Data from OGC Web Map Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.3 Adding Vector Data from OpenStreetMap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
6 Calculating Percentage of Land Cover per Subcatchment 131

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 6 CONTENTS

6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

6.2 Preparing the Subcatchment Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
6.3 Preparing the Land Cover Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
6.4 Intersect the Land Cover Layer with the Subcatchment Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
6.5 Calculate Land Cover Class Area per Subcatchment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
6.6 Create Pie Charts Using the Data Plotly Plugin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
7 Map Design 149
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
7.2 Map Design Considerations - Adding More Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
7.3 Styling and Labeling Cities and Towns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
7.4 Creating a Catchment Boundary Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
7.5 Setting up the Print Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
7.6 Adding the Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
7.7 Adding a Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
7.8 Adding a Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
7.9 Adding a Scale Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
7.10 Adding a North Arrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
7.11 Adding Descriptive Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
7.12 Using Variables for Adding Your Name as Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
7.13 Setting Up a Map Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
7.14 Setting up the Layers for the Locator Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
7.15 Final Adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
7.16 Exporting the Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
8 Conclusion 177
8.1 Things to Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Index 179
Books from Locate Press 181

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 Foreword
This foreword is addressed directly to you, dear reader, wherever you happen to reside in this
geospecial, geospatial world of ours. Whether you are reading these words on a leaf of paper
or on a computer screen, flipping to the next page will initiate what is sure to be an enriching
journey; and today, I have the distinct privilege of introducing to you the two phenomenal tour
guides who will accompany you along the way. The rest of the words in the paragraphs below
are perhaps superfluous, because I really have just one statement to offer as you embark on
your tour: “You are in good hands with Hans and Kurt!”

You can take my word for it and turn the page now—in which case I wish you well on the road
ahead—or, if you’re still with me, I’ll try to briefly convey why I have so much confidence in
your guides.

A few years ago, we at the Australian Water School noticed that many of those who attended
our hydrologic and hydraulic modeling courses were unfamiliar with basic GIS terms and
would greatly benefit from applying geospatial skills in their modeling. We decided to offer an
introductory QGIS course for water modellers and quickly set out to find the most engaging
presenters in the industry.

It didn’t take long to find our rock stars, Kurt and Hans, who already had a lot of popular
content online. Undeterred by time slots that left the Netherlands in the wee hours of the night,
they agreed to help us out. As they delivered their courses, we were thoroughly impressed with
their professionalism; the accompanying notes and workshop materials were well organised
and blended seamlessly with the live, online sessions.

Our first QGIS recording quickly reached 10,000 views. This was before YouTube decided
that listing dislikes makes us all grumpy, so we were able to track the impressive fact that
there hadn’t been a single dislike along the way. Can you imagine 10,000 customers in a row
walking past a “How did we do today” screen in a store, and not a single one picks the frowny
face? It seems improbable, but based on my own interactions with your hosts, I’m actually not
surprised at all. Cool maps, free tech, and straight shooters who know their stuff: What’s not
to like?

Hans and Kurt are passionate about this community and about making open-source software
accessible to the masses, especially in disadvantaged areas. I attended some of their online
training sessions that accompany this book during the height of the global COVID lockdowns.
Some of the sessions were followed by online “geo-beers”, which seemed perfectly designed
to help us all keep our sanity while socially distanced. Although these sessions generally stuck
Australia with the wee hours, I made a point to open my droopy eyes enough to enjoy the
community interactions they facilitated. Given the global spread of QGIS fans, these online
forums are continually growing, and this book’s authors have played a major role in fostering
the underlying community spirit that is driving the growth.

By its very nature, water is geospatial; every drop of it has a place in space on our blue planet.
A hydrologist who, by definition, studies water, inevitably serves a dual role as a practicing
geospatialologist, if I can coin a very awkward job title. [Perhaps geospecialist or geospatialist
would be more palatable terms, but those words haven’t made it into the dictionary yet either!]
Whichever honorary title you choose to convey upon yourself on completion of the exercises
in this book, I’m convinced that you will arrive at the other end with valuable, newfound geo-
expertise.

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 8 Foreword

A key element of the hydrological sciences is an understanding of the distribution of wa-

ter—mapping where it is, where it has been, and where it is going. Communicating that
distribution effectively will help you stand out in your field. Whether you are new to the
georeferenced world or bringing previous experience to a new platform, this book is sure to
provide you with indispensable, time-saving tools that will make your work shine. I have to
admit that I still find some occasional zen in manually delineating basin boundaries and flow
paths myself; sometimes it’s hard to step back and let a machine do all of that work, but the
available tools that you will master in this book can sure produce some amazing, high-quality
results. [Still, I’d recommend challenging your computer to a little duel on occasion just to stay
sharp with your manual skills!]

This book’s title rightly calls it a recipe book. But it’s a lot more than that; the accompanying
plugins and online tutorial videos make this a complete package that is more like getting a
recipe book bundled together with a meal-kit delivery service. It’s got everything you need to
get cooking. If your own cooking skills—like mine—aren’t worth beans at the moment, armed
with the right ingredients and mentors, you might just be a budding master chef. Bon Appétit!

Krey Price
Director, Surface Water Solutions
Instructor, Australian Water School

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 About This Book
When I started teaching GIS at IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in 2012, there were not
many courses that used open source software. Given that our MSc participants are mostly
from the Global South and can’t afford expensive licenses, I wanted to change that for my
GIS classes. QGIS was the logical alternative, which has all the features my students need for
their work in hydrology and water management. In the recent versions, new features have
been included that go far beyond what commercial GIS desktop software offers. In 2013, I
started teaching QGIS in most of our MSc programmes and in short courses. In 2015, I had a
great opportunity to develop new course materials with Jan Hoogendoorn (Vitens) for several
trainings for the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) in Uganda, funded by
Vitens Evides International (VEI) and the IHE Delft Partnership Programme for Water and
Development (DUPC). Jonne Kleijer also contributed to the materials during the trainings in
Kampala and Lira.

At IHE Delft we had also started our OpenCourseWare platform in 2015. After the trainings
in Uganda we agreed with the donors and trainers to make the course materials available as
OpenCourseWare with a CC BY-NC license (http://www.gisopencourseware.org). This was
an important step enabling many people to learn about QGIS for hydrological applications,
even when they were not able to come to IHE Delft for our short courses or MSc modules.
The course materials were completed with a YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/
HansvanderKwast) with videos of the lectures and exercises. In the years that followed, I regu-
larly updated the materials following the QGIS Long Term Release (LTR) versions. Many MSc
students at IHE Delft inspired me to improve the course materials and add more instructional
videos.

In August 2017, I joined a QGIS user conference and hackfest for the first time. This one was
organised by Lene Fischer at Skovskolen Forest and Landscape College of the University of
Copenhagen in Nødebo (Denmark). It was very inspiring to meet developers of QGIS and to
learn about this open source community. Raymond Nijssen introduced me to different ways
to contribute to QGIS. It was also here where I met Kurt Menke for the first time. Together
with Tim Sutton we worked on the QGIS certification programme and its platform (https:
//qgis.org/en/site/getinvolved/certification.html). Since Nødebo, I’m part of this great
community.

During the short course on QGIS in September 2017, Erik Meerburg (Geo Academie) and I
issued the first QGIS certificates. Since then, IHE Delft has issued around 1000 certificates,
which is a great way for us to contribute to the further development of QGIS.

In January 2018, I was happy to host the first Dutch QGIS User Group Meeting at IHE Delft,
organised in cooperation with Geo Academie. The tracks in Dutch and English attracted par-
ticipants from diverse backgrounds.

For the short course on QGIS in 2018, I invited Kurt Menke as a guest lecturer to IHE Delft. It
was inspiring for our participants to learn about the many new features of QGIS 3.x and how
to become part of the community. It was then that the idea for this book was born.

During the QGIS user conference and hackfest in A Coruña (Spain) in March 2019, I followed
Kurt’s workshop and got inspired to develop a plugin for styling of flow direction maps using
the functionality of the Crayfish plugin for styling mesh layers. Together with Radek Pasiok
and Peter Petrik from Lutra Consulting, we developed a processing plugin for this during the

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 10 About this Book

hackfest. It’s available in the Crayfish plugin and works with QGIS 3.6 and later.

For the short course on QGIS for Hydrological Applications in September 2019, I had invited
Kurt again. We had launched the first edition of this book, which has been used in many
courses since then.

Since the first edition of this book, many updates in QGIS have shortened and improved the
work flows in this book and added great new styling features. In addition, I was happy to
launch the PCRaster Tools plugin, developed together with Nyall Dawson, in September 2021.
This processing provider plugin adds approximately 100 operators for map algebra to the Pro-
cessing Toolbox. These improved work flows and the PCRaster Tools plugin are included in
the second edition of this book.

With this book and the courses, I hope that many more GIS professionals get interested in using
QGIS for hydrological applications and become part of the QGIS community.

Last, but not least, it is important to mention that by purchasing this book you are supporting
students to attend FOSS4G and QGIS events. In this way, I hope to contribute to increasing the
diversity in the open source GIS community.

IHE Delft Institute for Water Education

IHE Delft Institute for Water Education (http:/www.un-ihe.org) is the largest international
graduate water education facility in the world and is based in Delft, the Netherlands. The
Institute confers fully accredited MSc degrees, and PhD degrees in collaboration with part-
ner universities. Since 1957, the Institute has provided water education and training to 23,000
professionals from over 190 countries, the vast majority from Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Also, numerous research and institutional strengthening projects are carried out in partnership
to strengthen capacity in the water sector worldwide. Through our overarching work on capac-
ity development, IHE Delft aims to make a tangible contribution to achieving all Sustainable
Development Goals in which water is key.

Since 2013, QGIS is the default in most MSc programmes. From October 2019, all MSc students
learn the concepts of GIS with QGIS in the first modules. Besides GIS education in the MSc
modules, IHE Delft offers short courses, online courses, OpenCourseWare and tailor-made
trainings, where the use of open source software (QGIS, Python) and open data is key.

Who This Book is For

The book is designed for professionals active in hydrology and water management, especially
those involved in using simulation models for water management and performing GIS analy-
sis. However, the book is also suitable for beginners in QGIS who want to learn GIS concepts
and QGIS features in a problem based learning manner. The book can be used with an in-
structor in the classroom, or as independent study for beginners and experts. Each chapter
introduces a case and concludes with styling recipes introducing the many features that QGIS
offers. These concluding styling sections provide a solid foundation in the robust cartographic
capabilities found within QGIS. Topics such as inverted polygon shapeburst fills, advanced
label settings, and blending modes are covered.

The first chapter covers georeferencing and digitizing of vectors. In the second chapter, the
reader learns how to import spreadsheets, join and edit attribute tables, and interpolate point
data to raster. Chapter 3 covers map algebra for spatial analysis. Different raster data types
(boolean, discrete, and continuous) are used in calculations, such as proximity analysis, reclas-
sification, and Boolean logic. The Raster Calculator and functions in the Processing Toolbox

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About this Book 11

are also introduced.

The most common use of GIS for professionals in hydrology and water management is cov-
ered in Chapter 4, where the reader is guided through the procedure to perform stream and
catchment delineation. Chapter 5 proceeds with showing how to add open data from web map
services to the delineated catchment. Chapter 6 was inspired by my MSc thesis students who
needed percentages of land cover for each subcatchment. While going through the steps, this
chapter will also introduce vector geoprocessing functions such as intersect and dissolve. The
chapter concludes with using the Data Plotly plugin for making pie charts. The book concludes
with designing a well-crafted map in the print layout.

The Data
The data for this book are available for download at http://locatepress.com/qgis_hydrological
(202 MB). All the data are in the public domain and most of it can be downloaded from open
data portals that are introduced in this book. The book also contains links to videos on theory
and practice with QGIS.

About the Authors

Hans van der Kwast is senior lecturer at IHE Delft. He received a Master’s degree in Physical
Geography at Utrecht University in the Netherlands in 2002, with a specialization in GIS and
Remote Sensing. In 2002, he was appointed at the Faculty of Geosciences of Utrecht University
as a junior lecturer in GIS. In 2009, he defended his PhD at Utrecht University on the integration
of remote sensing in spatial dynamic modeling of soil moisture using data-assimilation tech-
niques implemented in the PCRaster Python framework. From 2007 to 2012, he worked at the
Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) where he was appointed as a researcher in
spatial dynamic environmental modeling. He participated in projects related to water quality
modeling, land-use change modeling, and the use of remote sensing for urban applications. As
a guest lecturer, he supervised BSc students in a hydrological and geomorphological fieldwork
as part of the curriculum Earth Sciences at Utrecht University. Since April 2012, he works at
IHE Delft. In his teaching, he actively promotes the use of Free and Open Source Software
(FOSS) by young professionals from the Global South. He is also involved in many research
and capacity development projects related to GIS, remote sensing, spatial data infrastructures,
Python, open data, and citizen science. He is a QGIS Certified Instructor and board member of
the Dutch QGIS User Group.

A former archaeologist, Kurt Menke is a geospatial generalist based out of Helsinge, Denmark.
Kurt Menke has a broad skill set. He is a spatial analyst, cartographer, web map developer,
trainer/teacher, and author. He received a Master’s degree in Geography from the University
of New Mexico in 2000. His main areas of focus are public health, conservation, and education.
In 2021, he accepted a position with Septima P/S and moved to Denmark with his wife Sarah.

Kurt has a long history using QGIS, first downloading version 0.7 (Seamus) in 2005. He is
an open source GIS authority, having co-authored three editions of Mastering QGIS for Packt
Publishing and authoring Discover QGIS 3.x (https://locatepress.com/dq3) through Locate
Press (May 2019). He can frequently be found speaking at FOSS4G and QGIS conferences. In
2015, he became an OSGeo Charter Member. He is an experienced FOSS4G educator and is a
co-author of the GeoAcademy (U.S. version: https://github.com/FOSS4GAcademy). He is now a
QGIS Certified Instructor. His offerings range from a semester long Intro to FOSS4G course he
originally developed in 2009, to short courses and professional workshops. In partnership with
the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) he created a program named Community Health
Maps (https://www.communityhealthmaps.org). This program aims to empower underserved
and minority populations with open source mapping technology. Kurt has trained over 800

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 12 About this Book

public health workers in this workflow over the last five years. In 2015, he was awarded the
Global Educator of the Year Team Award by GeoForAll as part of the GeoAcademy team.

Acknowledgments
Hans would like to thank IHE Delft and his colleagues for supporting him in developing high-
quality curricula with open source GIS for their MSc students. He’s very grateful to have the
chance every year to introduce around 200 MSc, PhD, and short course participants from the
Global South to open source software. He would also like to thank these participants who
inspire him to keep up the good work and teach the state-of-the art. Hopefully, we can make a
change and get rid of the vendor lock-in found in many countries.

In addition, he would like to thank the donors and project partners who supported the de-
velopment of course materials with QGIS, enabling their beneficiaries to learn open source
alternatives.

He would like to thank Kurt Menke for being his co-author. It’s great to work with Kurt.
Without him, the layer styling sections and map design chapter would not have been of excep-
tionally high quality.

Kurt is grateful to Hans van der Kwast for inviting him to partner on this book. After being
invited as a guest lecturer at IHE Delft in 2018—teaching this same material—it’s exciting to see
it come to fruition in book form. He would like to thank the QGIS community for constantly
sharing knowledge and inspiring him to use new techniques in the ever evolving QGIS project.

We would both like to thank Krey Price for his thoughtful foreword.

And of course, a huge thanks to the founder of Locate Press, Tyler Mitchell. His ongoing
support has been invaluable. He has also infused Locate Press with a ton of energy including
social media promotion, a rebranding with a new LP logo. This is very much appreciated by
us authors. Finally, we would like to thank Gary Sherman, the founder of QGIS and previous
owner of Locate Press. He is always a keystroke away, helping us out with questions about
LaTEX, RST, and git.

A note from Hans: I’m writing this section at the same location where I did my PhD research:
the rural community of Sehoul in Morocco. A nice place for a writer’s retreat but moreover a
place where I keep my feet on the ground to keep in my mind why the skills in this book are so
important: to improve catchment management and protect vulnerable areas and people from
floods, droughts and environmental problems.

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 1. Preparing Data from Hard Copy Maps

1.1 Introduction

In order to use hard copy maps in a GIS, they need to be scanned and georeferenced. Georefer-
encing is also needed for raw remote sensing images, such as aerial photographs and satellite
images.

For the best result, choose a map sheet that is clean and does not have too many folds. Use a
scanner that is large enough to scan the whole map. The resolution of the scanner should be
high enough (e.g. 1200 dpi) to have sufficient detail in the resulting raster maps.

For georeferencing we need to link locations on the scanned image to coordinates. There are
two methods:

• Collect ground control points (GCPs) at locations that are clearly visible in the image,
such as bridges and junctions. GCPs can be collected with a GPS in the field or from
another GIS layer.
• If the hard copy map contains a coordinate grid, use the printed grid as a reference. Make
sure that you know the projection of the grid, which is usually stated on the map.

After this chapter you will be able to:

• find the projection and EPSG code of a map

• install plugins
• georeference a scanned map using GCPs from a grid
• use the coordinate capture tool
• use online layers from the QuickMapServices plugin
• digitize points, lines, and polygons and add attributes
• use the snapping toolbar
• dissolve features
• store data in a GeoPackage
• style and label vectors

Figure 1.1, on the following page shows the workflow of this chapter.

In this chapter we will use a scanned map of Mount Marcy (USGS, 1979), Mount_Marcy_New_
York_USGS_topo_map_1979.JPG, which we will georeference with the coordinate grid printed on
the map. You can download the file from http://locatepress.com/qgis_hydrological. Save
it to a local folder.

For this chapter, the videos from the QGISHydro Chapter 1 playlist at YouTube channel
http://www.youtube.com/c/hansvanderkwast provide the theoretical background, results of the steps,
and additional materials.

13

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 14 1.2. CHOOSING THE PROJECTION

Find projection EPSG Collect GCPs Transformation

Verify result Digitize vectors

Figure 1.1: Workflow for Georeferencing a Scanned Map and Digitizing Vectors

1.2 Choosing the Projection

Using any image viewing software, have a look at the scanned map and try to determine the
projection. At this stage don’t open the picture in QGIS yet.

• Which projection was used?

• Look for the EPSG code at http://www.spatialreference.org and write it down.

1.3 Importing the Scanned Map into the Georeferencer

1. Start QGIS Desktop

2. From the main menu choose Raster | Georeferencer (figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2: Starting the Georeferencer from the Raster Menu

The Georeferencer is now opened in a new window.

3. Maximize this window.

4. Click the Open Raster button .

5. Browse to the Mount_Marcy_New_York_USGS_topo_map_1979.JPG file. A pop-up window

might appear where you have to specify the Coordinate Reference System (CRS) of this input
map. It does not yet have a CRS, so you can click Cancel .

1.4 Setting the Transformation Parameters

First we have to set the transformation settings.

1. In the georeferencer menu choose Settings | Transformation Settings; here you can
choose:

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CHAPTER 1. PREPARING DATA FROM HARD COPY MAPS 15

• Different transformation types. A simple linear transformation can be used if the map is
not much deformed. The other ones can be tried when more deformation exists. More
information about the transformation types can be found in the QGIS documentation
https://edu.nl/tc3ae. We will start with a Linear transformation.
• Resampling method: If you need the pixel values in further calculations, it is best to choose
the nearest neighbor option. This resampling method will preserve as much as possible
the original pixel values by choosing the nearest one. Visually, however, this method
results in a "blocky" map. If the purpose is only for visual use, for example as a backdrop
for digitization of vector layers, then it is better to choose another resampling method.
Here we will use the Cubic method, which uses the average of the 16 nearest pixels.
• Target SRS: Choose the code that you noted before: EPSG:26718. You can choose it by
clicking and typing 26718 in the filter field.

2. Browse to the folder where you want to save the georeferenced map using the button.
The tool automatically adds _modified to the file name. In our case, the georeferenced file will
be named Mount_Marcy_New_York_USGS_topo_map_1979_modified.tif. Keep the other settings
on default and make sure the box Load in QGIS when done is checked.

The dialog should look like figure 1.3, on the following page.

3. Click OK to continue.

1.5 Adding Ground Control Points (GCPs)

In order to link the file coordinates to real world coordinates, we need to indicate Ground
Control Points (GCPs) with known coordinates. We can derive these coordinates in different
ways:

• The easiest way is to use the coordinate grid on the scanned map if this is available and
if it is in a known projection. We click on a node in the grid and type the corresponding
X and Y coordinates in the dialog.
• Using a reference map in the QGIS map canvas that has already been georeferenced. In
this way we can obtain the right coordinates by clicking on the reference map.
• Using GCPs that were measured in the field using a GPS.

Here we will use the coordinate grid that is printed on the map.

1. Zoom in on the node with coordinate 581000 East and 4885000 North. Read the coordinates
from the side of the map to determine the X and Y values.

2. Click the Add Point button to add a GCP.

3. Enter the X and Y coordinates in the pop-up window (figure 1.4, on the next page).

If you have a reference map in the QGIS map canvas, you can use the From Map Canvas button to
capture the coordinate and perform an image to image georeferencing.

4. Press OK .

Now your screen should look like figure 1.5, on page 17.

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 16 1.5. ADDING GROUND CONTROL POINTS (GCPS)

Figure 1.3: Transformation Settings Dialog

Figure 1.4: Enter Map Coordinates

The red dot is the location that you have referenced. In the table below the map, you can see the
Source X and Source Y coordinates. These are the unreferenced file coordinates. Their values
depend on which pixel you clicked for placing the GCP, so it can differ from the screenshot in
figure 1.5. Dest. X and Dest. Y show the real world coordinates that you have linked to this
location. The other fields of the table have to do with estimated accuracy and will be filled in
after adding more points.

5.Let’s choose a second GCP in the upper right corner of the map using the same method as
we used for the first GCP. Your screen should look like figure 1.6, on the next page.

You can see that some error statistics have been calculated. With only two points this does
not make much sense. The minimum amount of GCPs for a linear transformation should be

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CHAPTER 1. PREPARING DATA FROM HARD COPY MAPS 17

Figure 1.5: First GCP

Figure 1.6: Second GCP

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 18 1.6. REDUCE ERRORS AND PERFORM THE TRANSFORMATION

three. With more GCPs that are well distributed over the map, the transformation will be more
accurate.

6. Using the same method, add a GCP in the lower left and lower right corners of the map. If
you make a mistake, you can remove the GCP using the Delete point button . Your screen
should look like figure 1.7.

Figure 1.7: Four GCPs added

1.6 Reduce Errors and Perform the Transformation

At the bottom of the screen you can see the estimated mean error (41.2829 pixels in our case).
The error is also visualized at the GCPs using a red line. Obviously your values will not be
exactly the same.

There are two ways to reduce the error:

• You can use the Move GCP Point button to place the GCPs really at the nodes where
the grid lines cross. You need to zoom in to select the right pixel. Note that the mean error
is not automatically updated. You need to change the transformation type to something
else and then back.
• If the first option doesn’t reduce the error, we can change the transformation type. If we
change to another transformation type in the transformation settings, the error values
will be recalculated.

In this exercise we’ll apply the second option after we have checked that are GCPs have been
placed correctly.

1. In the menu, go again to Settings | Transformation Settings or click the gear icon.

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CHAPTER 1. PREPARING DATA FROM HARD COPY MAPS 19

2.Now let’s select a first order polynomial (Polynomial 1 ) instead of the linear transformation.
Keep the rest as is.

3. Click OK to return to the GCP table.

Now you can see that the mean error has been reduced to a fraction of a pixel, which is ac-
ceptable. If you don’t see a mean error < 1 pixel, you will have to check the GCP locations and
correct them.

A mean error of < 1 pixel cannot always be achieved. The decision to accept a certain accuracy
depends on the purpose of the map.

4. Now we can start georeferencing using the button.

After some calculation time you will see a pop-up (figure 1.8).

Figure 1.8: Multiple Transformations Dialog

This means that there are multiple transformations possible. In this book we will always use
the default one. Only use the others if you need a different accuracy for specific applications.

5. Click OK .

The georeferenced map appears in the QGIS map canvas, which is in another QGIS window.

6. You can close the Georeferencer window. It will ask if you want to save your GCPs. You can
click Discard if you don’t want to use them. If you save them, you can load them again in the
Georeferencer .

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 20 1.7. VERIFY THE GEOREFERENCED MAP

1.7 Verify the Georeferenced Map

You can verify the result by checking the coordinates at the grid nodes that you used as GCPs.

1. Right-click on a grid node in the map canvas to display the coordinates next to the cursor
(figure 1.9).

Figure 1.9: Copy Coordinates

The Map CRS shows the coordinates in the projection of the project (i.e. EPSG:26718), the
second field shows the coordinates in the Geographic Coordinate System (i.e. EPSG:4326),
with coordinates in decimal degrees of longitude and latitude.

2. Read the coordinates from the side of the map and verify that they correspond to the coor-
dinates at the location where you clicked. Repeat this for all GCP nodes.

Another way to verify the result is to use a web map as a backdrop. The QuickMapServices
plugin provides easy access to many web maps such as Google Satellite and OpenStreetMap.

Plugins are third-party additions to QGIS. They can be installed through the Plugins manager .
You need an internet connection to connect to the Plugins repository .

3. From the main menu, choose Plugins | Manage and Install Plugins....

4. Search for QuickMapServices (figure 1.10, on the next page).

5. Click Install Plugin. Click Close after installing.

6. In order to get access to more online resources choose Web | QuickMapServices plugin |
Settings from the main menu. Next, choose the More services tab and click Get contributed
pack (figure 1.11, on the facing page). Click OK in the pop-up and Save in the dialog when the
contributed pack is installed.

7. Go to the main menu and choose Web | QuickMapServices plugin and select Google |
Google Terrain and then OSM | OSM Standard. Compare the georeferenced map with Google
Terrain and OpenStreetMap.

To help with this comparison you will employ a Blending Mode. Blending modes determine
how two layers interact visually. When a blending mode is applied to a layer it will be blended
with the layer below.
8. Open the Layer Styling panel by clicking the button. Set the target layer to

Mount_Marcy_New_York_USGS_topo_map_1979_modified .

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CHAPTER 1. PREPARING DATA FROM HARD COPY MAPS 21

Figure 1.10: Installing the QuickMapServices Plugin

Figure 1.11: QuickMapServices Settings to Install More Services

9. In the panel, choose Blending mode Multiply (figure 1.12, on the next page).

Blending modes allow for more elegant rendering between GIS layers. They can be much more powerful
than simply adjusting layer opacity. Blending modes allow for effects where the full intensity of an
underlying layer is still visible through the layer above. There are thirteen blending modes available. A
nice overview can be found in this blog by Helen McKenzie: https://loc8.cc/hyd/blendmodes

10. After comparing the georeferenced map with the online layers, change the blending of
Mount_Marcy_New_York_USGS_topo_map_1979_modified back to normal. We are going to
use this layer in the next sections as a backdrop to digitize vectors. You can uncheck the Google
Terrain and OSM Standard layers.

This is a good time to save your QGIS project (.qgz file).

11. From the main menu, choose Project | Save as....

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 22 1.8. DIGITIZING VECTOR LAYERS FROM A GEOREFERENCED BACKDROP

Figure 1.12: Setting the Blending Mode to Multiply

The project file contains references to all layers (not the data itself), styles, projections, extent
and zoom level of the map canvas. Save your project regularly!

Try to use the Georeferencer to register the scanned map to a satellite image from the QuickMapServices
plugin. In this way you can perform an image to image registration. Please make sure you use the
right projection. Does the image to image registration give better results?

1.8 Digitizing Vector Layers from a Georeferenced Backdrop

Our georeferenced scanned map can now be used as a backdrop to digitize vector layers. Vec-
tors can be points, (poly)lines or polygons. In this exercise we are going to digitize:

• Mountain tops as points

• Rivers as polylines
• Lakes as polygons

We will create these vector layers in a GeoPackage spatial database. In that way we have all
layers together in one file, instead of using separate shapefiles.

Digitize Peaks

First we have to create an empty GeoPackage layer.

1. From the main menu, select Layer | Create Layer | New GeoPackage Layer.... You can
also use the New GeoPackage Layer button, or the keyboard shortcut for your platform (e.g.

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CHAPTER 1. PREPARING DATA FROM HARD COPY MAPS 23

Ctrl + Shift + N on Windows).

2. In the New GeoPackage Layer dialog, first select the Database filename by clicking the
button. Browse to the folder where you want to store the GeoPackage and save it to
Mount_Marcy.gpkg. For Table name choose Peaks. For Geometry type choose Point. Make sure
EPSG:26718 is chosen as the projection. Create a new field with the Name Elevation, Type Whole
Number (integer) and click (figure 1.13).

Figure 1.13: New GeoPackage Layer Dialog

3. Add a second new field with Type: Text named Name. Click OK .

The empty layer has now been added to your layers list (figure 1.14).

Figure 1.14: Peaks Added to the Layers List in the Layers Panel

In order to start digitizing, you have to toggle editing mode on.

4. Click on the Peaks layer so it is selected. Click on to toggle editing mode. You can also
right-click on the layer and choose Toggle Editing from the context menu to place the layer into
edit mode.

Now the buttons on the Digitizing Toolbar become active. A pencil icon also appears next to the
layer in the Layers panel indicating the layer is in edit mode.

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 24 1.8. DIGITIZING VECTOR LAYERS FROM A GEOREFERENCED BACKDROP

5. On the topographical map navigate to a mountain. If a geodetic datum is present on top

there will be an X and an elevation value.

6. When you have found one, zoom in and click the Add Point Feature button . The cursor
changes to a crosshair. Move the mouse to the mountain top. Click on the mountain top.

A dialog with a form shows up. fid is the feature id that is automatically generated. It’s
a unique integer number for each feature. The other attributes that we have to fill in are
Elevation and Name.

7. In this example we type 1501 and Mt Skylight for Elevation and Name respectively (figure
1.15). If you map a peak without a labeled elevation determine the elevation based on the
contour lines.

Figure 1.15: Add Feature Attribute of Peaks

8. Repeat this step for a few other peaks.

If you made a mistake, you can use the Vertex Tool to move the feature or use one of the
select options (figure 1.16) to select the point feature and click to delete the selected point
feature. These buttons can be used to undo/redo editing actions. Use to save the
edits.

Figure 1.16: Select Options

9. When done, click on the button to toggle editing off. If you didn’t save edits yet, it will
ask you to Save or Discard . With Discard you can always undo your edits until the last time it
was saved.

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CHAPTER 1. PREPARING DATA FROM HARD COPY MAPS 25

10. You can check the attribute table of your new point vector layer by right-clicking on the
layer name (Peaks) and selecting Open Attribute Table (figure 1.17).

Figure 1.17: Open Attribute Table

Now you can see the attributes that you have added and their fid , Elevation, and Name values
(figure 1.18).

Figure 1.18: Attribute Table of the Peaks Layer

Digitize Rivers

Your next task is to digitize line features (rivers). The procedure is similar to creating a point
layer.

11. In the New GeoPackage Layer dialog first browse to the existing Database, Mount_Marcy.gpkg.

12. Give a new Table name of Rivers and a Geometry type of LineString. As a new attribute
we add Name with the type Text data. Don’t forget to click the . Check if the
dialog resembles figure 1.19, on the following page and click OK .

A New GeoPackage Layer window will open informing you that the file already exists.

13. Choose Add New Layer (figure 1.20, on the next page).

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 26 1.8. DIGITIZING VECTOR LAYERS FROM A GEOREFERENCED BACKDROP

Figure 1.19: Add Line Feature to GeoPackage

Figure 1.20: Add a New Layer to the GeoPackage

The Rivers layer is now added to the layers panel.

14. Toggle editing to start adding rivers. Click on the Add Line Feature button to add a
new river feature. Zoom and pan on the map to find a stream to digitize.

Always start digitizing from the upstream to downstream. The direction will be stored in the layer.
Always place a vertex when a tributary joins a larger stream. That’s important when connecting the
tributary later.

15. Click on the starting point of the line (node) and click when necessary to make a vertex.

You can use the zoom and pan buttons to trace the stream. You can use the spacebar to pan
during digitizing. With Backspace you can delete the last node while digitizing.

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CHAPTER 1. PREPARING DATA FROM HARD COPY MAPS 27

16. After you place the end node of the line, right-click to complete the feature. Now you can
enter the attribute data in the form (figure 1.21).

Figure 1.21: Add Line Feature Attributes

Now you are going to digitize a tributary. First you have to set the snapping options.

17. In the main menu choose View | Toolbars | Snapping Toolbar (alternatively right-click
on a toolbar and choose Snapping Toolbar). Click to enable snapping. Choose to snap to
vertices of the active layer with a tolerance of 15 meters (figure 1.22).

Figure 1.22: Snapping Toolbar

18. Now digitize the tributary from upstream to where it joins the higher order river. You will
see that the line will snap to the node that you placed before on the main river.

If you want all tributaries to be one single feature, you need to dissolve the features.

19. If you have given all tributaries the same name, you can dissolve them by choosing Vector
| Geoprocessing Tools | Dissolve from the menu. Use the button to choose Name as the
Dissolve field and save the result in a GeoPackage layer with the name Rivers_dissolved. Click
Run (figure 1.23, on the following page).

20. Check the attribute table of the result (figures 1.24 and 1.25, on the next page).

Digitize Lakes

Finally we are going to create a polygon vector layer for some lakes. Try to find out how to do
this for yourself. It is very similar to the procedure for lines. The only difference is that the first
node should be the same as the last node in order to close the polygon. Use the name of the
lake as a text attribute.

Some lakes have islands that need to be removed from the lake features. For this purpose,
enable the Advanced Digitizing Toolbar in a similar way as we enabled the Snapping Toolbar
earlier. Click and digitize the island in the same way as you digitize a polygon. After
finalizing the ring, it will be removed from the lake polygon.

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 28 1.8. DIGITIZING VECTOR LAYERS FROM A GEOREFERENCED BACKDROP

Figure 1.23: Dissolve Dialog

Figure 1.24: Attribute Table Before Dissolving the Tributaries

Figure 1.25: Attribute Table After Dissolving the Tributaries

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CHAPTER 1. PREPARING DATA FROM HARD COPY MAPS 29

The order of the layers is also important. The order of visualization in the map canvas follows the order
in the Layers panel. The first layer is on top. The general order of layers is: points, lines, polygons,
rasters. Vectors below rasters are not visible, unless you use blending or opacity. This however changes
the colors and should only be used if it has a purpose. You can deviate from the general order if that
makes the visualization clearer. You can change the order of layers by dragging the layers in the Layers
panel to the desired position.

1.9 Styling the Mountains, Rivers, and Lakes

In this final section you will style your peaks, rivers, and lakes.

Style Peaks

You will begin with the Peaks layer.

1. Open the Layer Styling panel by clicking the button. Set the target layer to Peaks.

By default they are styled using a Simple marker .

2. Select Simple marker and change the Symbol layer type to SVG Marker . Below you will find a
section named SVG Groups. Here you can browse for SVG icons that are installed with QGIS.
Find the symbol folder and click on it. Scroll down to find the red marker icon and select
it. Change the Width and Height to 12 mm each. See figure 1.26.

Figure 1.26: Peak SVG Symbols

Label Peaks

Next you will label the peaks.

3. Switch to the Labels tab of the Layer Styling Panel . Switch from No Labels to Single labels.
Set the Label with option to the Name field. It is also possible to use multiple fields in a feature
label by using an expression.

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 30 1.9. STYLING THE MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, AND LAKES

4. Click the Expression button to open the Expression Dialog window. Expand the Fields and
Values section and add the Elevation field after the Name field. When combining text elements
in an expression they need to be separated by the String Concatenation operator.

5. Additionally, the New line operator can be used to wrap the new column onto a second
line. However, it requires another String Concatenation operator after it. Set up an expression
like this: "Name" || ’\n’ || "Elevation". This is nice, but it may not be clear what the number
represents and the labels will be easier to read with a thousands separator.

6. To add units of measure to the elevation, you can add the string meters after the value by
appending || ’ meters’ to the existing expression (note the space before meters). To accom-
plish the second enhancement you will use the format_number function. Use the search box to
find the format_number function. Insert it right before the Elevation field. The help panel will
show you the syntax for this function. It requires a number and a number of decimal places.
The number will be the Elevation field and the number of places 0. This will simply format
the data to a number and insert a thousands separator. See figure 1.27.

Figure 1.27: Peak Labeling Expression

7. To make the labels easier to read change the font Style to Bold. Switch to the Label buffer tab
and check the Draw text buffer option. To give more separation between the labels and the
feature icon switch to the Label placement tab and set the Distance to 2 mm.

8. Finally click the Automated placement settings button to open the Automated Place-
ment Engine window. Uncheck the box for Allow truncated labels on edges of map option. This
will prevent labels from being cut off.

Your labels should look like figure 1.28, on the facing page.

Style Rivers

Next you will style the rivers.

9. Set the target layer in the Layer Styling Panel to Rivers and switch from the Labeling tab back
to the Styling tab.

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CHAPTER 1. PREPARING DATA FROM HARD COPY MAPS 31

Figure 1.28: Peak Labeling

10. Select Simple line. Click the Color bar to open the Select Line Color panel.

11. Change the Color to an RGB value of 31|120|180.

12. Click the Go back button to return to the main symbology panel.

13. Increase the Stroke width to 0.86 mm.

14. To label the rivers switch to the Labels tab .

15. Repeat the initial steps of labeling Peaks to label rivers with just the Name field.

16. Switch to the Label placement tab and choose for Mode the Curved option.

To make them more readable against the topo map you will apply a buffer.

17. Switch to the Label buffer tab and check Draw text buffer option.

You will set the color to the green background of the topo map.

18. Click the drop-down arrow for the Color setting and choose Pick color . With the eye
dropper cursor click on a place to select that green topo map background color.

19. Finally return to the Text tab and set the label Color to an RGB value of 31|38|180,
the Font to Calibri, the Size to 11 points and the Style to italic.

If your computer doesn’t have a Calibri font, choose a suitable sans serif font to label your features.

Your rivers should look like figure 1.29, on the next page.

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 32 1.9. STYLING THE MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, AND LAKES

Figure 1.29: River Styling

Style Lakes

Next you will style the lakes. You will use a shapeburst fill which will allow you to color the
lakes from light blue to dark blue.

20. Set the target layer in the Layer Styling Panel to Lakes and switch from the Labeling tab back
to the Styling tab.

21. Select the Simple fill styling component. Change the Symbol layer type to Shapeburst fill .
Keep the default Gradient colors setting of Two color . Set the first color to an RGB value of
185|239|255. Set the second color to an RGB value of 31|133|180.

22. Set the Shading style to Set distance with a value of 6. Increase the Blur strength to 12.

Finally you will add a simple line to represent the coastline of each lake.

23. Click the Add symbol layer button. Change the new Simple fill renderer to a Symbol
layer type of Outline: Simple line with Color of 31|133|180.

24. Label the lakes with the the Name field. Set the label Color and RGB value of 185|239|255
(light blue), the Font to Calibri, the Size to 10 points and the Style to bold italic.

25. Switch to the Label placement tab and change the Mode to Horizontal . Then switch to
the label Formatting tab and enter a space as the Wrap on character . Set the Alignment to
Center .

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CHAPTER 1. PREPARING DATA FROM HARD COPY MAPS 33

Your lakes should look like figure 1.30.

Figure 1.30: Lake Styling

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*GENERATED FOR Colin Morris-Moncada ON 2025-03-04 - THIS BOOK IS COPYRIGHTED - DO NOT DISTRIBUTE*
 2. Importing Tabular Data into QGIS

2.1 Introduction

Often we get data in tabular format, for example spreadsheets or CSV files. Sometimes the data
comes in two tables—one with the coordinates and another one with the attributes you need
for your analysis.

After this chapter you will be able to:

• import tabular data into a GIS

• save tables with geometry to GIS format
• join attribute tables
• edit attribute tables
• interpolate point data to raster
• style and label point vectors
• style continuous rasters

In this example we will import a table with the daily average temperature on September 1,
2013 at several meteorological stations in the Netherlands. The data was downloaded from the
KNMI Data Centre (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, http://data.knmi.nl), but
reformatted for the purpose of this exercise.

Figure 2.1 shows the workflow of this chapter.

Import spreadsheet Remove nodata and Interpolate points

Export to vector layer Join attributes
with geometry unit conversion to raster

Import spreadsheet
without geometry

Figure 2.1: Workflow for Importing Spreadsheets, Joining Attributes and Spatial Interpolation

In this exercise we’ll use the following data:

• KNMI_20130901_tday.xls: table with average daily temperatures for different stations

• KNMI_stations.xls: table with station number and coordinates of the location of the sta-
tions

This data can be downloaded from http://locatepress.com/qgis_hydrological.

For this chapter videos from the QGISHydro Chapter 2 playlist at YouTube channel
http://www.youtube.com/c/hansvanderkwast provide the theoretical background, results of the steps
and additional materials.

35

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 36 2.2. CHECK THE SPREADSHEETS

2.2 Check the Spreadsheets

It is good practice to check the contents of spreadsheets or delimited text files before importing
them into any software. For example, when importing CSV files it is important to know the
column separator.

Open the files KNMI_20130901_tday.xls and KNMI_stations.xls in a spreadsheet program and

check the contents.

• Which file contains coordinates? Is there a way to link both files? How could we do that?

2.3 Import Spreadsheets

There are different ways in QGIS to import tabular data:

• Layer | Add Layer | Add delimited text layer. This is the standard importer that
allows us to import delimited text files.
• Layer | Add Layer | Add spreadsheet layer. This tool can load spreadsheet files
(*.ods, *.xls, *.xlsx) as a layer with options to use the first line as a header, ignore rows,
and load geometry from x and y fields.

Here we’ll use the second option, for which we need to install the Spreadsheet Layers plugin.

1.Start QGIS Desktop. Make sure you start a new project rather than continuing the previous
one.

2. In the main menu, go to Plugins | Manage and Install Plugins and check if the Spread-
sheet Layers plugin is installed (figure 2.2). If not, install it now.

Figure 2.2: Install the Spreadsheet Layers Plugin

3. Now choose Layer | Add Layer | Add spreadsheet layer from the main menu (figure 2.3,
on the next page).

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CHAPTER 2. IMPORTING TABULAR DATA INTO QGIS 37

Figure 2.3: Add Spreadsheet Layer

4. In the dialog, browse to the file containing the locations of the meteorological stations (KNMI_
stations.xls).

5. Fill in the dialog as in figure 2.4. Make sure to choose the correct Geometry Fields and
Reference system. In addition, indicate the correct data types for the fields. For example, STN are
station numbers and should be imported as Integer , while ALT(m) should be imported as Real
numbers.

Figure 2.4: Create Layer from a Spreadsheet File with Geometry

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 38 2.4. CONVERT SPREADSHEET TO VECTOR LAYER

Once you click OK, a map with the meteorological stations is displayed.

6. If you don’t see the map, you probably need to zoom to the full extent of the map. Right-
click on the layer name (KNMI stations table) and choose Zoom to layer.

7. Add the table with the temperature data in the same way. Because there is no geometry
(coordinates) in the table, we should uncheck the box (figure 2.5).

Figure 2.5: Create Layer from a Spreadsheet File without Geometry

Spreadsheets or CSV files generally don’t have projection information stored in the file. Therefore, it
is important to find out which projection is used. When you see coordinates that look like decimal
degrees, you can first try a Geographic Coordinate System (WGS 84, EPSG:4326) and check using an
online backdrop layer from the QuickMapServices plugin to see if the points show up at the expected
location. A good website for troubleshooting projection issues is https://ihatecoordinatesystems.com.

2.4 Convert Spreadsheet to Vector Layer

We now have the layer KNMI stations table saved as a temporary virtual layer. For further
processing, we first need to convert it to a GIS vector format. In this case we’ll convert it to a
shapefile.

In the previous chapter we have used the GeoPackage format, which has many advantages over the
shapefile format. Shapefiles, however, are still very much used and therefore we also use them
in this book. For an overview of limitations and advantages of these formats have a look at
http://switchfromshapefile.org.

1. Right-click on KNMI stations table and choose Export | Save features as....

2. In the dialog, use the button to browse to the right folder to save the file as KNMI_
stations.shp. In order to change the projection to the local Dutch projection, choose Amersfoort

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CHAPTER 2. IMPORTING TABULAR DATA INTO QGIS 39

/ RD New for the CRS by clicking on the button. Tip: Use the Filter field to lookup EPSG
code 28992 (figure 2.6).

Figure 2.6: Coordinate Reference System Selector

Here you see the advantage of using EPSG codes: they provide standard codes for each projection. It
is useful to determine the EPSG code of the projection you want to use for your project.

3. Click OK . Now the dialog looks like figure 2.7, on the next page (also check the box Add
saved file to map and make sure that ESRI Shapefile is chosen as the Format). You can see in the
drop-down list that many formats are supported.

4. Click OK to proceed.

5. In the Select Datum Transformations pop-up, keep the default and click OK .

6. Remove the KNMI Stations Table from the layers list by right-clicking and selecting Remove
Layer. Click OK to confirm. Be sure to remove the right one. If you hover your mouse over the
layer item it will show the file name.

Note that with Remove Layer you only remove a layer from the layers list—the file will still be
on your hard disk. If you want to delete the file from disk you need to go to the file in the
Browser panel and right-click on the file name. Then choose Manage | Delete....

Although the knmi_stations.shp layer is in the EPSG:28992 projection (Amersfoort / RD New),

the QGIS map canvas still uses the EPSG:4326 projection (lat/lon WGS 84) and has reprojected

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 40 2.5. JOIN ATTRIBUTE TABLES

Figure 2.7: Save Vector Layer As Dialog

knmi_stations.shp on-the-fly for visualization. In order to visualize all layers in EPSG:28992

we have to change the QGIS project properties.

7. In the main menu choose Project | Properties.

8. Choose the Coordinate Reference System (CRS) tab (figure 2.8, on the facing page).

9. From the list of recently used coordinate reference systems, choose EPSG:28992 and click
OK .

Another way to set the project CRS to that of the layer, is to right-click on the layer and choose Set
CRS | Set Project CRS from Layer from the context menu.

Note that the projection of the project is indicated in the lower right of the screen: .
You can always check there to see if the EPSG code is okay. This is also a button you can click
to go to the Project Properties | CRS tab and change the on-the-fly reprojection.

2.5 Join Attribute Tables

The locations of the meteorological stations and the temperature data are still in separate tables.
For further analysis, we need to combine them into one vector layer. In GIS terms, this is called
a join operation. We can only join tables if they have a column in common.

1. Check the attribute table of KNMI_stations (right-click on KNMI_stations and choose Open
Attribute Table) and in the same way, check the KNMI Temperatures Table.

• Which column do both attribute tables have in common?

After determining which column both tables have in common we can join the data of KNMI
Temperatures Table to the attributes of our shapefile KNMI_stations.shp.

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CHAPTER 2. IMPORTING TABULAR DATA INTO QGIS 41

Figure 2.8: Change the On-The-Fly Reprojection of the Project

2. First close the attribute tables.

3. Next, right-click on KNMI_stations and choose Properties.

4. In the dialog choose the button Joins

5. Click the button and check if the dialog looks like figure 2.9, on the next page.

The common field is STN (the station number). We will join only the temperature field and give
the column the prefix Temp_.

6. Click OK .

7. Click OK to perform the join operation.

Now check the attribute table of KNMI_stations.

• What happened?

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 42 2.6. EDIT THE JOINED ATTRIBUTE TABLE

Figure 2.9: Add Vector Join

2.6 Edit the Joined Attribute Table

The joined attribute table needs two corrections: (1) features with missing data need to be
removed, and (2) the temperatures have to be converted to the right units.

1. Click on row numbers with NULL or no values for temperature, while keeping the Ctrl key
pressed.

Now the attribute table looks like figure 2.10, on the facing page.

2. In the attribute table click on above the table to toggle editing mode.

3. Click the icon (in the toolbar above the attribute table) to remove the two features with
missing data, then save the attribute table by clicking .

The only problem now is that the temperatures in the table are in 0.1 °C. We need to convert
the values to °C.

4. Click the Open Field Calculator button.

5. In the Field Calculator dialog:

• Verify that the Create new field box is checked. This will add a new field to the attribute
table where the output of Expression (see below) will be stored.
• At Output field name type T(C).
• Choose Decimal number (real) for the Output field type.
• Output field length is the number of digits, Precision is the number of decimal places. Set

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CHAPTER 2. IMPORTING TABULAR DATA INTO QGIS 43

Figure 2.10: Select Features with Missing Data

it to 3 and 1 respectively.
• Under Expression fill in the dialog as shown in figure (2.11, on the next page). To avoid
typos, the best practice is to double-click on the field name in the middle of the dialog
screen and click the multiply button . Then type 0.1 so the equation is "Temp_T(0.1C)"
* 0.1 .

6. Click OK to proceed.

Now check the result in the attribute table.

7. Click on the to toggle back to non-editing mode. Click Save to save the changes when
asked and close the attribute table. If you made a mistake, don’t save, but instead choose
Discard to undo all changes since last save.

8. Now remove the table KNMI Temperatures Table from the layers list and check the attribute
table of KNMI_stations.

• What columns do you see now?

• What can you conclude about the join function?

You could have saved the entire attribute table by saving KNMI_stations to a new shapefile
using the previously used Export | Save Features As... function.

2.7 Interpolate Point Features to Raster

The final task is to interpolate the temperature values to a raster.

1. In the main, menu choose Raster | Analysis | Grid (Nearest Neighbor) (figure 2.12, on
the following page).

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 44 2.7. INTERPOLATE POINT FEATURES TO RASTER

Figure 2.11: Create Temperature Field and Convert Units in the Field Calculator

Figure 2.12: Interpolate to Raster using Nearest Neighbor Menu

2. In the dialog, specify the output file: tday_NN.tif by using the browse window and speci-
fying the .tif format.

3. In the Advanced Parameters section, select T(C) for Z value from field . This is the field that we
will interpolate to Thiessen polygons.

For the rest of the dialog, keep the defaults. The dialog should now look like figure 2.13, on
the next page.

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CHAPTER 2. IMPORTING TABULAR DATA INTO QGIS 45

Figure 2.13: Interpolate to Raster using Nearest Neighbor Dialog

Note that the dialog generates a GDAL command. The tool is essentially a GUI for the gdal_grid
command line tool (https://gdal.org/programs/gdal_grid.html).

*GENERATED FOR Colin Morris-Moncada ON 2025-03-04 - THIS BOOK IS COPYRIGHTED - DO NOT DISTRIBUTE*
 46 2.8. STYLING THE RESULTS

4. Click Run to proceed.

5. Click Close to close the dialog.

6. Now repeat the interpolation using the Raster | Analysis | Grid (Inverse Distance to
a Power) (IDW) algorithm. Name the resulting file tday_IDW.tif.

With these interpolation tools from the main menu, you can’t control the extent and spatial resolution
of the output raster. In the Processing Toolbox there are interpolation tools where you can define the
output extent and resolution—for example with the IDW Interpolation tool. The Processing Toolbox
will be introduced in Chapter 3.

2.8 Styling the Results

To make sense of the interpolations, we need to style the raster layers.

1. Drag the KNMI_stations layer so that it is positioned above both the T_NN and T_IDW
raster layers in the Layers Panel .

To provide some context, you will first add a basemap using the QuickMapServices plugin.

2. From the menu bar, choose Web | QuickMapServices | OSM | OSM Standard.

3. Open the Layer Styling panel by clicking the button. Set the target layer to KNMI_
stations.

4. Select Simple marker component and set the Fill color to black and the Size to 2.8 mm.

5. Switch to the Labels tab of the Layer Styling panel. Switch from No Labels to Single
labels.

6. Set the Label with option to the NAME field.

7. To add more information to the map, you will now add the temperature to the label. Click
the Expression button and use the String Concatenation operator and the New line
operator to add the T(C) field to the label on a second line. We can add the degree symbol using
the char() function, which returns a character associated with a unicode code. Your labeling
expression should now read "NAME" || ’\n’ || "T(C)" || ’ ’ || char(0176) || ’C’ (figure
2.14, on the facing page). Note that a space has been added between the value and the unit.
Click OK to return to the Layer Styling panel.

The names are all in upper case. Let’s change them to Title case.

8. Switch to the label Formatting tab and set the Type case to Title Case.

9. To center the label text, set the Alignment to Center .

10. Set the Font to Calibri with a Style of Bold and a Size of 10 points.

11.Switch to the Label buffer tab and check the Draw text buffer option. Set the Opacity to
50%.

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CHAPTER 2. IMPORTING TABULAR DATA INTO QGIS 47

Figure 2.14: Expression for the Label of the Points with the Meteorological Stations

12. To give more separation between the labels and the feature icon, switch to the Label place-
ment tab and set the Distance to 2 mm.

If labels are being cut off at the map boundary, review the previous chapter to remember how
to use the Automated placement settings to prevent it.

Now you will turn your attention to the two interpolated rasters.

13. Start by making the T_NN layer the target layer in the Layer Styling panel.

14. Change the render from the default Singleband gray to Singleband pseudocolor .

For continuous rasters, we use the Singleband pseudocolor renderer. Although Thiessen poly-
gons in the T_NN layer look discrete, the pixels have real numbers, which is not possible for
discrete rasters.

15. For the Color ramp, choose Spectral . Click Classify if it doesn’t automatically show the
result.

By default, this color ramp is setup to make the lower values red and the larger numbers blue.
This is counter-intuitive. These values represent temperature, so the higher values should be
represented with warmer/red colors and the lower values with colder/blue colors.

16. To accomplish this, right-click on the color ramp and choose Invert Color Ramp from the
context menu. In order to see the basemap, you will apply a Blending mode. In the Layer
rendering section, choose Multiply for the Blending mode.

Your map should resemble figure 2.15, on the next page.

17. Next, turn off the T_NN layer and turn on the T_IDW . Use the Layer Styling panel to style
the layer using the Singleband pseudocolor renderer with the same inverted color ramp. This
time switch the Mode to Quantile. Also apply a Multiply Blending mode to this raster.

Your map should now resemble figure 2.16, on page 49.

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 48 2.8. STYLING THE RESULTS

Figure 2.15: Stations and Nearest Neighbor Data Styled

• Which interpolation method is better? Why?

• Can you explain the temperature gradient in the map?

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CHAPTER 2. IMPORTING TABULAR DATA INTO QGIS 49

Figure 2.16: Stations and Inverse Distance Weighted Data Styled

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*GENERATED FOR Colin Morris-Moncada ON 2025-03-04 - THIS BOOK IS COPYRIGHTED - DO NOT DISTRIBUTE*
 3. Spatial Analysis with Map Algebra

3.1 Introduction

With map algebra, we can do calculations with raster layers. This is useful for spatial analy-
sis. For example, when we need to evaluate different criteria to find suitable or unsuitable
locations, we can use map algebra.

After this chapter you will be able to:

• use raster attribute tables

• apply map algebra for raster analysis
• distinguish boolean, discrete, and continuous rasters
• make legends for boolean, discrete, and continuous maps
• understand the use of Nodata
• use logical operators
• calculate distances from rasters
• reclassify rasters
• convert raster to vector points
• sample raster values with vector points

For this chapter, the videos from the QGISHydro Chapter 3 playlist at YouTube channel
http://www.youtube.com/c/hansvanderkwast provide the theoretical background, results of the steps,
and additional materials.

Case Description

The municipality of the (imaginary) oasis Aïn Kju Dzjis has hired you to analyze which wells
are suitable for its inhabitants based on the following conditions:

Condition 1: The wells should be within 150 meters of houses or roads.

Condition 2: No industry, mine, or landfill within 300 meters of the wells.
Condition 3: The wells should be less than 40 meters deep.

You will use map algebra to perform the required analysis.

Figure 3.1, on the next page shows the workflow for this chapter.

51

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 52 3.2. PREPARATION

buffer

150 m buffer Suitability

Roads layer
from houses wells layer

150 m buffer
from roads

Distance to 300 m buffer to

industry, mine, landfill industry, mine, landfill

reclassify

Building layer Houses layer

Industry, mine,
landfill layer

Wells groundwater Wells groundwater

DTM layer
depth layer depth 40 m

Wells groundwater
level layer

Figure 3.1: Workflow of Map Algebra for Finding the Suitability of Wells

3.2 Preparation

Checking the Metadata

For this task you are provided with the following raster layers: buildg.tif, roads.tif, dtm.tif,
and gwlevel.tif. This data can be downloaded from http://locatepress.com/qgis_hydrological.

First we are going to add the exercise folder to the Favorites in the Browser Panel .

1. In the Browser panel, right-click on Favorites and choose Add a directory (figure 3.2). Al-
ternatively, you can right-click on the folder and choose Add as a Favorite.

Figure 3.2: Add Favorites in the Browser Panel

2. Choose the folder where you have stored the layers.

3. Click on the little triangle to expand the contents of the folder.

4. Preview the maps and metadata of these raster layers by right-clicking on the layer and
choosing Layer Properties... (figure 3.3, on the next page).

The Layer Properties window will open, showing the metadata of the layer (figure 3.4, on the
facing page).

• Check the metadata for all layers in this project. Note the file type, number of cells,

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CHAPTER 3. SPATIAL ANALYSIS WITH MAP ALGEBRA 53

Figure 3.3: Layer Properties Menu

Figure 3.4: Layer Properties Window

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 54 3.2. PREPARATION

projection, cell size, minimum value, and maximum value.

5. Select buildg.tif, roads.tif, dtm.tif and gwlevel.tif (keep the Ctrl button pressed and
select the layers) and drag them to the map canvas.

6. Go to the Layers panel.

Adding Raster Attribute Tables

Raster layers, in general, have no attribute table. Each layer is one theme, represented by the
values of the cells. The main raster data types are:

• Boolean rasters: cell values are zero or one, meaning True or False. An example is flooded
versus non-flooded areas. They are styled using the Paletted/Unique values renderer.
• Discrete rasters: cell values are integers (whole numbers) representing classes. An exam-
ple is a land cover map. They are also styled with the Paletted/Unique values renderer.
• Continuous rasters: cell values are real numbers (decimals) representing gradients in the
landscape. The temperature maps calculated in Chapter 2 are examples of this. They are
styled with the Singleband pseudocolor renderer.

In Chapter 4 we will cover a few more raster data types.

The GIS analyst has to determine the data type, because that is normally not stored in the
raster layer. Knowledge of the data type is needed for applying the correct analysis tools and
for presenting raster data with the correct styling.

QGIS now has the possibility to add Raster Attribute Tables or RAT’s to the raster layers, which
gives the opportunity to add multiple attribute fields to a single raster layer and choose a field
for styling.

To use this functionality you need to install the RasterAttributeTable plugin.

1. Install the RasterAttributeTable plugin from the Plugins Manager (figure 3.5, on the next
page).

We are going to add a RAT to the buildg layer. The first step is to apply a renderer to this
discrete raster layer with land-use classes.

2. Select the buildg layer in the Layers panel and open the Layer Styling panel.

3. Choose the Paletted/Unique values renderer and click Classify to assign a random color to
each cell value found in the raster layer (figure 3.6, on the facing page).

Without having a RAT, we could edit the labels of the cell values here to create a legend. In this
case, we will do that in the RAT.

4. In the Layers panel, right-click on the buildg layer and choose New Attribute Table (figure
3.7, on the next page).

5. In the New Raster Attribute Table dialog (figure 3.8, on page 56), keep the default GDAL
auxiliary XML as the format and click OK .

A message will indicate that the RAT is available.

6. Click Open Raster Attribute Table in the message or right-click on buildg in the Layers panel

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CHAPTER 3. SPATIAL ANALYSIS WITH MAP ALGEBRA 55

Figure 3.5: Installing the RasterAttributeTable Plugin

Figure 3.6: The Paletted/Unique Values Renderer for Styling Boolean and Discrete Raster Data

Figure 3.7: Create a New Raster Attribute Table

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 56 3.2. PREPARATION

Figure 3.8: New Raster Attribute Table Dialog

and choose Open Attribute Table.

In the RAT, you will see several fields (figure 3.9):

• RAT Color : the colors assigned to the classes expressed in hexadecimal values
• Value: the cell values found in the raster layer
• Count: the number of cells in each class
• Class: the class label
• RGBA: Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha (opacity) values for the colors of each class

Figure 3.9: Raster Attribute Table of the Buildg Layer

Like with a vector attribute table, we can also add fields to RATs.

7. Click the Edit Attribute Table button.

8. Click the New Column button.

9. In the Add new column dialog, choose Class name as Usage, String as Data type, and type
Land Use for the column Name. For Insertion point, choose After the Class column (figure 3.10,
on the facing page). Click OK .

10. Type the land-use class names in the new Land Use field as in figure 3.11, on the next page.

11. Change the colors of the land-use categories to more intuitive colors. You can do this by
clicking on a color in the RAT color field.

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CHAPTER 3. SPATIAL ANALYSIS WITH MAP ALGEBRA 57

Figure 3.10: Add New Column to the RAT

12.Change the Classification field to Land Use and click OK in the pop-up to confirm that you
want to replace the previous classification.

13. Save the edits by clicking the Edit Attribute Table button again and click Yes in the
pop-up to confirm that you want to save the changes.

Figure 3.11: RAT with New Column for Land-Use Classes

14. Repeat the steps for the roads layer with the following classes:

• 0: no roads
• 1: dirt road
• 2: tarmac

The result should look like figure 3.12, on the following page.

You can also create RATs from rasters styled with the Singleband Pseudocolor renderer. Then you
need to change the Interpolation setting to Discrete so it uses class ranges.

Using the Processing Toolbox

The Processing Toolbox in QGIS provides a lot of tools for processing GIS data. Besides QGIS
tools, it also has useful tools from other processing providers such as GDAL, GRASS, SAGA, and

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 58 3.3. CONDITION 1: WELLS WITHIN 150 METERS OF HOUSES OR ROADS

Figure 3.12: RAT of the Roads Layer

PCRaster.

1. First, activate the Processing Toolbox by choosing Processing | Toolbox from the main
menu (figure 3.13).

Figure 3.13: Open the Processing Toolbox from the Main Menu

If you can’t find the Processing Toolbox in the menu, then you need to activate the Processing plugin
in the Plugins manager by checking the box. It’s a core plugin that comes with QGIS.

3.3 Condition 1: Wells within 150 Meters of Houses or Roads

Let’s first look at the houses. The houses are a class in the buildg layer.

Create a Boolean Layer with True for Houses and False for Other Buildings

If we want to create a Boolean layer with True (1) for houses and False (0) for the other classes
in the buildg layer, we can use the Raster Calculator .

1. In the main menu, go to Raster | Raster Calculator.

2. In the Raster Calculator dialog, double-click on buildg@1, click the = button, and type 1
(figure 3.14, on the facing page).

Now the equation reads buildg@1 = 1, which means: if the buildg@1 layer equals 1 (which is
the houses class), then the output layer has True (value 1), else it has False (value 0). @1 means

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CHAPTER 3. SPATIAL ANALYSIS WITH MAP ALGEBRA 59

band 1. In our case we only use single band raster layers (multiple bands are used in other
applications such as remote sensing).

Figure 3.14: Using the Raster Calculator to Create a Boolean Map With Houses

3. Call the output layer houses.tif and click OK to perform the calculation.

Following good practice, we are going to style this boolean layer.

4. For boolean layers, we also use the Paletted/Unique values renderer. Choose intuitive
colors for True and False.

Create Zones of 150 Meters Around the Houses

Now that we have a layer with only houses, we can proceed with the calculation of the zones
of 150 m around them. We’re going to create a boolean layer which is True (1) within a zone of
150 m around houses and False (0) further than 150 m from houses.

1. In the main menu, choose Raster | Analysis | Proximity (Raster Distance) (figure 3.15,
on the next page).

2. In the Proximity (Raster Distance) dialog, make sure the houses layer is selected as Input layer .
Set the Distance units to Georeferenced coordinates. For Maximum distance to be generated ,
enter 150 meters and enter 1 for Value to be applied to all pixels that are within the -maxdist of
target pixels. Set the Output data type to Byte (because we use only 0 and 1), and call the output
Proximity map houses150m.tif. Leave the other settings at default (figure 3.16, on page 61).

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 60 3.4. CONDITION 2: NO INDUSTRY, MINE, OR LANDFILL WITHIN 300 M FROM WELLS

Figure 3.15: Proximity Menu

3. Click Run, then Close when the calculation is done.

4.Style the boolean map. Make the True pixels green and the False pixels red (figure 3.17, on
page 62).

Create Zones of 150 Meters Around the Roads

In a similar way, we can now calculate the 150 m buffer around all roads.

1. Repeat the steps used to calculate the zones of 150 m around the houses, but use the roads
layer as the Input layer and name the output roads150m.tif.

2. Style the boolean map. Make the True pixels green and the False pixels red.

3.4 Condition 2: No Industry, Mine, or Landfill within 300 m from Wells

For the second condition, we first need to reclassify the buildg layer in such a way that the
result is a boolean map with True (1) for industry, mine, and landfill and False (0) for the other
classes. Then we need to calculate the distance to the True pixels, and finally calculate the
pixels that are further than 300 m from industry, mine, and landfill.

Create a Boolean Raster with True for Industry, Mine, and Landfill, and False for
Other Buildings

1. From the Processing Toolbox menu, choose Raster analysis | Reclassify by table (figure
3.18, on page 62).

The Reclassify by table dialog appears. We are going to reclassify the buildg raster using a lookup
table.

2. Fill in the dialog exactly as shown in figure 3.19, on page 63.

Here you can identify a nodata value for the output layer for values that are excluded from the

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CHAPTER 3. SPATIAL ANALYSIS WITH MAP ALGEBRA 61

Figure 3.16: Proximity Dialog

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 62 3.4. CONDITION 2: NO INDUSTRY, MINE, OR LANDFILL WITHIN 300 M FROM WELLS

Figure 3.17: Styling of Boolean Map with Zone of 150 m from Houses

Figure 3.18: Reclassify by Table Processing Tool

lookup table. The Range boundaries define if values are included or excluded from the ranges
in a row of the lookup table. Here we don’t use ranges, but reclassify each value. Therefore, we
choose min <= value <= max. For the Output data type we use Byte because the output values
are whole numbers that fit in 8 bits (0 - 255).

3. Go to Lookup table and click .

4. Fill in the lookup table as shown in figure 3.20, on page 64.

5. Click OK and Run. Close the dialog when the processing is finished.

6. Check the result: 1 for mines, industry, and landfills, 0 for the other classes. Use the Identify
tool and click on the map. On the lower right panel you can find the identify results. It
displays the value of the pixel of the selected layer in the Layers panel. You might have to resize
the columns to see the pixel values.

• Is industry a boolean, discrete, or continuous raster?

7. Style the industry layer.

Note that we could get the same result using the Raster Calculator .

• Which expression would you have used for this in the Raster Calculator ?

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CHAPTER 3. SPATIAL ANALYSIS WITH MAP ALGEBRA 63

Figure 3.19: Reclassify by Table Dialog

Create Zones of 300 Meters Around Industry, Mine, and Landfill

With the boolean map with True for industry, mine, and landfill we can calculate the distance
to these pixels. Because the Proximity (Raster Distance) tool does not allow us to assign values
for pixels larger than a threshold, we have to calculate all distances and then use the Raster Cal-
culator to calculate a boolean raster with True for pixels further than 300 meters from industry,
mine, and landfill.

1. Open the Proximity (Raster Distance) tool.

2. Make sure that Industry is the Input layer . Keep all other settings as default. Name the
Output proximity map inddist.tif (figure 3.21, on page 65).

3. Check the result.

• Is the inddist layer a boolean, discrete, or continuous raster?

4. Make a legend that is appropriate for this raster type using Singleband pseudocolor as the
render type. Use intuitive colors (e.g. a ramp from red to green).

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 64 3.5. CONDITION 3: WELLS LESS THAN 40 METERS DEEP

Figure 3.20: Lookup Table for Reclassification of Raster Values

5. Use the Raster Calculator to calculate inddist@1 >= 300. Call the output layer ind300m.tif

• Is the ind300m layer a boolean, discrete, or continuous raster?

6. Style the ind300m layer (figure 3.22, on page 66).

3.5 Condition 3: Wells Less than 40 Meters Deep

For the last condition, we need to identify the wells that are less than 40 m deep. The gwlevel
layer gives the absolute elevation of the groundwater level in the well in meters above sea level.
In order to calculate the depth to the groundwater, we need to subtract this from the surface
elevation given in the digital terrain model (DTM).

1. Open the Raster Calculator .

2. Subtract the absolute well depth from the DTM using this calculation: dtm@1 - gwlevel@1.
Call the output layer welldepth.tif.

• Is the welldepth layer boolean, discrete, or continuous?

3. Style the welldepth layer.

4. Next, calculate in the Raster Calculator a boolean map with wells less than 40 m deep. Call
the output layer notdeep.tif.

5. Style the notdeep layer (figure 3.23, on page 66).

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CHAPTER 3. SPATIAL ANALYSIS WITH MAP ALGEBRA 65

Figure 3.21: Proximity (Raster Distance) Dialog for the Calculation of Distance to Industry, Mines, and
Landfill

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 66 3.5. CONDITION 3: WELLS LESS THAN 40 METERS DEEP

Figure 3.22: Result of the Second Condition (>= 300 m from Industry, Mines or Landfills)

Figure 3.23: Result of the Third Condition (Well Depth < 40 m)

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CHAPTER 3. SPATIAL ANALYSIS WITH MAP ALGEBRA 67

3.6 Combine the Three Conditions and Report the Results

Combine the Three Conditions

After calculating the boolean rasters for the three conditions, we need to combine them to come
to the final result.

1. Use the Raster Calculator to combine the three conditions. Because all boolean results for the
conditions need to be True we have to use the AND operator (figure 3.24). Call the output layer
accessiblewells.tif.

Figure 3.24: Calculate the Combination of All Conditions in the Raster Calculator

2. Check the resulting raster layer and style the layer.

Convert Raster Cells to Point Vectors

To present the end result, we can style the accessiblewells layer. However, it is nicer to present
the wells as point features on the map. Therefore, we need to convert the well pixels to point
vectors.

1. In the Processing Toolbox go to Vector creation | Raster pixels to points (figure 3.25,
on the next page).

2. In the dialog choose the accessiblewells layer as the input Raster layer . For Field name,

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 68 3.6. COMBINE THE THREE CONDITIONS AND REPORT THE RESULTS

Figure 3.25: The Raster Pixels to Points Processing Tool

enter Accessible. The raster values will be saved in this field in the attribute table. Choose
wells.shp as the output Vector points layer (figure 3.26).

Figure 3.26: The Raster Pixels to Points Processing Tool Dialog

3. Click Run, then Close when the conversion is finished.

Sample Raster Values

The point vector layer wells only contains the field Accessible. It is however, more informative
to also include other data in the attribute table. With the Point sampling tool plugin we can
sample the raster layers in this project and add that information to the point attribute table.

1. Install the Point sampling tool plugin.

2. In the Layers panel, only check the boxes for the layers you want to sample and uncheck
the others. Choose the following layers: dtm, welldepth, gwlevel, notdeep, ind300m, roads150m,
and houses150m.

3. Click the Point sampling tool button .

4. In the General tab of the Point Sampling Tool dialog, choose well as the Layer containing
sampling points, select all Layers with fields/bands to get values from and save the Output point
vector layer to wells_final.shp (figure 3.27, on the next page).

5. Click the Fields tab.

6. Edit the name of the attribute that will be given to the output field if needed (figure 3.28, on
the facing page).

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CHAPTER 3. SPATIAL ANALYSIS WITH MAP ALGEBRA 69

Figure 3.27: The General Tab of the Point Sampling Tool Dialog

Figure 3.28: The Fields Tab of the Point Sampling Tool Dialog

7. Click OK and Close.

8. Open the attribute table of wells_final and check the result (figure 3.29, on the next page).

Style the Analysis Results

Now we can style the layers that we want to present. The first step in showing the results will
be to style the wells_final data by whether the wells are accessible or not.

1. In the Layers panel, click on the to open the Layer styling panel. Set wells_final as the
target layer.

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 70 3.6. COMBINE THE THREE CONDITIONS AND REPORT THE RESULTS

Figure 3.29: The Final Attribute Table for the Wells

2. Change from a Single symbol to a Categorized renderer. Then set the Value to Accessible.
Click Classify .

3. When using this renderer, QGIS will create a category to capture any NULL values. Here
there are no wells with NULL values in the Accessible field. Select the entry where the Value
reads all other values and click the Delete button to remove it. Give the wells with a value
of 1 a green symbol with a size of 4 mm. Give the wells with a value of zero a red color with a
size of 2 mm.

4. In the Legend column, rename the entry with a Value of 1 to Accessible and the entry with a
Value of zero to Inaccessible (figure 3.30).

Figure 3.30: Styling the Final Wells

5. Scroll down in the Layer styling panel and find the Layer Rendering section. Expand it and
select Draw effects. The Customize effects icon becomes active. Click on it to open the
Effects properties panel.

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CHAPTER 3. SPATIAL ANALYSIS WITH MAP ALGEBRA 71

Here you can add inner and outer glows, drop shadows, and other effects.

6. Click the box next to Drop Shadow . Select the Drop Shadow effect so that you are seeing the
parameters of the Drop Shadow . Reduce the Offset distance to 1.0 (figure 3.31). Click the Go
back button to return to the main styling panel.

Figure 3.31: Setting Drop Shadow Parameters on the Effects Panel

7. Switch to the Labels tab of the Layer styling panel.

8. Change the setting from No labels to Single labels. Set the Value field to welldepth.

9. You will use a labeling expression very similar to that used at the end of the Preparing Data
from Hard Copy Maps chapter, on page 29. You will set the expression up so the labels read
something like: Well Depth: 76.4 m.

10. Click the Expression button to open the Expression Dialog window.

11. First, add the string Well Depth in front of the well depth value by adding ’Well Depth: ’
before the existing expression.

12. To accomplish the second component, you will use the format_number function. Use the
search box to find the format_number function. Insert it right before the welldepth field. Re-
member, this function requires a number and a number of decimal places. The number will be
the welldepth field and the number of places 2.

13. Use what you learned about the String Concatenation operator and the New line
operator to nicely format the label.

14. Your expression should resemble ’Well Depth:’|| ’\n’ || format_number( welldepth,2
) || ’ m’. Click OK to return.

15. Set the Font to a sans serif font with a Size of 9 points.

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 72 3.6. COMBINE THE THREE CONDITIONS AND REPORT THE RESULTS

16. Switch to the Placement tab and set the Mode to Offset from point. Select the lower
right Quadrant placement with an Offset X Y setting of 1.5 mm each (figure 3.32).

Figure 3.32: Label Placement Settings

17. Finally, click the Automated placement settings button to open the Automated Place-
ment Engine window. Uncheck the box for Allow truncated labels on edges of map option. This
will prevent labels from being cut off.

To complete the styling, you will work with the dtm layer. Make sure that all layers are switched
off except wells_final on top and dtm below.

18. Make the dtm layer the target layer in the Layer styling panel.

19. Choose the Singleband pseudocolor renderer.

20. Click the drop-down for the Color ramp and choose Create new color ramp.

21. The Color ramp type window opens. Choose Catalog:cpt-city as the type. Click OK .

22. The Cpt-city Color Ramp window will open. Select the Topography category.

23. Choose sd-a and click OK .

Did you know that you can save this color ramp to your style library? To do this, access the color ramp
context menu and select Save color ramp. The Save New Color Ramp window will open allowing you
to give it a Name and provide Tag(s).

24. Scroll down to the Layer Rendering section and set the Blending mode to Multiply.

25. Finally, right-click on the dtm layer and choose Duplicate from the context menu.

26. Rename dtm copy to hillshade (right-click on the layer and choose Rename) and turn it on.

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CHAPTER 3. SPATIAL ANALYSIS WITH MAP ALGEBRA 73

27. Make the hillshade layer the target layer in the Layer styling panel. Change the renderer to
Hillshade. Scroll down to the Layer Rendering section and set the Blending mode back to Normal
(figure 3.33).

28. In the Resampling section, set Zoomed in to Bilinear to create a smooth visualization. You
can also do this for the dtm layer.

Figure 3.33: Final Analysis Results Styled

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 4. Stream and Catchment Delineation

4.1 Introduction

One of the most important uses of GIS in hydrology is the delineation of streams and catch-
ments. This chapter presents a generic workflow for stream and catchment delineation for
areas where only open data is available. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) 1 Arc
Second DEM will be used. The workflow will be applied to the Rur catchment in Germany.

After this chapter you will be able to:

• download SRTM DEM tiles using the SRTM-Downloader plugin

• mosaic raster layers into a virtual raster
• reproject rasters
• create subsets of rasters
• fill sinks in a DEM
• calculate flow direction raster layers
• style flow direction raster layers using circular color ramps and arrows in 2D and 3D
• calculate Strahler orders
• delineate streams
• delineate catchments
• style layers for visualizing catchments
• store project and data in a GeoPackage

Generic Workflow for Catchment Delineation

In order to delineate a catchment from a DEM in GIS we need to follow these steps:

1. Download the DEM tiles of your study area. Make sure that the tiles cover at least the study
area and that the catchment you want to derive is covered completely. Better to take it a bit
larger to avoid boundary effects.

2. If your study area is covered by multiple DEM tiles, you need to mosaic (merge) the tiles to
create a single raster DEM layer.

3. The DEM tiles might be in a different coordinate system than desired. In that case you have
to reproject the DEM layer to the projection you want to use in the study area.

4. If the merged DEM is much larger than your study area, you can subset (clip) it to a smaller
area to reduce calculation time.

5. Interpolate voids when pixels with no data exist in the DEM.

6. Make a hydrologically correct DEM by filling sinks and removing spikes.

7. Calculate the flow direction for each cell.

8. Derive the drainage network.

75

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 76 4.2. DOWNLOAD DEM TILES

9. Calculate the catchment for the outflow point of the catchment.

When a map with the stream network already exists, the procedure can be improved by "burn-
ing" the river network into the DEM. In that way the DEM is always lower at rivers and runoff
will follow the actual river network. This is beyond the scope of this chapter.

Figure 4.1 shows the workflow.

Download DEM tiles Mosaic DEM tiles Reproject DEM

Subset DEM Fill voids Fill sinks

Burn in the Calculate

Derive streams
river network flow direction

Define outlet Derive catchment

Figure 4.1: Workflow for Stream and Catchment Delineation

Data for this chapter can be downloaded from http://locatepress.com/qgis_hydrological.

The next section covers how to download the SRTM tiles using the SRTM-Downloader plugin.
These can also be downloaded from the course data repository.

For this chapter, the videos in the QGISHydro Chapter 4 playlist at YouTube channel
http://www.youtube.com/c/hansvanderkwast provide the theoretical background, results of the steps
and additional materials.

4.2 Download DEM Tiles

For the Rur study area, we will download the tiles from the SRTM 1 Arc-Second global data set.
Since the end of 2014, a 1-arc second global digital elevation model (approximately 30 meters
at the equator) has been released as open data. Most parts of the world have been covered by
this dataset ranging from 54 degrees south to 60 degrees north latitude. A description of the
SRTM data products can be found here: http://loc8.cc/srtm1arc.

The following steps explain how to download the SRTM DEM tiles for the study area using the
SRTM-Downloader plugin.

1. Start QGIS Desktop. We’ll start with a new project. In the browser panel, add the folder
with the data for this chapter to the Favorites as you learned in the previous chapter.

2. Drag the boundingbox.shp layer from the Browser panel to the map canvas.

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 77

This polygon defines the boundary of our initial analysis. Normally you have to create such a
polygon yourself or use the map canvas coordinates. We need this to clip the DEM to the study
area. Note that the projection of the project is now set to the projection of the boundingbox layer.

3. Install the SRTM-Downloader plugin from the Plugins Manager (figure 4.2).

Figure 4.2: Installing the SRTM-Downloader Plugin

4. Click the SRTM-Downloader button in the toolbar.

5.In the SRTM-Downloader dialog, click Set canvas extent. It will fill in the coordinates of your
map canvas in GCS coordinates.

6. Keep the other settings as default and click the Download button.

7. The first time you use this tool, you will see a pop-up that asks for your login. Follow
the link to make an account and fill in your credentials in the pop-up. Click the box to Save
Credentials and click OK to proceed with the download.

Six SRTM tiles are now downloaded in the SRTM HGT raster format and added to the map
canvas (figure 4.3, on the next page).

8. Click OK when the pop-up appears that the download is complete and click Close to close
the SRTM-Downloader dialog.

9. Move the boundingbox layer to the top so you can see which area of the DEM tiles falls
within the study area.

Alternatively, you can download the SRTM tiles from USGS Earth Explorer
(http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov) using the same credentials. You can also download many other
free datasets from the site. Another great plugin is the OpenTopography DEM Downloader plugin.
The latter can be used to download different DEM products clipped to a specified extent.

10. Right-click on one of the tiles and choose Properties to review the metadata (figure 4.4,
on page 79).

• What is the projection?

• What are the map units?

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 78 4.3. MOSAIC DEM TILES

Figure 4.3: Download SRTM tiles with the SRTM-Downloader Plugin

4.3 Mosaic DEM Tiles

Before we proceed, we have to merge the DEM tiles, which in GIS terminology is called mosaic.
Here are two ways to mosaic the tiles:

• Merge the tiles into one physical file (e.g. GeoTIFF).

• Merge the tiles into a virtual file (.vrt).

The first option is slower. If we have many tiles, we prefer to create a file that virtually merges
all the tiles. That will be done with the following steps:

1. In the main menu, choose Raster | Miscellaneous | Build Virtual Raster (figure 4.5, on
the next page)

2. In the Build Virtual Raster dialog, you can choose each file individually or merge all files in
a directory. We can also merge the files that are visible in the map canvas. We’ll use the last
option (figure 4.6, on page 80):

• At Input layers click .

• Use the Select all button to select the four tiles and click OK (figure 4.6, on page 80).
• Browse to the location where you want to save the output file and give it the name dem_
mosaic.vrt.
• By default, Resolution is set to average. In our case, the files all have the same resolution
(1 Arc Second).
• Make sure the box before Place each input file into a separate band is unchecked. This needs
to be checked only if you want to create a mapstack, i.e. with remote sensing bands.

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 79

Figure 4.4: Layer Properties of a Downloaded SRTM Tile

Figure 4.5: Build Virtual Raster Menu

The dialog should now look like that shown in figure 4.7, on the following page.

3. Click Run to run the algorithm. Click Close to get back to the main screen where you can see
the merged DEM.

You’ll notice that in the map canvas, the borders of the tiles are not visible anymore in the
merged DEM because QGIS stretches the greyscale using the minimum and maximum cell
values of the entire merged DEM. This is only for visualization, the values in the tiles are the

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 80 4.4. REPROJECT DEM

Figure 4.6: Multiple Selection Dialog

Figure 4.7: Build Virtual Raster Dialog

same as in the mosaic.

4. Now remove the individual tiles (not the dem_mosaic) from the layers list by selecting them
while the Ctrl button is pressed. Then right-click one of the tile names and select Remove Layer.
Click OK to confirm. This will remove the tiles from the screen, but not from the hard disk.

4.4 Reproject DEM

The DEM is in its original Lat/Lon Geographic Coordinate System (GCS) with datum WGS
84 (EPSG: 4326). It is not recommended to use a GCS for DEM analysis, because the Z units
(e.g. meters) are different than the X and Y units (degrees). We need to choose a projection

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 81

for our project. If the project covers one country, we can choose a national projection. In our
case, however, the project covers multiple countries (Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium).
Therefore, we will use a global projection: UTM Zone 32 North, with WGS 84 as datum.

We can find the EPSG codes at http://www.spatialreference.org.

1. Use the website to search for UTM 32N wgs 84. You can leave QGIS running and open a
browser.

Figure 4.8 shows the result.

Figure 4.8: Results Search of Keywords in Spatialreference.org

We need to take a look at the EPSG codes. We will use EPSG: 32632 throughout this project—clicking
on it will provide more details. Note that this is the same projection the boundingbox layer has
and was used for setting the projection of our project when we loaded the boundingbox layer
as our first layer.

Now we are going to reproject the DEM from unprojected GCS (Lat/Lon WGS 84 - EPSG: 4326)
to UTM Zone 32 North / WGS 84 (EPSG: 32632).

2. From the main menu, choose Raster | Projections | Warp (Reproject) (figure 4.9, on
the following page).

3. In the Warp (reproject) window, choose the Project CRS: EPSG:32632 - WGS 84/UTM zone
32N as Target CRS.

4. Now complete the dialog:

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 82 4.5. CREATE A SUBSET OF THE DEM

Figure 4.9: Reproject Rasters using Warp Menu

• For the Resampling method, choose Nearest Neighbor to preserve the elevation values of
the original files.
• Set the No data value for output bands to -9999 because when the raster layer is reprojected
there will be "no data" at the borders. In this way, we define that "no data" has a value
-9999 and will not be visualized and treated as "data".
• Set the Output file resolution to 30 m.
• Browse to your exercise folder and name the output file dem_reprojected.tif. Make sure
you choose a GeoTIFF as output format.

The dialog should now look like that shown in figure 4.10, on the next page.

Note the gdalwarp command that will be executed in the background. Under Advanced Parameters,
we could have specified the extent of the output file based on the boundingbox layer. In that way the
dem_mosaic layer is reprojected and clipped in one step.

5. Click Run to run the algorithm. After running, click Close to close the window.

The reprojected DEM now appears in the map canvas.

6. You can now remove the dem_mosaic layer.

This is a good time to save your project.

4.5 Create a Subset of the DEM

In order to reduce the calculation time of the algorithms, we will subset (or clip) the raster layer
to the boundingbox polygon.

1. From the main menu, select Raster | Extraction | Clip Raster by Mask Layer (figure
4.11, on the facing page).

2. In the Clip Raster by Mask Layer dialog, choose dem_reprojected for the Input layer . For
Mask Layer , choose boundingbox. Check the box to Keep resolution of input raster and keep the
defaults for the other options. Choose dem_subset for the Clipped (mask) output and click Run.
Click Close when done (figure 4.12, on page 84).

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 83

Figure 4.10: Warp (Reproject) Dialog

Figure 4.11: Clip Raster by Mask Layer Menu

Often you won’t have a bounding box shapefile. In that case you can choose Raster | Extraction
| Clip Raster by Extent. Then you can drag a box in the map canvas with a backdrop layer (e.g.
OpenStreetMap) and use that for clipping. While using that, make sure your on-the-fly reprojection is
similar to the CRS of the layer that you want to clip, because the map canvas coordinates are used by
the algorithm.

3. Now you can remove dem_reprojected from the layers list as we have done before for other
layers that are no longer needed.

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 84 4.5. CREATE A SUBSET OF THE DEM

Figure 4.12: Clip Raster by Mask Layer Dialog

Styling the DEM

By default, QGIS styles raster layers with the Singleband gray renderer. As you have learned
in Chapter 3, the software does not know the raster data type (e.g. boolean, discrete or con-
tinuous) and how the user wants to present the information. To help interpret the results, it is
good practice to intuitively style your layers.

The DEM is a continuous raster. Continuous rasters represent gradients and can therefore
contain real numbers (also called decimal numbers or floating point). Continuous rasters are
styled in QGIS using ramps from the Singleband pseudocolor renderer in the Layer Styling
panel.

4. Select the dem_subset layer and click (or press F7).

5. In the Layer Styling panel, choose Singleband pseudocolor from the drop-down list.

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 85

6. Click the arrow at Color ramp and choose Create New Color Ramp from the drop-down menu
(figure 4.13).

Figure 4.13: Create New Color Ramp

7. In the pop-up Color ramp type dialog choose Catalog: cpt-city from the drop-down list
(figure 4.14).

Figure 4.14: Color Ramp Type Dialog

The cpt-city catalog has a lot of useful preset color ramps.

8. Choose Topography | Elevation. Note that cd-a and sd-a are also nice choices (figure 4.15,
on the following page).

9. Click OK to close the dialog.

This gives us more intuitive colors in the DEM where we can clearly distinguish higher and
lower areas (if you don’t see the colors applied, click Classify ).

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 86 4.5. CREATE A SUBSET OF THE DEM

Figure 4.15: Cpt-city Dialog

Now we will further improve the visualization.

10. Right-click on the dem_subset layer and select Duplicate Layer (figure 4.16).

Figure 4.16: Duplicate Layer Menu

This creates a copy of the dem_subset layer called dem_subset copy.

11. Uncheck the dem_subset layer and rename the dem_subset copy layer to hillshade.

12. In the Layer Styling panel, which should still be open, make sure that the hillshade layer

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 87

is now selected. In the drop-down list change Singleband pseudocolor to Hillshade.

Now the hillshade layer is visualized with a shading.

• Which direction is the illumination coming from?

• Is this possible in reality?

Hillshade gives the best results with an artificial illumination in the northwest, which in reality cannot
exist in the Northern Hemisphere. If you move the dial in the Layer Styling panel to the southwest,
you will see an inverted relief. Also note that there is a Resampling section. The default resampling
method for both Zoomed in and Zoomed out is Nearest Neighbor. This method is fine for categorical
data however, elevation is considered continuous data. You should therefore choose a Zoomed in
resampling method of Bilinear and a Zoomed out resampling method of Cubic.

Next, we’re going to blend the DEM with the hillshade layer.

13. Switch on the dem_subset layer by checking the box.

14. In the Layer Styling panel make sure the dem_subset layer is selected. In the Layer Rendering
block of the panel, change the Blending mode to Multiply (figure 4.17).

Figure 4.17: Change the Blending Mode

As you can see, blending gives a much nicer effect than transparency. With transparency the
colors will fade. Now we can clearly see the elevation differences—the gradient from south to
north and the valleys where we expect the streams (see figure 4.18, on the next page).

Blending modes allow for more elegant rendering between GIS layers. They can be much more powerful
than simply adjusting layer opacity. Blending modes allow for effects where the full intensity of an
underlying layer is still visible through the layer above. There are thirteen blending modes available.
More information is available in the QGIS documentation: https://edu.nl/rcddd.

4.6 Fill Sinks and Calculate Flow Direction

Raw, unprocessed DEMs have artifacts such as depressions. Artifacts are a result of the DEM
acquisition process and must be removed before a DEM can be used for hydrological analysis,
like catchment and stream delineation or hydrological modeling. There are several algorithms

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 88 4.6. FILL SINKS AND CALCULATE FLOW DIRECTION

Figure 4.18: Color Hillshade

for filling sinks. We will use the lddcreate tool from the PCRaster Tools plugin. This tool fills
the sinks and creates a flow direction map (also called local drain direction map) at the same
time. The resulting flow direction map can be used in the next steps.

First, we will install the PCRaster Tools plugin. Then we will convert the DEM GeoTIFF to the
PCRaster format (.map, which is a GDAL supported raster format). Next we will fill the sinks
and derive the flow direction with the lddcreate tool. Finally, we will style the flow direction
map.

Install the PCRaster Tools plugin

The PCRaster Tools plugin adds ~100 tools to the Processing Toolbox. These are tools from the
PCRaster Python package. These tools are useful for map algebra and environmental modeling
in the fields of geography, hydrology, and ecology. More information about PCRaster can be
found at http://www.pcraster.eu.

Before you can install the PCRaster Tools plugin you need to install PCRaster.

On Windows, you can install PCRaster with the OSGeo4W installer. Alternatively, you can
install PCRaster and QGIS with Conda (https://docs.conda.io).

In this section, we will explain how to install PCRaster Tools on Windows using the OSGeo4W
installer. For installation with Conda, please check the plugin documentation here: https:
//jvdkwast.github.io/qgis-processing-pcraster.

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 89

1. Save your QGIS project and close QGIS.

2. Run the OSGeo4W Setup, which comes with your QGIS version. You can find it in the
Windows Start Menu (figure 4.19).

Figure 4.19: OSGeo4W Setup in the Windows Start Menu

3. In the OSGeo4W Setup wizard, choose Advanced Install , click Next.

4. Choose Install from Internet and click Next.

5. Select the root install directory or keep the defaults; click Next.

6. Select the local package directory or keep the defaults; click Next.

7. Select your internet connection; click Next.

8. Choose one of the download sites; click Next.

9. In the Select Packages window, search for pcraster.

10. Click the arrows icon to change from skip to a PCRaster version to install (figure 4.20).

Figure 4.20: Install the PCRaster Package from OSGeo4W

11. Click Next to run the installation.

12. Click Finished to close the OSGeo4W Setup wizard.

13. Start QGIS Desktop.

14. In the main menu, choose Plugins | Manage and install plugins....

15. In the dialog, search for pcraster and install the PCRaster Tools plugin (figure 4.21, on the
following page).

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 90 4.6. FILL SINKS AND CALCULATE FLOW DIRECTION

Figure 4.21: Installing the PCRaster Tools Plugin

After successful installation, you will see the PCRaster Tools in the Processing Toolbox (figure
4.22).

Figure 4.22: PCRaster Tools in the Processing Toolbox

Convert GeoTIFF to PCRaster Format

In order to use the PCRaster Tools, we need to convert rasters to the PCRaster format, which is
a GDAL supported format. This is necessary because PCRaster is strict with raster data types.

Previously, you learned about boolean, discrete, and continuous rasters. PCRaster has a few
more data types. The following are all the data types used for PCRaster layers:

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 91

• Boolean: cells are 0 (False) or 1 (True).

• Nominal: cells have positive integer values representing classes (discrete raster) without
a specific order, for example land-use classes.
• Ordinal: cells have positive integer values representing classes (discrete raster) with a
specific order, for example stream order.
• Scalar: cells have real values (decimal, positive, negative). This is used for continuous
rasters.
• Directional: for rasters with a compass direction in degrees or radians. For example,
aspect.
• LDD: local drain direction, a specific data type for flow direction rasters.

During calculations, PCRaster checks the data type of the input rasters. Calculations can only
be done when the correct data types are used.

Here we will convert the dem_subset layer to the PCRaster format.

16. In the Processing Toolbox go to PCRaster | Data management | Convert to PCRaster Format.

17. In the Convert to PCRaster Format dialog, choose dem_subset as Raster layer and Scalar as
Output data type (the DEM is a continuous raster, therefore we use the scalar data type here).
Save the result to dem.map (figure 4.23).

Figure 4.23: Convert to PCRaster Format Dialog

18. Click Run.

The result is now added to the map canvas

19. Click Close to close the dialog.

Calculate the Flow Direction

The next step is to fill the sinks (artificial depressions in the DEM) and calculate the flow direc-
tion raster. PCRaster does both in one step with the lddcreate tool.

20. In the Processing Toolbox go to PCRaster | Hydrological and material transport operations
| lddcreate.

21. In the Lddcreate dialog, choose dem as DEM layer . Keep all other defaults so it will fill the
sinks completely.

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 92 4.6. FILL SINKS AND CALCULATE FLOW DIRECTION

With the lddcreate tool you can control the filling by changing these parameters. Click the
documentation link in the tool for more information. Save the results to flowdirection.map
(figure 4.24).

Figure 4.24: The Lddcreate Dialog

22. Click Run. This can take a few minutes before the result appears in the map canvas. Click
Close to close the dialog.

The lddcreate tool fills the sinks in the DEM and results in a local drain direction (flow direction)
map. If you need the filled DEM, you can use the lddcreatedem tool.

Styling the Flow Direction Layer using a Circular Color Ramp

A flow direction layer indicates the direction of flow for each pixel. Direction can be expressed
as compass direction, however, we cannot store text in a raster. Compass direction can also be
expressed as degrees on a circle where north is 0 degrees, east is 90 degrees, etc. To store 360
degrees, we would need more than 8 bits (range from 0 to 255), which would increase the file
size. In addition, the D8 method uses discrete directions to the 8 surrounding cells. Therefore,
GIS software recodes the 8 directions. Each software, however, does it in their own way. The
PCRaster LDD format uses the values of the numeric keypad for the directions.

Besides knowing the encoding of the compass directions in the raster, we also need to apply
a directional or circular color ramp instead of a linear one that we have used until now for
continuous rasters. In this section, we will define a circular color ramp to intuitively show
southern oriented flows with warm colors and northern facing flows with cool colors.

We will use the Raster Attribute Table for that.

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 93

23. Open the Layer Styling panel for the flowdirection layer.

24. Change the renderer to Paletted/Unique values, because the flow directions are encoded
in discrete values from 1 to 9. Click Classify to assign random colors to the cell values.

25. Right-click on flowdirection in the Layers panel and choose New Attribute Table.

26. In the New Attribute Table pop-up choose the default GDAL auxiliary XML format and click
OK .

27. Click Open Raster Attribute Table in the message at the top of the map canvas.

28. Toggle on the editing of the attribute table and edit the values in the Class field to reflect
the compass directions as text.

29. Change the colors in the RAT Color field by clicking on the colors and using the RGB values
from figure (4.25).

Figure 4.25: Flowdirection Raster Attribute Table

30. Toggle off the editing and save the changes. Click Classify to apply the changes and click
Close to close the attribute table.

When you blend the flowdirection layer with the hillshade layer the result looks like figure
4.26, on the next page.

Styling the Flow Direction Layer using Arrows

We can further improve the styling of the flowdirection layer by adding arrows. This can be
done using the mesh styling functionality of QGIS. To use that functionality, we need to convert
the PCRaster LDD to a mesh format. We can do that with the Crayfish plugin.

31. Install the Crayfish plugin from the Plugins Manager (figure 4.27, on the following page).

32. In the Processing Toolbox, go to Crayfish | Conversions | PCRaster LDD to GRIB.

33. In the PCRaster LDD to GRIB dialog, choose flowdirection as Input raster and flowdirmesh.grb
as Output file (GRIB) (figure 4.28, on page 95).

34. Click Run.

35. In the Browser panel, expand the flowdirmesh.grb group (you might need to refresh the

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 94 4.6. FILL SINKS AND CALCULATE FLOW DIRECTION

Figure 4.26: Flow Direction with a Circular Color Ramp

Figure 4.27: Installing the Crayfish Plugin

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 95

Figure 4.28: PCRaster LDD to GRIB Dialog

Browser panel with the button) and drag the flowdirmesh layer with the mesh icon to
the map canvas.

This might take some time. If the file is too large for your computer’s memory, you can get
errors. In that case, you can clip the flowdirection layer to a smaller area and repeat the steps
to convert the file to the mesh format.

When the map canvas shows a completely yellow layer, the flowdirmesh layer has been loaded
and we can start styling it.

36. Select the flowdirmesh layer in the Layers panel and open the Layer Styling panel.

37. In the Layer Styling panel, go to the Datasets tab and click on to disable contours and
click on the arrow to enable vectors (figure 4.29).

Figure 4.29: Mesh Datasets Tab

Now so many arrows are drawn in the map canvas that it turns black. Let’s tune the settings
to improve this.

38. Go to the Vectors tab (figure 4.30, on the next page) and change the Arrow Length settings
to Fixed and the Length to 2.00. Change the Color to dark blue.

39. Zoom in to see the flow direction with arrows.

40.Check the box to Display on User Grid to show the arrows fixed to a grid, e.g. with an X and
Y Spacing of 10 px (figure 4.30, on the following page).

The settings are depending on your zoom level. Play with the settings to get a nice result. You
can also try the other Symbology settings for visualization as Streamlines and Traces.

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 96 4.7. DELINEATE STREAMS

Figure 4.30: Flowdirection Mesh Styled with Arrows

Visualize Flow Direction in 3D

We can also visualize the flow direction using the QGIS 3D Map View.

41. In the main menu, choose View | New 3D Map View (figure 4.31).

Figure 4.31: New 3D Map View in the Menu

42. In the 3D Map view, click the Options button and choose Configure....

43. In the 3D Configuration dialog, stay in the Terrain tab and change the Type to DEM (Raster
Layer) and choose dem as Elevation. Click OK to apply the settings and return to the 3D Map
view.

The 3D view will now start rendering. Try to navigate the scene with the different mouse
buttons and the compass. You can change the Vertical scale, Tile resolution and Skirt height in
the 3D Configuration to improve the visualization (figure 4.32, on the facing page).

4.7 Delineate Streams

Calculate Strahler Orders

Before we can derive the streams from the DEM, we need to determine what we consider
streams. For this purpose, we use the Strahler order. The higher the order, the bigger the
stream (see figure 4.33, on the next page).

1. Close the 3D Map view and show only dem_subset with blended hillshade by unchecking
the other layers in the Layers panel. Also zoom out to the full extent.

2. Search for streamorder in the Processing Toolbox and select PCRaster | Hydrological and
transport operations | streamorder (figure 4.34, on page 98).

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 97

Figure 4.32: Flow Direction in the 3D View

Figure 4.33: Strahler Order Method (Image from

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flussordnung_(Strahler).svg, License CC BY-SA 3.0)

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 98 4.7. DELINEATE STREAMS

Figure 4.34: PCRaster Streamorder Tool

3. In the Streamorder dialog, select flowdirection for the Local Drain Direction layer , use
strahler.map as the Stream Order output filename, and click Run. Click Close when the al-
gorithm is done (figure 4.35).

Figure 4.35: Streamorder Dialog

To make more sense of the strahler layer, we are going to style it.

• Is the Strahler order layer a boolean, discrete, or continuous raster?

The Strahler order layer is a discrete raster, but the order of the classes is important. There-
fore, for PCRaster, it has the ordinal data type. For discrete rasters in QGIS, we use the Palet-
ted/Unique values styling. The higher the Strahler order, the bigger the stream. So we will use
a color ramp from white to blue.

4. Open the Layer Styling panel if you closed it before and make sure that the strahler layer is
selected.

5. Choose Paletted/Unique values from the drop-down menu.

6. Click Classify (figure 4.36, on the facing page).

This assigns a unique, random color to each unique value in the raster.

7. Right-click on Random colors and choose Blues (figure 4.37, on the next page).

8. Zoom in on the map canvas to evaluate the result.

The strahler layer now shows in an intuitive way that the higher orders will be larger streams
than the lower orders (figure 4.38, on page 100).

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 99

Figure 4.36: Styling of Strahler Layer

Figure 4.37: Select Blues Color Ramp

Calibrate Strahler Threshold to Determine Streams

The next step is to apply a calibration procedure to determine which Strahler orders we con-
sider to be streams. We will create boolean layers for Strahler orders larger than or equal to
a threshold value. Each boolean layer will be compared with a reference layer. Here we will
compare the Strahler orders with the rivers on OpenStreetMap. For areas where there is a
lack of data in OpenStreetMap, you could use the Google Satellite. Both OpenStreetMap and
Google Satellite layers can be found in the QuickMapServices plugin.

9. Add an OpenStreetMap backdrop layer from the QuickMapServices by choosing Web |

QuickMapServices | OSM | OSM Standard from the main menu. Make sure that only the OSM
Standard and strahler layers are visible.

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 100 4.7. DELINEATE STREAMS

Figure 4.38: Strahler Orders Styled with Intuitive Colors

We will use the Raster Calculator to create a boolean map with 1 (True) for Strahler order >= 5
and 0 (False) for the other values.

10. Go to Raster | Raster Calculator.

11. Fill in the dialog as in figure 4.39, on the next page. Note that we check the box to Create
on-the-fly raster instead of writing layer to disk, because we only need these layers for calibration
purposes. Choose strahler >= 5 as the Layer name so we can compare results later. Click OK
to run the calculation.

It is also good practice to style the strahler >= 5 layer.

12. Hide the strahler layer in the Layers panel so we have only the strahler >= 5 and OSM
Standard layers checked.

13. Go to the Layer Styling panel and make sure that strahler >= 5 is selected.

14. Choose Paletted/Unique values from the drop-down menu.

15. Click Classify .

This layer is boolean and therefore it has only pixels with values 0 and 1, but it also shows a
nodata value. For our calibration it is important to make the ones blue and the rest of the pixels
transparent so we can compare the raster with the streams on OpenStreetMap.

16. Click on the color for value 1 and change it to dark blue. Select the two other classes
with the Ctrl button pushed. Then click the Remove selected row(s) button to remove these
classes (figure 4.40, on the facing page).

On the map canvas, we can now see all streams larger than or equal to Strahler order 5 and we
can compare them with the rivers on the OpenStreetMap.

17. Repeat the steps in this subsection for different Strahler order threshold values and de-
termine the one that corresponds best with the rivers on OpenStreetMap. Remove the other
boolean layers.

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 101

Figure 4.39: Calculate a Boolean Map with the Raster Calculator

Figure 4.40: Styling a Boolean Layer

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 102 4.7. DELINEATE STREAMS

Tip: You can copy the styles of the layers: right-click on a layer, choose Styles | Copy Style and then
right-click on the target layer and choose Styles | Paste Style (figure 4.41).

Figure 4.41: Copy the Style of a Layer

Calculate the Channel Network

The next step is to calculate the channel network.

First, we are going to create a layer with the Strahler orders for the rivers by selecting the cells
with order equal to or higher than the threshold determined in the previous step. We will use
order 8 as the threshold.

With the PCRaster Tools plugin, we can only use raster layers in map algebra. If we want to
calculate a new boolean layer with strahler >= 8 as True (our channels) and < 8 as False, we
need to first create an ordinal raster that consists of cells with only value 8. This can then be
used in map algebra.

18. In the Processing Toolbox, go to PCRaster | Data management | spatial.

19. In the Spatial dialog, enter 8 for Input nonspatial . Choose Ordinal for Output data type and
strahler as the Mask layer . Call the Output raster layer ordinal8.map (figure 4.42, on the facing
page).

20. Click Run and Close the dialog after completion.

Now we are going to create a boolean layer with 1 (True) for all strahler cells that are >= 8.

21. In the Processing Toolbox, go to PCRaster | Conditional and boolean operators | comparison
operators.

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 103

Figure 4.42: Spatial Dialog to Create an Ordinal Raster with Value 8

22. In the Comparison Operators dialog, choose strahler as Input raster , >= as Comparison oper-
ator and ordinal8 as the second Input raster . Save the Output Boolean raster as channels.map
(figure 4.43).

Figure 4.43: Comparison Operators Dialog

23. Click Run and Close the dialog after completion.

Now we have a boolean layer with the channels that we can use to assign the river Strahler
orders.

24. In the Processing Toolbox, go to PCRaster | Conditional and boolean operators | ifthen.

25. In the If Then dialog, choose channels as the Input Boolean Condition Raster and strahler
as the Input True Raster . Call the Output Raster channelsstrahler.map (figure 4.44, on the
following page).

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 104 4.7. DELINEATE STREAMS

Figure 4.44: If Then Dialog

This means: if the channels layer has cells that are True (1), then give those cells the value of
the strahler layer. All other cells get "nodata".

26. Click Run and Close the dialog after processing.

Now we have a raster with the Strahler orders for the river channels.

Convert Raster to Vector Lines

For a better visualization of the channel network, we need to convert the channelsstrahler
layer to a line vector.

To do this, we will use the GRASS tools from the Processing Toolbox.

First, we need to thin the raster lines so they are only one cell wide.

27. From the Processing Toolbox, choose GRASS | Raster (r.*) | r.thin.

28. In the r.thin dialog, choose channelsstrahler as Input raster layer to thin. Keep the defaults
and save the Thinned raster as channelsthin.tif. Make sure to choose the GeoTIFF format
instead of the PCRaster .map format (figure 4.45, on the next page).

29. Click Run to perform the thinning and click Close when the processing is completed.

30. Compare the result with the channelsstrahler layer to understand what r.thin does.

Now we can convert the channelsthin layer to a line vector.

31. In the Processing Toolbox, go to GRASS | Raster (r.*) | r.to.vect.

32. In the r.to.vect dialog (figure 4.46, on page 106):

• choose channelsthin as Input raster layer .

• choose line from the drop-down menu as Feature type.

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 105

Figure 4.45: r.thin Dialog

• check the box to Use raster values as categories instead of a unique sequence.
• under Advanced Parameters, change the v.out.ogr output type to line.
• name the Vectorized output channels.shp.

33. Keep the rest as default. Click Run to perform the conversion. Click Close when the
processing is done.

The result has some geometrical errors that can be fixed using v.clean from GRASS that you can find
in the Processing Toolbox or with the Topology Checker plugin. This is beyond the scope of this book.

Styling the River Channels

Now we can style the channels vector layer to get a better understanding of the results. We
will apply a styling in such a way that the lines get thicker with higher Strahler orders.

34. Open the attribute table of the channels layer.

In the attribute table, you can see that the cat field has the original Strahler order values (in
our case 8, 9 and 10). In reality, the Strahler order method starts with value 1 for the smallest
tributaries. Therefore, we need to reclassify the values in the cat field to represent the real
Strahler orders.

35. Click the Open field calculator button.

36. In the Field Calculator dialog, create a new field with the name ORDER. It should have an
Output field type of Whole number (integer) and an Output field length of 1. Under Expression,
write the code as given in figure 4.47, on page 107).

The CASE expression is used to evaluate a series of conditions. In our case, that means that it
first checks if cat is equal to 8. If that’s the case, it assigns value 1, etc. The CASE expression
ends with the END statement.

37. Click OK to apply the calculation.

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 106 4.7. DELINEATE STREAMS

Figure 4.46: r.to.vect Dialog

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 107

Figure 4.47: Calculate Strahler Field with the Field Calculator

38. Check the result in the attribute table. Toggle off editing by clicking and confirm that
you want to save the edits. You can now close the attribute table.

39. Open the Layer Styling panel and set the target layer to channels.

40. Keep the Single Symbol renderer, but change the Symbol layer type to Interpolated Line.

41. Change the Stroke Width to Varying Width. Set the Start value and End value to the ORDER
field. Click the button to get the correct Min. value and Max. value. Change the Min. width
to 0.30 Points and the Max. width to 1.00 Points (figure 4.48, on the following page).

42. Under Color , keep the Single Color but change it to blue with an RGB value of 15|66|220.

43. Your map should now resemble that in figure 4.49, on the next page, showing the streams
identified as having higher Strahler Orders are the main channels and the smaller ordered
streams are tributaries.

4.8 Define Outflow Point

A catchment is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain, melting snow, or ice
converges to a single point at a lower elevation, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters
join another water body, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean. In order
to delineate a catchment we need to have:

• the coordinates of our outlet in the same coordinate system as the layers we are using
• the channel network that matches the flow directions as calculated from a hydrologically

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 108 4.8. DEFINE OUTFLOW POINT

Figure 4.48: Styling Channel Strahler Orders using the Interpolated Line Renderer

Figure 4.49: Channels Data Styled by Strahler Order

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 109

correct DEM

The outflow point of the Rur catchment is in Roermond, where the Rur enters the Meuse river
(Maas in Dutch). The channel network that has been derived in the previous step is in the
channels layer. We will however use the channelsstrahler raster layer, because we need to
define the outlet exactly on a river pixel.

1. Make sure you have the channelsstrahler layer on top of the OSM Standard layer from the
QuickMapServices plugin. You can style the channelsstrahler layer with a blue ramp, so that
the main channel appears in dark blue.

2. Look for the location where the Rur river flows into the Meuse. Note that on OpenStreetMap
the Dutch names are used, because it lies in the Netherlands. Rur is spelled as Roer and Meuse
is spelled as Maas.

Note that in some places, the delineated channels are not corresponding well with the channels on
OpenStreetMap. This can be for the following reasons: (1) Incorrect automatic delineation of streams,
which can be caused by errors in the DEM or areas that are too flat, (2) Distortion due to reprojection
and resampling (3) Human influence on the natural course of the channels. The catchment delineation,
however, only works when the outlet is defined on a delineated channel, because that corresponds with
our flow direction layer. Results can be improved by using different (parameters of) fill sinks algorithms
or burning an existing vector layer of the stream network in the DEM.

3.Choose a pixel on the delineated channel that is close to the real outlet of the Rur in the
Meuse (step 2).

4. Right-click on the pixel and copy the Map CRS coordinate (figure 4.50).

Figure 4.50: Copy Coordinates of Outlet

5. Paste the coordinates in a text editor (for example Notepad) and add a comma and a 1
(figure 4.51, on the next page).

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 110 4.9. DELINEATE THE CATCHMENT

Figure 4.51: Outlet CSV File

In our case, we want to delineate only the entire Rur catchment and give all pixels belonging to that
catchment ID = 1. If you want to delineate multiple (sub)catchments, you can add more coordinates
to the CSV file. Just make sure that you also add unique ID numbers.

6. Save the file as outlet.txt.

We can now convert the coordinate to a pixel in PCRaster format.

7. In the Processing Toolbox, go to PCRaster | Data management | Column file to PCRaster

Map.

8. In the Column File to PCRaster Map dialog, browse to the text file with the outlet, choose
flowdirection as the Raster mask layer , choose Nominal (small) as the Output data type, and
save the PCRaster layer as outlet.map (figure 4.52).

Figure 4.52: Column File to PCRaster Map Dialog

9. Click Run and Close after processing.

Now the outlet point has been added to the map canvas.

10. Style the pixel with a clear color using the Paletted/Unique values renderer (figure 4.53, on
the next page).

4.9 Delineate the Catchment

Now we’re going to use the defined outlet to calculate the upstream contributing area (i.e.
catchment) that produces discharge at this location.

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 111

Figure 4.53: Styled Outlet

1. In the Processing Toolbox, go to PCRaster | Hydrological and material transport operations

| catchment.

2. In the catchment dialog, use flowdirection as the LDD layer , use outlet as the Outlet layer ,
and save the result to catchment.map (figure 4.54).

Figure 4.54: Catchment Dialog

3. Click Run and Close the dialog after processing.

The result should look like figure (4.55, on the next page) when you zoom to the extent of the
catchment layer. The result is a nominal raster with a cell value 1 for the catchment and 0 for
outside the catchment. Nominal, because our outlet raster was defined as nominal data type. If

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 112 4.9. DELINEATE THE CATCHMENT

the outlet.txt file had more coordinates of outlets, each catchment would have had cells with
the value of the corresponding outlet cell. If you have subcatchments with outlets upstream of
a higher order catchment, you can use the PCRaster subcatchment tool to avoid the overlap.

Figure 4.55: Catchment Raster Result

In order to overlay the catchment boundary with other data, it is better to convert it from raster
to vector (polygon).

4. To convert the raster layer to vector, go to the main menu and choose Raster | Conversion
| Polygonize (Raster to vector) (figure 4.56).

Figure 4.56: Polygonize Menu

5. Make sure you choose the right input and call the output Rur_catchment.shp. Click Run.
Click Close to get back to the main screen (figure 4.57, on the next page).

6. Look at the result. Also check the attribute table (right-click on layer name and choose Open
attribute table).

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 113

Figure 4.57: Polygonize Dialog

In the catchment calculation, cells belonging to the catchment get a value of 1, while the other cells
get a value of 0. During the conversion to polygons, it can happen that geometry errors are introduced.
If you find more than one feature with a value of 1 this indicates a geometry error (incorrect topology),
because the boundary of the polygon makes a loop (see figure 4.58). This can give errors when we use
the polygon for geoprocessing. You can fix those errors with the fix geometry tool in the Processing
Toolbox.

Figure 4.58: Issues after Polygonizing a Raster

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 114 4.10. CLIPPING LAYERS TO THE CATCHMENT BOUNDARY

Of course, we are only interested in the catchment area, so we have to remove the outside
polygon.

7. In the attribute table, toggle to editing mode using the button, then select the record
that you want to remove by clicking on the row. The selection will be highlighted in yellow on
the map. Click the button to delete the selected feature (figure 4.59).

Figure 4.59: Delete Polygons that are not the Rur Catchment

You might have noticed that the polygon has a hole. This is caused by a huge open pit lignite
mine, which results in its own subcatchment in our procedure. However, we would like to see
the mine as part of the delineated catchment and will correct this.

8. Enable the Advanced Digitizing Toolbar that we have also used in Chapter 1 (right-click on a
toolbar and check the box before the toolbar).

9. Click the Delete Ring button and click on the mine.

The hole has now disappeared.

10. Toggle off editing by clicking again, and save the changes.

11. Now remove all unnecessary layers from the layers list so that we have only channels,
Rur_catchment, dem_subset, hillshade and OSM Standard (in that order).

4.10 Clipping Layers to the Catchment Boundary

For visualization, it is nicer to clip the layers to the boundary of the catchment.

12. Let’s first clip the channels vector layer to see only the streams that are inside the catch-
ment. Go to the main menu and select Vector | Geoprocessing Tools | Clip (figure 4.60, on
the facing page).

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 115

Figure 4.60: Clip Vectors Menu

13. Fill in the dialog as in figure 4.61 to use the catchment layer as a "cookie cutter" to clip the
Input layer channels to the boundary of the Overlay layer Rur_catchment. Call the Clipped layer
Rur_channels.shp. Click Run to run the tool. Click Close to return the main screen.

Figure 4.61: Clip Vectors Dialog

We can easily copy the styles from channels to Rur_channels.

14. Right-click on channels and choose Styles | Copy Style | All Style Categories.

15. Now right-click on Rur_channels and choose Styles | Paste Style | All Style Categories.

16. Remove channels from the layers list and make sure that Rur_channels layer is at the top
of the list.

We can clip the DEM in the same way as we did in Create a Subset of the DEM, on page 82. The
only difference is that we have to give a no data value that is out of the range of elevations—we
often use -9999 for that. Here we don’t need the clipped DEM, because we are going to apply
a styling technique to create a nice effect to highlight our study area.

4.11 Styling the Resulting Catchment Area

To show the results of your analysis, you can use a technique named Inverted Polygon Shapeburst
Fills to focus attention on the Rur Catchment.

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 116 4.12. STORING THE DATA IN A GEOPACKAGE

1. Open the Layer Styling panel by clicking the button. Set the target layer to Rur_
Catchment.

2. Change from a Single symbol renderer to an Inverted polygons renderer. This renders the data
as the inverse of its geometry. This creates a mask around the Rur valley.

3. Next, select the Simple Fill component. Change the Symbol layer type to Shapeburst fill . In
the Gradient colors section, use the default Two color method. Change the first color to an RGB
value of 135 | 135 | 135. Change the second color to white with an opacity of 65%.

4. In the Shading style section, click the Set distance option and set the distance to 4 mm and
increase the Blur strength to 10.

5. Finally, at the top of the Layer Styling panel, select the Shapeburst fill component.

6. Click the Add symbol layer button. Change the new Simple fill renderer to a Symbol
layer type of Outline simple line. Give it a Color of black and a Stroke width of 0.46 mm.

This gives us the nicely styled basin as shown in figure 4.62.

Figure 4.62: Rur Basin with a Color Hillshade

4.12 Storing the Data in a GeoPackage

To keep the data together and enable easy distribution, it is good to save the layers as a
GeoPackage.

1. In the Processing Toolbox look for the Package Layers tool.

2. In the Package Layers dialog, click the and select all layers. Note that these are only the
vector layers (figure 4.63, on the facing page).

3. Save it as Rur_data.gpkg and click Run and Close when it’s done. By default, it will also save

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CHAPTER 4. STREAM AND CATCHMENT DELINEATION 117

Figure 4.63: The Package Layers Dialog

the styles.

4. We can add the raster layers from the Browser panel. Simply drag the raster layers (in our
case dem_subset) to the Rur_data.gpkg. You might need to refresh the Browser panel to see the
GeoPackage.

Finally, we can also save the project in the GeoPackage. In that way, all data and settings are
stored in one file that can be shared with others in a much easier way than separate shapefiles,
GeoTIFFs, and styling files.

5. Add the layers from the GeoPackage to the project by dragging them from the Browser panel
to the map canvas.

6. Copy the styles from dem_subset and hillshade to their respective layers from the GeoPack-
age. If you get confused, you can hover your mouse over the layer names to see the paths where
they are stored.

7. Remove the layers that are not stored in the GeoPackage and rename the remaining layers
to their original names.

Now we can save the project to the Rur_data.gpkg with the correct paths.

8. In the main menu, choose Project | Save to | GeoPackage... (figure 4.64, on the next
page).

9.In the pop-up, browse to the Rur_data.gpkg at Connection and name the Project Rur. Click
OK to save the project in the GeoPackage.

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 118 4.12. STORING THE DATA IN A GEOPACKAGE

Figure 4.64: Save Project to GeoPackage Menu

The end result should now look like figure 4.65.

Figure 4.65: Result of Chapter 4

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 5. Adding Open Data to Your Catchment

5.1 Introduction

Now that we have defined the boundaries of our study area, the Rur catchment, we can look
for open data that is available on the Internet.

After this chapter you will be able to:

• add OGC web map services to QGIS

• download vectors from OpenStreetMap using the QuickOSM plugin
• make temporary scratch layers permanent
• style open data from the web

In this exercise we will use:

• ESA WorldCover data https://esa-worldcover.org/en/data-access

• Data from OpenStreetMap: http://www.openstreetmap.org

Instead of using a web browser, we will create a live link between the online data and our
data in QGIS, using an OGC web map service, an open standard for sharing maps through the
Internet. We will also download vector layers from OpenStreetMap through the QuickOSM
plugin in QGIS.

For this exercise, you need the delineation of the Rur catchment and its streams from the pre-
vious chapter.

Before we start, make sure that you have at least the following layers loaded into QGIS:

• Boundary of the Rur catchment styled with the inverted polygon shapeburst fill
• Streams in the Rur catchment
• OSM Standard backdrop from the QuickMapServices

There are several ways to begin this new map document while maintaining the symbology established
during the catchment delineation exercise. You can open the map document from the previous chapter
and choose Save As. You can also open a new map document and copy/paste the layers from the
catchment delineation exercise into it. To do this, have the project open from the previous chapter,
select the layers, right-click, and choose Copy Layer from the context menu. Then right-click in the
Layers Panel for the new project and choose Paste Layer/Group.

You can hide the DEM and hillshade layer from the previous project. Your map should now
look like figure 5.1, on the next page.

For this chapter, the videos from the QGISHydro Chapter 5 playlist at YouTube channel
http://www.youtube.com/c/hansvanderkwast provide the theoretical background, results of the steps,
and additional materials.

119

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 120 5.2. ADDING DATA FROM OGC WEB MAP SERVICES

Figure 5.1: The Map at the Start of Chapter 5

5.2 Adding Data from OGC Web Map Services

In this section, we are going to use open data from a web map service—the ESA World-
Cover product (Zanaga et al., 2021 - https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5571936). The ESA
WorldCover is a global land cover map for 2020 at 10 m resolution. It has been derived
from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data. The different ways to access the data are described here:
https://esa-worldcover.org/en/data-access.

1.Go to the website https://esa-worldcover.org/en/data-access and scroll down to the Web

Map Services section.

Here you can see that you can add the land cover map as WMTS or WMS layer. Both deliver a
rendered picture of the data and not the data itself. Therefore, it can be used as a backdrop, but
not for analysis. A WMTS delivers the data in tiles, while the WMS delivers the whole map.
We’ll use the WMTS web map service.

2. Go to your QGIS project and click the Open Data Source Manager button from the
toolbar under the main menu.

3. In the Data Source Manager dialog, choose WMS/WMTS.

4. In the dialog that opens, click the New button.

5. In the dialog that follows, type ESA WorldCover 2020 for Name.

6. On the WorldCover data website, right-click on the WMTS link and choose Copy Link (fig-
ure 5.2, on the facing page).

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CHAPTER 5. ADDING OPEN DATA TO YOUR CATCHMENT 121

Figure 5.2: Copy Link from Web Page

7. Paste the link in the Create a New WMS/WMTS Connection dialog in QGIS (figure 5.3, on
the next page). Keep the defaults and click OK .

8. Back in the other dialog window, click Connect. The layers will now be retrieved from the
WMTS server (figure 5.4, on page 123).

There are many layers available from this web map service that you can now see under the
Tilesets tab.

9. Click on WORLDCOVER_2020_MAP so that it is highlighted and click Add and Close to return to
the main screen.

10. Drag the layer below the Rur_catchment layer so you can clearly see the area within the
Rur catchment.

In this case, there is no legend provided with the web map service. You can manually add a
legend.

11. Go back to the web page with the WorldCover data.

12. Click on WorldCover viewer.

This is an online viewer for the WorldCover data.

13. Make a screenshot of the legend and save it as worldcoverlegend.png.

14. In QGIS, right-click on the WORLDCOVER_2020_MAP layer and choose Properties.

15. In the Layer Properties dialog, go to the Legend tab.

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 122 5.2. ADDING DATA FROM OGC WEB MAP SERVICES

Figure 5.3: Create a New WMTS Connection

16. At Legend placeholder image, browse to worldcoverlegend.png (figure 5.5, on the next
page).

17. Click OK to apply and close the dialog.

Your window should now look like figure (5.6, on page 124).

Have a closer look at the land cover map.

• What are the largest differences in land cover between the upstream and the downstream
areas of the Rur catchment?
• What are the largest cities in the catchment?
• Compare the land cover map with Google Satellite from the QuickMapServices plugin.
Are there important land cover or land use features missing that influence the hydrology
in the Rur catchment?

18. Save the project before you continue.

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CHAPTER 5. ADDING OPEN DATA TO YOUR CATCHMENT 123

Figure 5.4: Available Layers through the WMTS Connection

Figure 5.5: Add Legend Placeholder Image

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 124 5.3. ADDING VECTOR DATA FROM OPENSTREETMAP

Figure 5.6: WMTS Layer with Legend

There are different web services you can use in QGIS. There are the OGC services: WMS, WFS, and
WCS. While WMS, WMTS render a picture from the data, WFS and WCS will give you the vector
and raster data respectively. You can also connect to Spatial Data Infrastructures that use GeoNode
or to ArcGIS Map Server and ArcGIS Feature Server. Also Vector Tiles can be added. With vector
tiles you can control the styling and labeling of the image. With the MapTiler plugin you can add
several useful vector tiles to QGIS. QGIS also supports XYZ Tiles. With the QuickMapServices plugin
you have already used them. All these connections are available in the Data Source Manager and the
Browser panel.

5.3 Adding Vector Data from OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world. OSM
is considered a prominent example of volunteered geographic information (VGI) or crowd-
sourcing. There are several ways to use the data:

• Through the interactive map on the OpenStreetMap website (http://www.openstreetmap.

org).
• In QGIS, you can add OSM basemaps via the QuickMapServices plugin or drag it from the
XYZ tiles in the Browser panel.
• In QGIS, you can download OSM data directly over the Internet. There are several ways
to do this. In this section, we’ll use the QuickOSM plugin which uses the Overpass API
(https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Overpass_API).

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CHAPTER 5. ADDING OPEN DATA TO YOUR CATCHMENT 125

In this video, Etienne Trimaille, developer of the QuickOSM plugin, gives an overview of different ways
of using OpenStreetMap data in QGIS: https://youtu.be/zCdbtoBctM4.

In this section, we are going to download OSM vector data directly in QGIS for the Rur Catch-
ment. We continue from the previous results, but we only visualize the Rur_channels, Rur_
catchment and OSM Standard layers. The other layers should be unchecked.

1. Install the QuickOSM plugin through the main menu: Plugins | Manage and Install Plugins....
Search for QuickOSM.

2. Open the QuickOSM dialog by choosing Vector | QuickOSM | QuickOSM... from the main
menu (figure 5.7).

Figure 5.7: QuickOSM Menu

When you use QuickOSM from the first time, a pop-up will show up where you have to confirm
that you understand the copyrights of OpenStreetMap, before using the plugin. In Chapter 7,
Map Design, you will use the official way of crediting OpenStreetMap in your final map.

3. Click I understand the copyrights, access to the plugin.

We’re first going to download the rivers so we can compare them with the rivers that we have
previously derived. The OSM data attributes consist of keys and values. To learn more about
it, check https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mapfeatures.

4. Choose waterway as Key , river as Value. From the drop-down menu, choose Layer Extent
and Rur_catchment as the extent. Note that you can also select the extent of the Map Can-
vas. Click the arrow before Advanced and make sure only Node, Way , Relation, and Lines are
checked (you always need to select the geometry that you would like to download, some fea-
tures are available with multiple geometries). The dialog should now look like figure 5.8, on
the following page. Click Run Query .

You can increase the Timeout value if you have a slow Internet connection.

The new layer will be added as a temporary scratch layer as indicated by the Temporary Scratch
Layer icon in the indicator space to the right of the layer in the Layers Panel . This means
that it will be discarded after closing QGIS. It is important to make these layers permanent if
you want to keep them. We will do this later.

5. Close the QuickOSM dialog window.

6. Adjust the style and compare the waterway_river from OSM with the Rur_channels layer.

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 126 5.3. ADDING VECTOR DATA FROM OPENSTREETMAP

Figure 5.8: QuickOSM Dialog

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CHAPTER 5. ADDING OPEN DATA TO YOUR CATCHMENT 127

• What do you observe?

7. Let’s add the mines in a similar way. Use key=landuse and value=quarry. Don’t forget to
select Multipolygons instead of Lines.

8. Style the polygons with a gray fill and black stroke.

9. Label the polygons with the Name attribute and an italic font. Switch to the label Formatting
tab and enter a space as the Wrap on character . Then set the Alignment to Center . Switch
to the label Rendering tab and click Only draw labels which fit completely within feature.

Now we are going to look around a specific place. In the lower left of the QGIS window you
can find in the status bar a search field, which is called the Locator bar . This can be used to find
and run any feature or option in QGIS. You can also use it to lookup places using the Nomina-
tim geocoder, which is made available by the OpenStreetMap Foundation and contributors. To
lookup places type > followed by a space and the address. We are going to lookup the place
Jülich.

10. In the Locator bar type > Jülich. It will show immediately the result from the geocoder
(figure 5.9).

Figure 5.9: Geocoding from the Locator Bar

11. Choose Jülich, Kreis Düren, North Rhine-Westphalia, 52428, Germany .

QGIS now zooms in on the center of Jülich.

Southeast of Jülich is the Forschungszentrum Jülich, a large research institute. In the south and
east we see a large surface mining of lignite. The one in the south (Braunkohle-Tagebau Inden)

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 128 5.3. ADDING VECTOR DATA FROM OPENSTREETMAP

is in the Rur catchment.

12.Now compare the OSM derived quarry with a Google Satellite, the DEM, and the World-
Cover land cover map.

• What are the differences?

• Which one is more up-to-date?
• How does the hydrography relate to the quarry (OSM versus GIS delineated)?

Remember that the layers that were added via QuickOSM are temporary scratch layers, indi-
cated by . There is an option to make the layer permanent, but the export layer option
is more flexible. We will use that to save the layer to the GeoPackage created in the previous
chapter (Storing the Data in a GeoPackage, on page 116).

13. Right-click on the landuse_quarry layer and choose Export | Save Features As... (figure
5.10).

Figure 5.10: Export a Layer to Another Format and/or Projection

14. In the Save vector layer as dialog (figure 5.11, on the facing page), for Format, choose
GeoPackage. At Filename, browse to Rur_data.gpkg created in the previous chapter. At Layer
name, type Quarries. This will be the name of the layer inside the GeoPackage. Change the
CRS to the one of the project (EPSG: 32632). Click OK .

15.Now add a few other interesting features from OSM (points, lines, and polygons) and add
them to the GeoPackage:

• Dams: Key=waterway, value=dam

• Lakes: Key=natural, value=water
• Springs: Key=natural, value=spring

It is important to think about the geometry that you want to download and the order of the
layers. Dams look better as lines on top of the lake polygons for example.

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CHAPTER 5. ADDING OPEN DATA TO YOUR CATCHMENT 129

Figure 5.11: Save a Layer to a GeoPackage

16. Now style the layers. Begin with the lakes. You can use the same symbology and label
settings used in the Preparing Data from Hard Copy Maps chapter, on page 13. The simplest
way to achieve this is to open that map document, right-click on the lakes layer, and choose
Styles | Copy Style | All Style Categories from the context menu. Then bring up the current map
document and again right-click on the lakes layer and choose Styles | Paste Style | All Style
Categories from the context menu. Switch to the label Rendering tab and click Only draw
labels which fit completely within feature.

Another option is to open Layer Properties for the lakes layer in the map document from the
"Preparing Data from Hard Copy Maps" chapter. Switch to the Symbology tab and expand the
Layer Rendering section. Click the Style menu and choose Save style. In the Save Layer Style
window save the style as lakes.qml in the exercise folder. Switch to the current project. Open
Layer Properties for the lakes layer and in the Layer Rendering section, click the Style menu and
choose Load style. Choose the lakes.qml file just saved. This is a good option if you will be
reusing a style repeatedly.

17. Next you will work with the dam lines. Give them a Color of black and a Stroke width of
0.86 mm.

18. Click the Add symbol layer button . Select the Simple line component and choose a
Symbol layer type of Marker line. Select the Simple marker component and choose the vertical
line symbol from the choices displayed below. Increase the Stroke width to 0.2 mm and the Size
to 3 mm. Your dams symbol preview should now look like this .

19.Finally, you will style the spring points. Make the layer the target layer in the Layer Styling
Panel . Select the Simple Marker component. Choose a Symbol layer type of SVG Marker . Select
the symbol folder and find the blue-marker.svg . Increase the Size (width and height) to 6
mm each.

20.Save all temporary scratch layers to the GeoPackage. Load the layers from the GeoPackage
and copy the styles. Remove the temporary scratch layers from the Layers panel. Save the result

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 130 5.3. ADDING VECTOR DATA FROM OPENSTREETMAP

as a new project in the Rur_data.gpkg GeoPackage.

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 6. Calculating Percentage of Land Cover per
Subcatchment

6.1 Introduction

For studies on catchment hydrology it is often important to know the percentage of land cover
per subcatchment.

After this chapter you will be able to:

• add unique values to vector layers

• calculate areas of polygons in attribute tables
• style a vector layer using a .qml file
• clip, reproject, and export vector layers to another format
• use conditions in the field calculator
• apply vector geoprocessing tools such as dissolve, intersection, and buffer
• correct geometry errors
• create pie charts using the Data Plotly plugin

In this chapter we’ll use:

• catchpolygons.shp: shapefile with subcatchments

• CORINE 2018 Land cover

The first file has been created by delineating subcatchments within the Rur using the methods
described in the Stream and Catchment Delineation chapter, on page 75.

The data can be downloaded from http://locatepress.com/qgis_hydrological.

Figure 6.1, on the next page shows the workflow for this chapter.

For this chapter the videos from the QGISHydro Chapter 6 playlist at YouTube channel
http://www.youtube.com/c/hansvanderkwast provide the theoretical background, results of the steps
and additional materials.

6.2 Preparing the Subcatchment Layer

1. Start QGIS Desktop with a new project.

2. Download the catchpolygons.shp shapefile and add it to the empty QGIS project.

3. Open the attribute table of the catchpolygons layer.

This layer was calculated using the catchment delineation approach from the Stream and Catch-
ment Delineation chapter, on page 75. The result is that each subcatchment has a value of 100.
For our purpose, however, each subcatchment needs a unique id.

131

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 132 6.2. PREPARING THE SUBCATCHMENT LAYER

Delineated Download land cover

subcatchments vector layer

Assign unique id Clip and reproject

to subcatchments land cover layer

Calculate areas Aggregate

of subcatchments land cover classes

Dissolve
land cover features

Intersect layers

Calculate areas of
intersected features

Calculate % land cover

per subcatchment

Create pie charts

Figure 6.1: Workflow for Calculating the Percentage of Land Cover in Each Subcatchment

4. Toggle to editing mode using the button.

5. In the Field Calculator section just below the toolbar, formulate the equation DN = $id and
click Update All (figure 6.2, on the next page). Click the button to save the edits.

The $id function assigns the unique feature id to each feature in the attribute table.

Now we need to add an attribute with the surface area for each subcatchment polygon.

6. Click to open the Field Calculator dialog.

7. In the Field Calculator dialog, create a new field with the Output field name CatchArea.
Indicate that the Output field type is Decimal number (real) with an Output field length of 10
and a Precision of 2 (figure 6.3, on the facing page).

8. Under the Expression tab, type $area. Click OK to create the new field with the subcatchment

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CHAPTER 6. CALCULATING PERCENTAGE OF LAND COVER PER SUBCATCHMENT 133

Figure 6.2: Number Features using the Unique Feature ID

areas.

Figure 6.3: Add a Field with Subcatchment Area

The attribute table now has the unique ids and surface areas for each subcatchment in square
meters (figure 6.4, on the next page).

9. Click the to save the edits and toggle editing off.

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 134 6.3. PREPARING THE LAND COVER DATA

Figure 6.4: Attribute Table with Unique ID’s and Areas for each Subcatchment

6.3 Preparing the Land Cover Data

Downloading CORINE 2018 Data

In the previous chapter we used a WMTS layer for visualizing land cover. For calculations,
however, we can’t use the WMTS or WMS rendered pictures—we need access to the data.
For this chapter we will download the CORINE 2018 open data from the Copernicus Land
Monitoring Service website.

1. Open a browser and go to https://land.copernicus.eu/pan-european/corine-land-cover.

2. Click on CLC 2018.

You’ll see an online map with a preview of the layer.

3. Click the Download tab.

4. For downloading data you need an account. Click the link to register.

Once logged in you can choose from different data formats (figure 6.5, on the facing page).

Here we’ll use the GeoPackage format, because we need vector data.

5. Check the box before the Corine Land Cover - GeoPackage format.

6. Click the Download button.

The file is 3.5 GB. If you have low bandwidth, you can also download a subset of the dataset from the
course materials at http://locatepress.com/qgis_hydrological.

7. Unzip the contents to a new folder that you will use for this exercise.

8. Go to the DATA folder and expand the contents of U2018_CLC2018_V2020_20u1.gpkg.

9. Drag the GeoPackage layer U2018_CLC2018_V2020_20u1 to the map canvas.

10. Click OK to keep the default transformation setting.

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CHAPTER 6. CALCULATING PERCENTAGE OF LAND COVER PER SUBCATCHMENT 135

Figure 6.5: Download CORINE Land Cover as GeoPackage

11. Make the polygons of the catchpolygons layer transparent with a black outline and stroke
width of 0.66 mm and make sure that it is on top of the land cover layer.

Style the CORINE 2018 Land Cover Map

Now we’re going to style the CORINE 2018 land cover map. In the downloaded dataset you
will find a Legend folder. The folder contains legend files in different formats. Here we’ll use
the clc_legend.qml file, a QGIS layer style file.

12. Right-click on the land cover layer and choose Properties. Go to the Symbology tab.

13. At the bottom of the dialog, go to Style | Load Style (figure 6.6, on the next page).

14. Now you are in the Database Styles Manager dialog. Browse to the Legend\clc_legend.qml
file and click Load style (figure 6.7, on the following page).

The legend is now applied to the Code_18 field of the GeoPackage layer, which contains the
CORINE Level 3 land cover classes (figure 6.8, on page 137).

15. Click OK to accept and return to the map canvas.

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 136 6.3. PREPARING THE LAND COVER DATA

Figure 6.6: Load Style

Figure 6.7: Database Styles Manager

Clip and Reproject the Land Cover Map

The land cover layer is still too large (even if you downloaded the provided subset), so we are
going to prepare a subset that only covers the subcatchments. In addition, we are going to
reproject the land cover layer (EPSG:3035) to the same projection as the catchpolygons layer
(EPSG:32632). Both can be done with one tool.

16. Right-click on the U2018_CLC2018_V2020_20u1 layer and choose Export | Save Features
As....

17. Choose as a Format GeoPackage, and save the U2018_CL2018_V2020_20u1.gpkg GeoPackage

with the file name Corine2018_repr, and for CRS choose the CRS of the project (EPSG:32632).

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CHAPTER 6. CALCULATING PERCENTAGE OF LAND COVER PER SUBCATCHMENT 137

Figure 6.8: CORINE Layer Style from QML File

18. Check the box before Extent and click Calculate from Layer and choose catchpolygons. Click
OK (figure 6.9, on the following page).

19.Copy the style from the U2018_CLC2018_V2020_20u1 layer to the Corine2018_repr layer and
remove the U2018_CLC2018_V2020_20u1 layer.

The result should look like figure 6.10, on the next page.

Aggregate Land Cover Classes

The CORINE data that we have is termed level 3 data. In the attribute table, the code_18 field
has values for level 3, indicated by 3 digits. In this section we are going to aggregate the
detailed level 3 classification to level 1. Therefore, we need to create a new field with only the
first digit for each feature.

20. Open the attribute table of the Corine2018_repr layer and toggle to editing mode.

21. Click to open the Field Calculator dialog.

22. Add a new field with the name Level1, choose for Output field type Whole number (integer).

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 138 6.3. PREPARING THE LAND COVER DATA

Figure 6.9: Export Layer and Change Projection and Extent

Figure 6.10: Result of Export of the CORINE Data

We are going to write an expression that recodes all level 3 classes to level 1.

23. Write the following expression (figure 6.11, on the facing page): to_int( left( "Code_18"
,1 ) ).

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CHAPTER 6. CALCULATING PERCENTAGE OF LAND COVER PER SUBCATCHMENT 139

Figure 6.11: Add New Field with CORINE Level 1

The left function returns a string with the n leftmost characters. Here we need the first char-
acter only, so we choose 1. We use the to_int function to convert the string to integer.

24. Click OK to create the Level1 field.

The attribute table should now look like figure 6.12.

Figure 6.12: Result of the Recoding of CORINE to Level 1

25. Toggle off the editing mode and save the edits.

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 140 6.3. PREPARING THE LAND COVER DATA

Dissolve Land Cover Features

Now there are many contiguous polygons with the same level 1 class. These have to be merged
into one feature. This is done with the dissolve operation.

26. In the main menu, go to Vector | Geoprocessing tools | Dissolve.

27. In the Dissolve dialog, choose Corine2018_repr as Input layer and select the level1 field as
the Dissolve field(s). Save the file in our GeoPackage as Corine2018_dissolved and click Run
(figure 6.13).

Figure 6.13: Dissolve CORINE Level 1 Features

28. Click Close to return to the map canvas when the calculation is complete.

29. Open the attribute table of Corine2018_dissolved to check the result. It should now show
only 5 features with level 1 classes 1 to 5 (figure 6.14). Note that you can click on the field name
to sort the features.

Figure 6.14: Attribute Table CORINE 2018 after Dissolving Level 1 Features

30. Remove Corine2018_repr from the Layers Panel and style the Corine2018_dissolved layer
with colors based on the original CORINE level 3 legend (figure 6.15, on the facing page). Note
that the Level 1 legend is not provided, so you need to choose the colors in the Layer Styling
panel.

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CHAPTER 6. CALCULATING PERCENTAGE OF LAND COVER PER SUBCATCHMENT 141

Figure 6.15: CORINE Level 1 Styled

6.4 Intersect the Land Cover Layer with the Subcatchment Layer

Now that we have prepared the land cover and subcatchment polygon layers, the next step is
to intersect the two layers to add the borders of the subcatchments to the land cover map.

1. In the main menu, go to Vector | Geoprocessing tools | Intersection (figure 6.16).

Figure 6.16: Intersection Menu

2. Choose the Corine2018_dissolved layer as Input layer , choose catchpolygons as Overlay

layer . Choose corine_catch_intersected as the layer name in our GeoPackage and click Run
(figure 6.17, on the following page).

You’ll see the following error (figure 6.18, on page 143). This is related to geometry errors that
can occur in the catchment delineation process where we polygonize a raster.

3. Click Close to close the dialog.

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 142 6.5. CALCULATE LAND COVER CLASS AREA PER SUBCATCHMENT

Figure 6.17: Intersect CORINE Land Cover with Subcatchment Polygons

The error can be corrected.

4. In the Processing Toolbox, go to Vector geometry | Fix geometries.

5. In the Fix Geometries dialog, choose catchpolygons as Input layer and save the Fixed ge-
ometries to the GeoPackage with the name catchpoly_fixed and click Run (figure 6.19, on
page 144).

6. Click Close after the processing is done.

7. Copy the style from catchpolygons layer to the catchpoly_fixed layer and remove the
catchpolygons layer.

8. Repeat steps 1 and 2 and call the output filename of the intersection layer corine_catch_
intersected_cor.shp.

9. Style the corine_catch_intersected_cor layer by copying the style from the previously
styled Corine2018_dissolved layer. Check the result of the intersection.

10. Remove the Corine2018_dissolved layer from the Layers panel .

6.5 Calculate Land Cover Class Area per Subcatchment

Now we need to calculate the CORINE Level 1 class area per subcatchment.

1. Open the attribute table of the corine_catch_intersected_cor layer.

In the attribute table, we can find the CatchArea field with the area of each subcatchment,

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CHAPTER 6. CALCULATING PERCENTAGE OF LAND COVER PER SUBCATCHMENT 143

Figure 6.18: Invalid Geometry Error

the DN field with the unique ID for each subcatchment, and the Level1 field with the Level
1 CORINE class for each feature. We will add a new field and calculate the area of each feature
which corresponds with the area of each Level 1 class in a subcatchment in a similar way as we
have previously done for the subcatchment areas.

2.Use the Field Calculator as we did before to create a new field with the name ClassArea with
Type as Decimal number (real). Under the Expression tab, type $area and click OK .

3. Now go back to the Field Calculator and create a new field for the percentage of each CORINE
Level 1 class in each subcatchment. Call the field Percentage with Type as Decimal number
(real). Under the Expression tab type ( "ClassArea" / "CatchArea" ) * 100. Click OK to
assign the percentage to each feature.

4. To complete the attribute table, add a field with the Level 1 class names as text. Call it
Landcover. You can use the CASE...WHEN function for that again (figure 6.20, on the next page).

5. Toggle editing off and save the edits.

The attribute table should now look like figure 6.21, on page 145.

6.6 Create Pie Charts Using the Data Plotly Plugin

Now that we have the percentage of land cover for each subcatchment, we can create pie charts.
One way is to copy the columns and paste it into spreadsheet software for further processing.

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 144 6.6. CREATE PIE CHARTS USING THE DATA PLOTLY PLUGIN

Figure 6.19: Fix Geometries Dialog

Figure 6.20: Add Level 1 Class Names

Another way is to use the Data Plotly plugin, which we will use here.

For the legend of the pie chart, we need to store the colors in the attribute table in hexadecimal
codes.

1. Install the Color to Attribute plugin from the Plugins Manager .

2. Click the color to attribute button in the toolbar.

3. In the ColorToAttribute dialog, choose for Layer the corine_catch_intersected_cor layer

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CHAPTER 6. CALCULATING PERCENTAGE OF LAND COVER PER SUBCATCHMENT 145

Figure 6.21: Attribute Table after Calculating the Corine Level 1 Class Area, Percentage, and Assigning
Class Names

and keep Create New Attribute under Color Attribute. Type hex at the Attribute name (new)
and click OK .

4. Open the attribute table of corine_catch_intersected_cor and check the result.

5. Install the Data Plotly plugin from the Plugins Manager .

We are going to make a pie chart for each subcatchment. We have previously assigned a unique
ID for each subcatchment in the DN field.

6. Click on the DataPlotly button to open the DataPlotly panel.

7. For Plot Type choose Pie Chart. Under Plot Parameters choose the corine_catch_intersected_
cor layer.

8. Click the Data defined override button at Feature subset and choose Edit....

9. In the Expression String Builder dialog, write the expression "DN" = 0 so only the subcatch-
ment with a DN value of 0 will be used for the pie chart. In a similar way, you can select the
other subcatchments to create a pie chart for those later. Click OK to return to the DataPlotly
panel.

10. For Grouping field choose Landcover, and for Y Field Percentage.

11. To create the legend with the same colors as the Level 1 data, click on the Data defined
override button next to Marker color and choose Edit.

In the Expression String Builder dialog, you can see the expected format for the colors. We are
going to create an expression that links the classes to the hexadecimal color codes that we have
stored in the attribute table.

12. Build the expression as given in figure (6.22, on the next page). The expression maps the
land cover categories to the hexadecimal color codes that can be interpreted by the Data Plotly

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 146 6.6. CREATE PIE CHARTS USING THE DATA PLOTLY PLUGIN

plugin to assign the colors. Click OK to return to the DataPlotly panel.

Figure 6.22: Expression to Map Colors to Land-Cover Classes for the Pie Chart Legend

The panel should now look like figure 6.23, on the facing page).

13. Click the button to set the layout properties (figure 6.24, on the next page). Add the
Plot title and check the box for a Horizontal legend .

14. Click the Create Plot button and check the result.

15. With the Export to image button you can export the plot to a .png file.

The result should look like figure 6.25, on page 148.

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CHAPTER 6. CALCULATING PERCENTAGE OF LAND COVER PER SUBCATCHMENT 147

Figure 6.23: Data Plotly Settings for the Pie Chart

Figure 6.24: DataPlotly Legend Settings

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 148 6.6. CREATE PIE CHARTS USING THE DATA PLOTLY PLUGIN

Figure 6.25: Pie Chart Generated with the Data Plotly Plugin

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 7. Map Design

7.1 Introduction

In this chapter, you will compose a final map showing the result of the catchment delineation
analysis. You will start with a basic print layout and enhance it with standard map elements.
You will also learn some tricks such as use of variables and expressions to add some automation
to the map.

After this chapter you will be able to:

• craft a basic map layout

• add standard map elements
• add legend patches
• use a variable to add your name to the map
• use dynamic text and expressions to automate descriptive text
• work with map themes
• export the map

For this chapter, the videos from the QGISHydro Chapter 7 playlist at YouTube channel
http://www.youtube.com/c/hansvanderkwast provide the theoretical background, results of the steps,
and additional materials.

7.2 Map Design Considerations - Adding More Data

In this chapter, you will begin with the map document you saved at the conclusion of the
Stream and Catchment Delineation chapter, on page 75. For a basemap, you can choose either
the OSM Standard basemap (via the QuickMapServices plugin), or the color hillshade basemap
you created in the Stream and Catchment Delineation chapter. The examples that follow will
use the color hillshade basemap (figure 7.1, on the following page).

While the data from the analysis are nicely styled, and the study area is highlighted using the
Inverted Polygon Shapeburst Fill technique, it will be helpful to provide a little context for the
map reader. While you have become familiar with the data during the analysis, a map reader
needs some additional data to help understand the size and location of the catchment. When
crafting a map, it is very important to think about what information needs to be highlighted,
who the audience will be, and how will the map be delivered.

For example, you will need to make very different cartographic decisions between a poster,
an A4 (or letter), or even smaller peer-reviewed journal sheet sizes. Obviously, the larger the
sheet size, the larger the map scale, and the more detail you can include. Also, think about
whether it is a technical audience familiar with the data versus the general public. If it is a
technical audience, then your work is a little easier. Maps for the general public require more
explanation and finesse. Other concerns include whether the map can be produced in color
or does it need to be black and white? Color gives you many more options. Producing small

149

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 150 7.2. MAP DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS - ADDING MORE DATA

Figure 7.1: Result of Chapter 4

black and white maps for journals can be some of the hardest cartography! Also, think about
how the map will be delivered. Will it be printed or distributed digitally?

You may occasionally need to produce a map for a color blind map reader. Fortunately, QGIS gives you
color blind previews. From the View menu choose Preview mode. Here you will be able to change your
screen to simulate: Achromatopsia (Grayscale), Protanopia (No red), Deuteranopia (No Green) and
Tritanopia (No blue) along with Monochrome. The ColorBrewer 2.0 website (http://colorbrewer2.org)
also gives you options for designing color ramps suitable for a color blind map reader.

For this exercise, you will assume a technical audience. You will produce a map on an A4 sheet
in color. This will allow you to either print the map or share it digitally.

1. To begin, you will download cities and towns using the QuickOSM plugin. If you need
to refresh your memory, refer to the Adding Vector Data from OpenStreetMap section, on
page 124 in the Adding Open Data to your Catchment chapter (page 119).

2. Use the QuickOSM plugin to download point data with the Key of place. For that Key you
will search for and download Values of city and town.

3. You only need to download these data for the extent of the shaded relief.

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CHAPTER 7. MAP DESIGN 151

4.Save these data into the Rur_data.gpkg GeoPackage. In this case it is easiest to click the
and fill in the Save Scratch Layer dialog. Name the output layers Cities and Towns.

7.3 Styling and Labeling Cities and Towns

1. Make sure that the Towns and Cities are at the top of the Layers panel.

2. Open the Layer Styling panel by clicking the button. Set the target layer to Cities.

3. They are styled by default with a Simple marker .

4. Select the Marker component and set the symbol to the topo pop capital . This is a symbol
that installs with QGIS. It is composed of two different Simple marker symbols.

5. Next you will label the cities. Switch to the Labels tab of the Layer Styling Panel . Switch
from No Labels to Single labels. Set the Label with option to the name field.

6. Change the Font to a sans serif font such as Arial or Calibri. Labels tend to be small. Sans
serif fonts are better suited for labels because they are simpler and are easier to read. Reduce
the font Size to 9 points.

7. To emphasize these cities, change the font Style to Bold .

Label buffers can be very effective at making labels easier to read, however, you never want
the buffer to stand out. They are best when they enhance label readability but aren’t initially
noticeable.

8. Switch to the Label buffer tab and check the Draw text buffer option. Set the Color to a
light grey (RGB: 191|191|191). Next set the Blending mode to Soft light.

Now there are subtle buffers that change with the background color.

9. To give more separation between the labels and the feature icon, switch to the Label place-
ment tab and set the Distance to 2.5 mm. Also change the Mode to Cartographic.

Next you will turn your attention to the Towns.

10. Set the target layer of the Layer Styling panel to Towns and switch back to the Symbology
tab.

11. Select the Marker component and set the symbol to topo pop city .

12. Switch to the Labels tab of the Layer Styling Panel . Switch from No Labels to Single
labels. Set the Label with option to the name field.

13. Use the same font you used for Cities but reduce the size to 8 points and keep the Style of
Regular .

14. Switch to the Label buffer tab and use the same settings you used for Cities.

15. Switch to the Label placement tab and set the Distance to 2 mm.

16. Finally, for each point layer, click the Automated placement settings button to open

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 152 7.4. CREATING A CATCHMENT BOUNDARY LAYER

the Automated Placement Engine window. Uncheck the box for Allow truncated labels on edges
of map option. This will prevent labels from being cut off at the map borders.

17. At this point, your map should resemble figure 7.2.

Figure 7.2: Cities and Towns Styled

7.4 Creating a Catchment Boundary Layer

Currently, the Rur Catchment is styled as an Inverted Polygon Shapeburst Fill. Here you will
duplicate the layer to create a version styled as a simple outline.

1. Right-click on the Rur_Catchment layer and choose Duplicate from the context menu.

2. Turn the duplicated layer on and move it above the Inverted Polygon Shapeburst Fill ver-
sion.

3.Change the duplicated copy from an Inverted Polygon renderer to a Single symbol . Select the
Shapeburst fill style and click the Remove Symbol Layer button to delete it.

Now there is a version of the boundary represented as a simple outline.

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CHAPTER 7. MAP DESIGN 153

7.5 Setting up the Print Layout

Now that you have provided a little context to the analysis results, you will create a new Print
Layout and set up the page.

1. First, you will open a New Print Layout. There are three ways to do this.

• From the menu bar, choose Project | New Print Layout

• Click the New Print Layout button
• Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + P.

2. Name the Layout Rur Catchment (figure 7.3).

Figure 7.3: Name the Print Layout

3. Click OK .

A new Print Layout will open. This is where you craft your map.

The Print Layout is an application window with many tools that allow you to craft a map. For
detailed information about the Print Layout, refer to the QGIS manual:
https://loc8.cc/dq3/composer. The main window of the Print Layout displays the piece of
paper upon which the map will be designed.

There are buttons along the left side of the window that allow you to add various map ele-
ments: map, scale bar, photo, text, shapes, attribute tables, etc. Note that each item added to
the map canvas becomes a graphic object that can be moved, resized, and further manipulated
(if selected) by the Item Properties tab on the right side of the layout. Across the top are but-
tons for exporting the composition, navigating within the composition, and some other graphic
tools (grouping/ungrouping etc.) as shown in figure 7.4, on the following page.

4. To set the sheet size, right-click on the blank page and choose Page Properties. Here you can
specify details about the overall composition. QGIS defaults to an A4 sheet size. There is no
need to change that here since that is what you will use.

QGIS Print Layouts allow you to add as many pages to a Layout as you wish for a given map document.
These can also be of differing page sizes and orientations. They can even be in a different CRS from
the main map canvas.

5. Set the Orientation to Portrait.

Note: Clicking the Save button in a Print Layout saves the entire map project. A project can contain
multiple Print Layouts.

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 154 7.6. ADDING THE MAP

Figure 7.4: Print Layout Window

7.6 Adding the Map

1. Using the Add new map to layout button, drag a box on the map sheet where you’d like
the map to go. Remember that you’ll need room for a title at the top of the page and a legend
at the bottom of the map (figure 7.5, on the next page).

The map object can be moved and resized after its been added by selecting it with the Se-
lect/Move item tool. You can then use the handles around the perimeter to resize it. Re-
member when an object is selected, the Item Properties tab will show properties specific to that
object.

The next step is to set the map extent within your composition.

2. With the map selected click on the Item Properties tab. There are a series of buttons across
the top of the panel for controlling the map extent.

From left to right these are:

• Update Map Preview

• Set Map Extent to Match Main Canvas Extent
• View Current Map Extent in Main Canvas
• Set Map Scale to Match Main Canvas Scale
• Set Main Canvas to Match Current Map Scale
• Interactively Edit Map Extent
• Labeling Settings

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CHAPTER 7. MAP DESIGN 155

• Clipping Settings

Figure 7.5: Map Added to Print Layout

3. Click the Set Map Extent to Match Main Canvas Extent button. That will help orient the
map on the sheet of paper as it appears in QGIS Desktop. However, if the aspect ratio of your
QGIS Desktop map canvas doesn’t match that of your print composition this may not give you
the desired result.

If you need to make additional adjustments to the scale, you can do so in the Main properties
section by adjusting the Scale value. Map scale is a ratio of Map Distance/Ground Distance.
Here the number is roughly 750000 which can be read as a scale of 1:750,000. To zoom out
you increase this number—reducing it zooms in. Clicking the Update Map Preview button
forces the map view to refresh.

4. Set the Scale value to 395000 and hit the enter key. This should zoom the map to the
boundaries of the Rur Catchment.

5. If you need to pan the map, you can use the Move Item Content button. This allows you
to pan the map content in the map frame without changing the scale. It is normal to have to
make adjustments to get the map extent just right. Try to make your layout match figure 7.6,
on the following page.

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 156 7.7. ADDING A TITLE

6. Scroll down on the Item Properties tab and find the Frame section. Enable the Frame and
increase the width to 0.8 mm.

Make sure that there is no gap between the map content and the frame.

Figure 7.6: Print Layout Map Extent Established

7.7 Adding a Title

Now you will add the title to your map. The purpose of a map title is to quickly convey the
content and focus of the map to the reader. It should be concise and prominent.

1. Use the Add new label tool to drag a box all the way across the top of the composition
above the map object. The text box can be resized after the fact by using the graphic handles.

2. By default, the text box will be populated with the placeholder text Lorem ipsum. Using the
Item Properties tab Main Properties section, replace the holder text with the title: Rur Catchment
and Channels.

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CHAPTER 7. MAP DESIGN 157

3. In the Appearance section you can change the font. Click the Font button to open the Text
Format window. Change the font to: Times New Roman, Bold, Size 36. You can use the search
box above the font list to search for Times New Roman.

4. Below the font settings are some alignment settings. Set the Horizontal alignment to Center
and Vertical alignment to Middle (figure 7.7).

Figure 7.7: Title Font Settings

7.8 Adding a Legend

The purpose of the legend is to identify what symbols and colors on the map represent. Leg-
ends are used for data layers that are non-intuitive or require more explanation. For example,
a point labeled Rotterdam does not need to be included in a legend, it is obvious what it is.
However, the Strahler orders do need explanation.

Adding a Legend for Vector Layers

The Interpolated Line renderer that we have used to style the Strahler orders was a great way to
visualize the Strahler orders, but it does not result in a legend with the Strahler orders as classes
of lines with a different thickness. We can create this by using the Graduated line renderer.

1. Return to the main QGIS window.

2. Duplicate the Rur_channels layer.

3. Hide the Rur_channels layer and make the Rur_channels copy layer visible.

4. Go to the Layer styling panel and make sure Rur_channels copy is active.

5. Change the Single Symbol renderer to Graduated and change the following settings:

• Set the Value to ORDER.

• Set the Symbol to a simple blue line by changing the Interpolated Line to Simple line with
RGB color 15 | 66 | 220. Set the Width units to Millimeters, otherwise the scaling by size
will not work properly.
• Set the Method to Size.
• Set the Size from 0.3 to 1.0 mm.
• Set the Mode to Natural Breaks (Jenks) with the same number of Strahler Order classes
that exist in your data. Review the attribute table if need be. In this example, it is set to 3
classes. Note that you might need to adjust the ranges, based on the amount of Strahler
orders that you have. The first range always includes the lower and upper boundary

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 158 7.8. ADDING A LEGEND

value, while all the other ranges exclude the lower boundary, but include the upper
boundary.
• Set the Legend values to integer Strahler orders.

Your Layer Styling panel should now look like figure 7.8.

Figure 7.8: Channels Styled by Size using the Graduated Renderer

The result should be similar to the original Rur_channels.

6. Return to the Print Layout and use the Add new legend tool to drag a box on the lower-
right corner beneath the map.

The legend will not fit in this space with the default font but you will change the settings. The
only layers needed are the catchment and the channels. The Item Properties tab will be used to
configure the legend (see figure 7.9, on the next page).

7. Uncheck Auto update. This will enable you to modify the legend, however, updates to the
map will no longer be reflected in the legend unless you re-enable Auto update.

8. Select the Cities layer and click the Remove item button to remove it. Repeat to remove
all the layers except the Rur_channels copy and Rur_catchment copy.

9. Use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to move the Rur_catchment copy to the top
of the legend.

10. Layers in the legend should not have original file names. They should be descriptive
names that will be clear to the map reader. Now you will work on renaming the two layers.
Select the Rur_channels copy layer name and click the Edit button. Change it so it reads
Strahler Stream Orders.

11. Rename Rur_catchment copy to Rur Catchment Boundary.

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CHAPTER 7. MAP DESIGN 159

Figure 7.9: Legend Properties

12. Scroll down in the Item Properties panel to find the Columns section. Expand it. Set the
Count to 2.

Importing Legend Patch Shapes

Now you have completed a simple legend for the vector layers. Next you will learn to make a
more intuitive legend by using Legend Patch Shapes. To begin, you’ll download a set from the
QGIS Styles Repository.

13. Return to the main QGIS application.

14. Click on the Style Manager button.

In the Style Manager , you can manage styles for marker, line and polygon symbols, color ramps,
text, labels, legend patch shapes, and 3D symbols (figure 7.10).

Figure 7.10: The Style Manager

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 160 7.8. ADDING A LEGEND

In the Style Manager, you can import items from XML files or from URLs. You can also download
styles from the online QGIS Style Repository by clicking Browse Online Styles. There you can also
upload your own styles and share them with other users.

There is a good online resource for legend patches in the QGIS Style Repository.

15. Click Browse Online Styles.

16. Download the Basic Legend Patches Set by Klas Karlsson and extract the XML file in the
zip file.

17. Return to the QGIS Style Manager and select the Legend Patch Shapes tab. It is empty by
default, but you will now import the legend patch shapes in the Klas Karlsson XML file.

18. Click Import/Export | Import Item(s).

19. Set Import from to File.

20. Browse to the patch.xml file.

21. Click Do not import embedded tags.

22. Click Select All and Import (see figure 7.11).

Figure 7.11: Import Item(s) Dialog

You will now see more than a dozen new legend patches to choose from.

23. Close the Style Manager .

24. Open your Print Composition.

25. Select the Legend .

26. Double-click on Strahler Stream Orders in the Item Properties tab. Under the Patch section

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CHAPTER 7. MAP DESIGN 161

click on the Shape symbol.

27. Change from Favorites to All Legend Patch Shapes in the drop-down menu.

28. Choose the River 1 patch symbol (figure 7.12).

29. Click the Go back button and you will have the Strahler orders in the legend with nice
legend patches in a river style.

Figure 7.12: Select the River 1 Patch Shape

Creating Custom Legend Patch Shapes

The rectangle representing the catchment boundary in the legend can also be improved. We
are now going to add the shape of the Rur catchment as a custom legend patch.

30. Return to the main QGIS window.

31. Select Rur_catchment copy in the Layers panel and then use the Select Feature(s) button
to select the catchment boundary polygon in the map canvas.

32. Toggle on the editing mode for the Rur_catchment copy layer.

33. Click the Copy features button in the Digtizing toolbar .

34. Open the Style Manager by clicking the button in the toolbar.

35. Switch to the Legend Patch Shapes tab and click All in the left side panel to show all patches.

36. Click the Add item button and choose Fill Legend Patch Shape... (figure 7.13, on the next
page).

37. In the New Legend Patch Shape dialog (figure 7.14, on the following page), delete the
default code in the Shape box and use Ctrl + V to paste the catchment polygon geometry here
in the GeoJSON format.

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 162 7.8. ADDING A LEGEND

Figure 7.13: Add Fill Legend Patch Shape Item to the Style Manager

38. Scroll to the top and delete the wkt_geom fid DN line.

39. Scroll to the bottom and delete everything after the brackets.

40. Click Preserve Aspect Ratio

Figure 7.14: New Legend Patch Shape Dialog

41. Click OK .

42. In the Save New Legend Patch Shape dialog (figure 7.15), you can Name the symbol as Rur
catchment and add a Hydrology tag. Check the box to Add to favorites. Click Save.

Figure 7.15: Save New Legend Patch Shape Dialog

You can now see the new legend patch shape under Favorites in the Style Manager .

43. Click Close

44. Toggle off editing and deselect the catchment boundary with the Deselect Features from All
Layers button.

45. Return to the Print Layout.

46. Change the Rur Catchment Boundary symbol to the Rur catchment shape in the same way
as we have added the river legend patch shape before.

47. Increase the Height of the patch to 20 mm and add a return before Boundary to move it to
the next line.

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CHAPTER 7. MAP DESIGN 163

48. You can remove the Background of the legend if needed.

The result should look now like figure 7.16.

Figure 7.16: Legend Patch Shapes Configured

Adding the Elevation Legend

We also need to add a legend for the elevation. With the current layout, we have room along
the lower left corner of the map where this second legend will nicely fit.

49. Use the Add new legend tool and drag a rectangle in the lower-left corner.

50. In the Item Properties tab, uncheck Auto update. Remove all layers except dem_subset.

51. Select Band 1: Height and remove it by clicking the Remove item button.

52. Double-click on dem_subset and replace the Label with Elevation. Under Patch, set the
Width to 5 mm and the Height to 50 mm (figure 7.17).

Figure 7.17: Elevation Legend Label Settings

53. Click the Go back button to return to the legend settings.

54. Double-click on the color ramp.

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 164 7.9. ADDING A SCALE BAR

55. At Suffix, type a space and m for the units.

56. Under Layout, change the Direction to Minimum on Top. We do that here, because it then
corresponds with the elevation gradient on the map (figure 7.18).

By default, the minimum and maximum values used for the styling are added as labels. In our
case, those are the values of the full extent of the dem_subset layer. If you want to use the values
for the elevation within the catchment, you need to use a DEM that is clipped to the boundary
of the catchment and type its minimum and maximum value here.

Figure 7.18: Elevation Legend Layout Settings

57. Click the Go back button to return to the legend settings.

58. Uncheck the box for Background to make the background transparent.

Now the elevation legend looks like figure 7.19, on the next page.

7.9 Adding a Scale Bar

Scale bars give the map reader a way to approximate distances on the map. There are two
types: graphic scale bar or scale text. Here you will learn how to add a graphic scale bar.

1. Click on the Add new scalebar button.

2. Click to the left of the legend to add the scalebar to the map.

3. On the Item Properties tab, in the Units section, make sure the Scalebar units are set to
Kilometers.

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CHAPTER 7. MAP DESIGN 165

Figure 7.19: Gradient Legend

4. In the Segments section, keep the left to 0 and the right to 2.

5. In the Main Properties section, change the Style to Stepped Line. Notice that one of the styles
is Numeric which would add scale as scale text (1:100,000).

6. In the Display section, click on Font and reduce the size to 9 points.

7. Use the Select/Move Item tool to place the scalebar in a good position near the bottom
of the white space in the lower left corner. Next, you will be adding some descriptive text and
a north arrow just above the scalebar, so leave space for those (figure 7.20).

Figure 7.20: Scale Bar Added

7.10 Adding a North Arrow

Often it is nice to add a north arrow to a map composition to help orient the map reader. One
should especially be added if north is not up on the map. Here you will learn how to add this
to your map.

1. Click on the Add north arrow button.

2. Drag a small box into the empty space just right of the scale bar. A default north arrow
graphic will be added.

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 166 7.11. ADDING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

3. If you want to choose a different north arrow, you can find a series of SVG graphics included
with QGIS under SVG browser in the Item Properties tab. Under SVG Groups | App Symbols |
arrows you can choose a different one if you’d like.

4. Scroll down to the Image Rotation section of Item Properties. Note that Sync with map is
enabled and is set to Map 1 (figure 7.21).

Figure 7.21: North Arrow Image Rotation Settings

5. Scroll up to the Size and Placement section and change the Resize mode to Zoom and resize
frame.

6. Resize the north arrow graphic and move as needed so that it is well placed (figure 7.22).

Figure 7.22: North Arrow Placed on Map Composition

7.11 Adding Descriptive Text

It is good practice to include credits for both data sources and cartography on a map. It can
also be helpful to include details such as the date.

Next, you will enter some descriptive text that tells the map reader where the data was ob-
tained, who the cartographer was, and the date created. This will be done using the Add new
label tool, the same tool you used to add the title.

1. Add the label in the space above the scale bar and north arrow. Add the following text in
the Main properties window of the Item Properties tab:

Data Sources: SRTM, Natural Earth and (c) OpenStreetMap Contributors

Cartographer: <your name>

Created on: <todays date>

You can manually enter the date. However, it is also possible to use an expression to create
Dynamic Text for the date.

2. Select Dynamic Text | Current Date | Day Month Year. An expression for the current date
is entered. This will update automatically each time you open this print layout. This means it
is no longer necessary to remember to update this every time you edit the map.

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CHAPTER 7. MAP DESIGN 167

3. This created the following expression for the date: [%format_date(now(), ’dd/MM/yyyy’)%].
This uses the format_date() with the now() function to express the current date. The format of
the date can be altered by changing the formatting string: ’dd/MM/yyyy’.

4. In the same way, you can add an expression to use the copyright symbol for the credits to
OpenStreetMap. In Chapter 2 you learned to use the char function for that. The code for the
copyright symbol is 0169.

5. To finish this element, set the font to size of 8.

6. Configure the text element, scale bar, and north arrow so that they all fit in the space to the
right of the legend. Note that with an element selected, you can also use the arrow keys on
your keyboard to nudge it.

Did you know there is a way to do custom layout checks? An example would be checks to warn a cartog-
rapher if desired map elements have been added or properly configured. These checks can help ensure
maps meet a set of minimum organizational design criteria. Read more here: http://bit.ly/2G852H8

7.12 Using Variables for Adding Your Name as Author

QGIS allows you to store variables. This means any type of constant such as a unit conversion
factor or your name. Variables can be set at several levels: Global, Project, and Layer. Here you
will create a new Global variable with your name as cartographer.

1. Bring up the main QGIS desktop application.

2. From the menu bar, choose Settings | Options.

3. Click on the section. This is where Global variables are found.

4. Click the Add variable button.

5. Replace new_variable with cartographer.

6.Click in the Value cell to the right and type your name (figure 7.23, on the next page). Click
OK .

7. Bring up the Print Layout window again.

8. Select the text you were most recently working with.

9. Highlight the name you entered for cartographer and click the Insert an Expression button.

10. Scroll down in the list of functions to the Variables section and expand it. Find the variable
you just created named cartographer . Double-click on it to add it to your expression. When
you select it, notice that the value of that variable is displayed in the right-hand pane of the
expression window (figure 7.24, on the following page).

While you have the Insert Expression window open, notice that there is a Recent section. Expand
it and you will find the date expression you created. You can use this Recent section to bring
up recently used expressions and use them without having to recreate them!

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 168 7.12. USING VARIABLES FOR ADDING YOUR NAME AS AUTHOR

Figure 7.23: Creating a Cartographer Variable

Figure 7.24: Using the Cartographer Variable

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CHAPTER 7. MAP DESIGN 169

11. Click OK .

12. The text in the Items Properties panel now reads: (figure 7.25).

Figure 7.25: Text with both Date Expression and the Cartographer Variable

You have now used both an expression and a variable to automate your text. The @cartographer
variable will always be available until you delete it. Variables and other expressions can be
used throughout the QGIS interface to make your job easier. The date expression will update
automatically each time the map is modified.

Your overall map should now resemble figure 7.26, on the following page.

7.13 Setting Up a Map Theme

In these final sections, you will learn how to work with map themes to create a locator map.
Locator maps are smaller than the main map. They have a smaller scale and provide a broader
spatial context, showing where the main body of the map is located.

This will involve:

• Creating a map theme from the current map and connecting the map layout to the theme
• Adding, styling, and labeling a country boundaries layer
• Creating a map theme for the locator map
• Adding a new map to the layout and connecting it to the locator map theme
• Configuring the Overview

1. Return to the QGIS Desktop window. Select all the layers in the Layers panel and choose
Group selected from the context menu. Name the group Main Map (figure 7.27, on page 171).

2. Now you will set the current view as a map theme. Locate the Manage Map Themes
drop-down menu at the top of the Layers Panel and click on it. Choose Add Theme and the Map
Themes window will open. Name the new theme Main Map and click OK .

3. Return to the print layout window. Select the map object with the Select/Move Items
tool. On the Item Properties tab find the Layers section. Click the box for Follow map theme and
change it from none to Main Map (figure 7.28, on page 171).

7.14 Setting up the Layers for the Locator Map

Here you will add some data, set it up in a new Layer group and style it. The new Layer group
will have two layers: Country boundaries and a copy of the Rur Catchment.

1. From the data included with the book, find the MapComposition.gpkg. Add the CountryBoundaries
layer found inside. If it lands within the existing Main Map group, right-click on it and choose
Move Out of Group.

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 170 7.14. SETTING UP THE LAYERS FOR THE LOCATOR MAP

Figure 7.26: The Map Composition at this Point

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CHAPTER 7. MAP DESIGN 171

Figure 7.27: Main Map Layers Grouped

Figure 7.28: Setting the Map Object to Follow a Map Theme

This dataset was downloaded from Natural Earth (https://www.naturalearthdata.com). This is another
fantastic public domain resource for global GIS data.

2. Click Ctrl + Shift + H to Hide All Layers. This is a keyboard shortcut that allows you to
quickly turn off all the layers in a project. Turn the CountryBoundaries layer back on.

3. Find the copy of the Rur Catchment layer that is styled with a simple outline (not the one
styled as an inverted polygon shapeburst fill). Right-click on it and choose Duplicate. Then
right-click on the copy and choose Move Out of Group. You now have the two layers that will
participate in the Locator map.

4. Select both these layers and choose Group selected from the context menu. Name the group
Locator Map (figure 7.29, on the next page).

5. Style the CountryBoundaries with a Fill style of No brush. Keep the default Stroke color of
black but increase the Stroke width to 0.46 mm.

6. Switch to the Labels tab of the Layer Styling Panel . Label the CountryBoundaries with
the NAME field.

7.Change the Font to a sans serif font such as Arial or Calibri. Reduce the font Size to 9 points
and change the font Style to Bold .

8. Now you will style the Rur Catchment for the Locator map. Select the Simple line compo-

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 172 7.14. SETTING UP THE LAYERS FOR THE LOCATOR MAP

Figure 7.29: Both the Main Map and Locator Map Layer Groups Configured

nent. Change the Symbol layer type to Simple fill .

9. Change both the Fill color and Stroke color to RGB: 0|145|255 (figure 7.30).

Figure 7.30: Rur Catchment Styling for the Locator Map

10. Now you will set the current view as the Locator map theme. From the Manage Map
Themes drop-down menu again choose Add Theme. In the Map Themes window name the
new theme Locator Map and click OK .

11. Return to the print layout window. You will now add a second map to the layout.

12. Using the Add new map to layout button, drag a small box on the existing map object
along the upper right side, being careful to not cover the Rur Catchment.

13. You will now set the Map theme for this second map. On the Item Properties tab, find the
Layers section. Click the box for Follow map theme and change it from none to Locator Map
(figure 7.31, on the next page).

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CHAPTER 7. MAP DESIGN 173

Figure 7.31: Locator Map Added

On the Item Properties tab for map objects, there is also an Overviews section which allows you to
configure a box indicating for example, the spatial envelope of the main map canvas within the locator
map. In this case, you did not use that because including the watershed on the locator is sufficient.
However, it is often useful to include Overviews with inset and locator maps.

7.15 Final Adjustments

1. Return to the main QGIS Desktop window. Give the labels for the CountryBoundaries a
default white Buffer . This will help the labels be more readable where they cross national
boundaries.

2. Return to the print layout window and click the Refresh map button to see the change.

3. Make sure the Locator Map is still selected. From the Item Properties window, decrease the
scale (zoom out) of the Locator map to about 3000000 so the labels better fit within the national
boundaries.

4. Scroll down and activate the Frame for the Locator map.

5. It may be that the Locator map is interfering with City and Town labels on the main map. To
avoid this conflict, select the Main map object. Near the top of Item Properties find the Labeling
Settings button.

6. This opens the Label settings panel. Here you can select map elements as label blocking
elements (figure 7.32, on the following page). Click Map 2 . Now the labels for Cities and
Towns on the main map will move to avoid conflicts with the Locator map. This can be done
for any the map elements.

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 174 7.16. EXPORTING THE MAP

Did you know that you can also move labels to custom positions? For example, you may want to shift
some country labels in the Locator map. From the main QGIS Desktop window enable the Labels
toolbar. Select the layer with the labels you wish to move. Find the button on the toolbar named
Move Label and Diagram. Click on a label. You will be prompted to identify the unique ID column
of the layer. Once that has been done you can click on individual labels and move them to custom
locations. On the same toolbar there are also tools for Rotating labels and altering fonts (Change
label).

Figure 7.32: The Locator Map Configured as a Label Blocking Item

7.16 Exporting the Map

Congratulations your map is finished! The final step is to export it to a high-resolution image.

1. Click the Export as image button.

2. The Save Layout As window opens.

• Navigate to the exercise folder.

• Choose a Save as type such as JPG or PNG.
• Name the file and click Save.
• The Image Export Options window will open. Keep the default 300 dpi setting and click
Save.

Note that maps can also be exported as a PDF or SVG file.

3. Once the map has finished exporting, a link to the folder will appear across the top of your
print layout. You can click on the link to open your systems file browser and see the result
(figure 7.33, on the next page).

4. The final map should look like figure 7.34, on page 176.

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CHAPTER 7. MAP DESIGN 175

Figure 7.33: Map Export Link

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 176 7.16. EXPORTING THE MAP

Figure 7.34: Final Map

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 8. Conclusion

Having reached this chapter, you’ve made it through the exercises of QGIS for Hydrological
Applications. We hope you’ve enjoyed learning useful features and plugins that QGIS offers
for catchment hydrology and water management. Now it is important to apply the skills to
your own cases and add different flavors to the recipes presented in this book.

It was hard to make a selection of exercises for the book. QGIS has many more useful features
and plugins to explore. Besides QGIS, there are many other FOSS4G tools that can be used
in hydrological applications, such as PostGIS, GDAL/OGR, and many Python libraries, which
are covered by other books from Locate Press.

On the IHE Delft OpenCourseWare site for GIS (http://www.gisopencourseware.org), you can
find frequently updated learning resources for hydrological applications, including GDAL and
Python tutorials. In addition, the videos on the YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/
c/HansvanderKwast) show the latest developments.

There is a new QGIS release every four months and a new long-term release annually. Stay cur-
rent on new features by browsing the Visual Changelogs at https://www.qgis.org/en/site/
forusers/visualchangelogs.html

8.1 Things to Do

Learn more skills via the QGIS Training Manual: https://www.qgis.org/en/site/forusers/

trainingmaterial/index.html.

Refer to the QGIS User Guide when technical questions arise: https://docs.qgis.org/3.22/
en/docs/user_manual/.

Look on GIS.StackExchange.com for solutions to issues you encounter: https://gis.stackexchange.

com/questions/tagged/qgis.

Subscribe to a QGIS Mailing List: https://www.qgis.org/en/site/getinvolved/mailinglists.

html.

Read How to ask a QGIS question before posing your first question to a mailing list (listserv):
https://www.qgis.org/en/site/getinvolved/faq/index.html#how-to-ask-a-qgis-question.

Read about how others have used QGIS in QGIS Case Studies: https://www.qgis.org/en/
site/about/case_studies/index.html.

Explore maps others have made using QGIS in the Flickr Map Showcase: https://www.flickr.
com/groups/qgis/pool/.

Read blog entries about new features and how-tos at http://plugins.qgis.org/planet/:

• Anita Graser: https://anitagraser.com/

• North Road: https://north-road.com/blog/
• Klas Karlsson: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxs7cfMwzgGZhtUuwhny4-Q

177

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 178 8.1. THINGS TO DO

• Spatial Thoughts: https://spatialthoughts.com/blog/

Explore other QGIS Applications such as QGIS Server and QGIS Web Client: https://www.
qgis.org/en/site/about/features.html

If you require commercial support for QGIS, you can go to this page to see companies pro-
viding a variety of support options: https://www.qgis.org/en/site/forusers/commercial_
support.html.

We also hope that this book has inspired you to get involved as a QGIS community member.
There are different ways to contribute to QGIS. You can help by reporting bugs, translating
QGIS, developing plugins and new features, and sponsoring/donating to QGIS. Read more
here: https://www.qgis.org/en/site/getinvolved/index.html.

Join your local user group or start one if one doesn’t exist. Visit this page to see where there
are established user groups: https://www.qgis.org/en/site/forusers/usergroups.html.

Visit the Open Source GeoSpatial Foundation (OSGeo) website, to stay abreast of other FOSS4G
project news and conference announcements: http://www.osgeo.org/.

*GENERATED FOR Colin Morris-Moncada ON 2025-03-04 - THIS BOOK IS COPYRIGHTED - DO NOT DISTRIBUTE*
 Index

Attribute table errors, 18

joining, 40 transformation parameters, 14
verifying, 19
Blending mode, 87 workflow, 13
Ground control point, 13
Catchment adding, 15
boundary layer, 154
delineation workflow, 75 Join
outflow point, 107 attribute table, 40
styling, 107
Clip Label
vector, 115 buffers, 153
ColorBrewer, 152 placement, 153
Copy Coordinate, 109 Labeling
peaks, 29
Data Legend
book adding to print layout, 159
download, 11
from web map services, 121 North arrow
OpenStreetMap, 121 adding to print layout, 167
vectors, 126
spreadsheet Package layers tool, 117
import, 36 Plugins
tablular Data Plotly, 145
workflow, 35 Point sampling tool, 68
Data Plotly plugin, 145 QuickMapServices, 20, 151
DEM QuickOSM, 127, 152
blending, 87 Spreadsheet Layers, 36
mosaicing, 77 Point sampling tool, 68
reprojecting, 80 Print Composer
subsetting, 82 adding scale bar, 166
Download Print layout
book adding a legend, 159
data, 11 adding a map, 155
SRTM, 76 adding a north arrow, 167
adding a scale bar, 166
Favorites adding a title, 158
adding, 52 descriptive text, 168
Field calculator, 134 exporting, 175
locator map, 171
GCP, see Ground control point map theme, 171
gdalwarp, 82 new, 155
GeoPackage page properties, 155
creating, 117 setting extent, 156
package layers, 117 setup, 154
saving to, 130 using variables, 169
Georeferencing
digitizing from, 22 QGIS

179

*GENERATED FOR Colin Morris-Moncada ON 2025-03-04 - THIS BOOK IS COPYRIGHTED - DO NOT DISTRIBUTE*
 180 INDEX

favorites adding to print layout, 158

adding, 52
Processing Toolbox, 57 Variables
QuickMapServices plugin, 20 in print layout, 169
QuickOSM plugin, 127 Vector
buffer, 143
Raster clip, 115
analysis, 43 dissolve, 141
proximity, 59 intersect, 142
reclassify, 60
calculator, 58
clip, 82
convert to point vectors, 67
interpolation, 43
polygonize, 112
reproject, 81
virtual
creating, 78
warp, 81
Reprojecting
DEM, 80

Scale bar
adding to print layout, 166
Shapeburst fill, 116
Sinks
filling, 87
Spreadsheet
convert to vector layer, 38
import, 36
layer
adding to QGIS, 36
layers plugin, 36
Strahler order
calculating, 96
styling, 98
threshold, 98
Style
copy/paste, 130
loading, 137
saving, 131
Styling layers, 29–33
catchment results, 107
cities, 153
interpolated raster, 46
lakes, 31
land cover, 137
peaks, 29
rivers, 30
towns, 153
wells, 69

Title

*GENERATED FOR Colin Morris-Moncada ON 2025-03-04 - THIS BOOK IS COPYRIGHTED - DO NOT DISTRIBUTE*
Books from Locate Press
Be sure to visit locatepress.com for information on new and upcoming titles.

Discover QGIS 3.x

E XPLORE THE LATEST L ONG T ERM R ELEASE (LTR) OF QGIS!

Discover QGIS 3.x is a comprehensive up-to-date workbook built for both

the classroom and professionals looking to build their skills.

Designed to take advantage of the latest QGIS features, this book will guide
you in improving your maps and analysis.

Discover QGIS 3.x is an update of the original title, using QGIS 3.6, covering
Spatial analysis, Data management, and Cartography. The book includes
new exercises and a new section—Advanced Data Visualization.

The book is a complete resource and includes: lab exercises, challenge ex-
ercises, all data, discussion questions, and solutions.

Leaflet Cookbook
C OOK UP DYNAMIC WEB MAPS USING THE RECIPES IN THE L EAFLET C OOK -
BOOK .

Leaflet Cookbook will guide you in getting started with Leaflet, the lead-
ing open-source JavaScript library for creating interactive maps. You’ll
move swiftly along from the basics to creating interesting and dynamic web
maps.

Even if you aren’t an HTML/CSS wizard, this book will get you up to speed
in creating dynamic and sophisticated web maps. With sample code and
complete examples, you’ll find it easy to create your own maps in no time.

A download package containing all the code and data used in the book is available so you can follow
along as well as use the code as a starting point for your own web maps.

QGIS Map Design - 2nd Edition

L EARN HOW TO USE QGIS 3 TO TAKE YOUR CARTOGRAPHIC PRODUCTS TO THE
HIGHEST LEVEL .

QGIS 3.4 opens up exciting new possibilities for creating beautiful and
compelling maps!

Building on the first edition, the authors take you step-by-step through the
process of using the latest map design tools and techniques in QGIS 3. With
numerous new map designs and completely overhauled workflows, this
second edition brings you up to speed with current cartographic technol-
ogy and trends.

See how QGIS continues to surpass the cartographic capabilities of other geoware available today with
its data-driven overrides, flexible expression functions, multitudinous color tools, blend modes, and
atlasing capabilities. A prior familiarity with basic QGIS capabilities is assumed. All example data and
project files are included.

Get ready to launch into the next generation of map design!

*GENERATED FOR Colin Morris-Moncada ON 2025-03-04 - THIS BOOK IS COPYRIGHTED - DO NOT DISTRIBUTE*
 The PyQGIS Programmer’s Guide
U SE P YTHON TO EXTEND AND ENHANCE QGIS.

With PyQGIS you can write scripts and plugins to implement new features
and perform automated tasks.

This book is updated to work with the next generation of QGIS—version

3.x. After a brief introduction to Python 3, you’ll learn how to understand
the QGIS Application Programmer Interface (API), write scripts, and build
a plugin.

The book is designed to allow you to work through the examples as you go
along. At the end of each chapter you will find a set of exercises you can do
to enhance your learning experience.

The PyQGIS Programmer’s Guide is compatible with the version 3.0 API released with QGIS 3.x and will
work for the entire 3.x series of releases.

pgRouting: A Practical Guide

W HAT IS PG ROUTING ?

It’s a PostgreSQL extension for developing network routing applications

and doing graph analysis.

Interested in pgRouting? If so, chances are you already use PostGIS, the
spatial extender for the PostgreSQL database management system.

So when you’ve got PostGIS, why do you need pgRouting? PostGIS is a

great tool for molding geometries and doing proximity analysis, however
it falls short when your proximity analysis involves constrained paths such
as driving along a road or biking along defined paths.

This book will both get you started with pgRouting and guide you into routing, data fixing and costs, as
well as using with QGIS and web applications.

Geospatial Power Tools

E VERYONE LOVES POWER TOOLS !

The GDAL and OGR apps are the power tools of the GIS world—best of all,
they’re free. The book is divided into three parts: Workflows and examples,
GDAL raster utilities, and OGR vector utilities.

The utilities include tools for examining, converting, transforming, build-

ing, and analysing data. This book is a collection of the GDAL and OGR
documentation, but also includes new content designed to help guide you
in using the utilities to solve your current data problems.

Inside you’ll find a quick reference for looking up the right syntax and ex-
ample usage quickly. Once you get a taste of the power the GDAL/OGR
suite provides, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without them.

See these books and more at http://locatepress.com

*GENERATED FOR Colin Morris-Moncada ON 2025-03-04 - THIS BOOK IS COPYRIGHTED - DO NOT DISTRIBUTE*
*GENERATED FOR Colin Morris-Moncada ON 2025-03-04 - THIS BOOK IS COPYRIGHTED - DO NOT DISTRIBUTE*
*GENERATED FOR Colin Morris-Moncada ON 2025-03-04 - THIS BOOK IS COPYRIGHTED - DO NOT DISTRIBUTE*