# QGIS Notes
UW Geospatial Data Analysis  
CEE467/CEWA567  
David Shean  

These are a set of loosely organized notes, tips, tricks and gotchas for [QGIS](https://qgis.org/en/site/) - a fantastic, free, open-source Geographic Information System (GIS). 

If you've spent some time using ArcGIS, you can definitely use QGIS, and I think you'll appreciate it.  
If you've never used ArcGIS, you've probably never taken a GIS course in higher ed, and that's not a problem.  GIS is great, you can learn with QGIS, and I think you'll appreciate it.

## Foreword

>QGIS is an Open Source Geographic Information System. The project was born in May 2002 and was established as a project on SourceForge in June the same year. We have worked hard to make GIS software (which is traditionally expensive proprietary software) available to anyone with access to a personal computer. QGIS currently runs on most Unix platforms, Windows, and macOS. QGIS is developed using the Qt toolkit (https://www.qt.io) and C++. This means that QGIS feels snappy and has a pleasing, easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI).

>QGIS aims to be a user-friendly GIS, providing common functions and features. The initial goal of the project was to provide a GIS data viewer. QGIS has reached the point in its evolution where it is being used for daily GIS data-viewing needs, for data capture, for advanced GIS analysis, and for presentations in the form of sophisticated maps, atlases and reports. QGIS supports a wealth of raster and vector data formats, with new format support easily added using the plugin architecture.

https://docs.qgis.org/3.16/en/docs/user_manual/preamble/foreword.html

## Getting Started
### Download and install! https://qgis.org/en/site/forusers/download.html
### Get some data!
* If you already have some GIS data, you're set!
* Otherwise, download some sample data: https://docs.qgis.org/3.16/en/docs/user_manual/introduction/getting_started.html#downloading-sample-data

### Play around!
Follow the instructions here: https://docs.qgis.org/3.16/en/docs/user_manual/introduction/getting_started.html

## Resources
* https://live.osgeo.org/en/quickstart/qgis_quickstart.html
* https://www.qgistutorials.com/en/