2. Working with Geodata

The second module develops a deeper understanding of geodata, layers and projections. These three concepts lie at the core of geoinformation systems and you will need a solid understanding in order to develop further GIS-skills. The module starts by explaining geodata, introducing the layer concept, and how to import geodata into QGIS. The second chapter will introduce the topic of projections and Coordinate Reference Systems. Displaying the world on a flat surface is not easy and depending on your use case, you will need to select appropriate projections. The third chapter goes over the management of geodata. Keeping your projects, datasets, and files organised is essential to produce the correct results, save you a lot of time, and ensure the reproducibility of your analyses. The fourth chapter takes a closer look at the attribute table and how to select data entries (so called geofeatures). The next chapter will introduce you to the art of finding data on the web, as well as introduce you to some databases where you can start looking for data. Finally, the last chapter will introduce basemaps, a small but very useful feature when looking at geodata or creating maps. Basemaps let you display a background map (for example, satellite imagery or topographic maps) without having all the different layers of geodata necessary for such a map on your computer.

Table 2.1 Module 1 content

Chapter	Competences & Objectives
Chapter 1: Introduction to geodata and layer	At the end of this chapter, you should: know the difference between vector and raster data, know different types of data formats, understand the layer concept, know how to import different formats of vector data into QGIS.
Chapter 2: Projections	At the end of this chapter, you should: understand why it is difficult to portray the world on a flat surface, know what a coordinate reference system (CRS) is, understand the difference between geographic and metric CRS, know how to choose an appropriate CRS, know how to reproject vector layers and how to change the QGIS-project CRS.
Chapter 3: Geodata Management	At the end of this chapter, you should: know how QGIS stores projects and data, know how to set up a folder structure for QGIS-projects and geodata, know good practices to name geodata files.
Chapter 4: The Attribute Table	At the end of this chapter, you should: know how to open and view the attribute table of a dataset in QGIS, know how to sort the attribute table and zoom into specific features, know how to select features.
Chapter 5: Data Sources	At the end of this chapter, you should: know what to consider when searching for geodata, know a few websites to find specific data, know the collaborative mapping project OpenStreetMap, know how to export OpenStreetMap data.
Chapter 6: Basemaps	At the end of this chapter, you should: know how to add basemaps to your QGIS-project.
Exercises for Module 2	All the exercises for module 5 are listed here.