Applied Spatial Analysis Using QGIS - Field Data Import & Contextualization

Applied Spatial Analysis Using QGIS — GIS for Surveyors (2026 Cohort) · 13 Sep 2026 · 24:17 · Watch on YouTube (offline-safe)

I write this after every live session — so students who lost power or signal can catch up in minutes, and so our community has a searchable archive for the future. Week 1 is where the numbers stop being numbers. Yesterday those 20 points were text in a spreadsheet; today they live on a real map of Sudan.

This week's one question: "My survey device gave me a CSV — how do those raw coordinates become points on a map?"

1. GIS — the One-Minute Recap

From Week 0, on one breath: GIS is software for working with data tied to a location on Earth. Every record carries a spatial part (where — coordinates, geometry, CRS) and an aspatial part (what — attributes in a table). No location = no GIS. No attributes = just a drawing.

This week we finally use both halves: the CSV brings the attributes, and the coordinates give them a where on the Sudan map.

2. The Standard GIS Project Folders

Before a single point is imported, a real GIS project starts as a well-organised folder. Data, rasters, survey exports, outputs — if everything is numbered and predictable, any project, any colleague, any future-you can find it. This is the exact layout on your USB kit, mirrored in ~/Sudan_GIS_Training/:

01_Data              # source GIS data — GeoPackages (roads, water, admin)
02_DEM_Rasters        # elevation / hillshade
03_Population_Raster  # population grids
04_Survey_Sample_Files# field exports — this week: field_plots.csv and the GPX
05_Projects_Labs      # lab guides and your project files
06_Handouts_Slides    # session slides and handouts
07_Troubleshooting    # the common-errors sheet
08_Install_Guides     # Linux + QGIS installs

The habit matters more than the names: data in, data out, and work-in-progress never mix. When we export our GeoPackages today, they go into the project folder — not scattered across the desktop.

3. Your First Tour of QGIS

QGIS is one window of many panels, and a good GIS user knows where the buttons live. We walked the whole interface so every later week speaks the same language:

• Menu bar — the full power hidden behind Project, Layer, Processing, Vector, Raster…
• Toolbars — shortcuts for the tools you use daily; restore any you closed via View → Toolbars
• Browser panel — file access to every Geopackage, folder and CSV in one tree
• Layers panel — your map's control deck: which layers are on, what order, and their styles
• Map canvas — the map itself; scroll to zoom, drag to pan
• Locator bar — press Ctrl+K in the status area and type anything: a layer name, a place, an expression
• Status bar — the strip along the bottom: live coordinates, scale, and the all-important project CRS on the right

Panels are opened and closed under View → Panels. Ten minutes spent here is an investment every later lab draws on.

4. The Mission: 20 Raw Points, One Real Map

"Your GPS/total station dumped 20 points as a CSV. Put them on a real map of Sudan." Open field_plots.csv in a text editor first — it is just text: Plot_ID, Longitude, Latitude, Owner_Name, Land_Use.

To draw that text, QGIS needs three answers: which column is X, which is Y, and what CRS?

1. Layer → Add Layer → Add Delimited Text Layer (or Data Source Manager → Delimited Text) and browse to field_plots.csv
2. Format CSV → Geometry definition Point coordinates
3. X = Longitude, Y = Latitude, and set the Geometry CRS to EPSG:4326 — WGS 84 (degrees — the format your device logged)
4. Add → Close. Twenty black dots now sit on the map, near Khartoum.

That is the whole trick of field import: read the file to learn it, tell QGIS which column is which, and give it the CRS. A CSV that shows no points is almost always missing one of those three answers.

5. Context: Points Are Not a Map

Dots on a blank canvas mean little. So we added offline context — what a surveyor truly needs to see around the field data:

1. Layer → Add Layer → Add Vector Layer and load 01_Data/training_wgs84/roads.gpkg and water_bodies.gpkg
2. This week everything stays in WGS 84 (EPSG:4326) — check the bottom-right panel: the project CRS reads degrees, and the points and roads align with no re-projection because they share one CRS. The switch to metres comes next week.
3. Zoom to your layer — the plots now sit sensibly among Sudan's roads and a water body, the way the field crew recorded them

This is the week's lesson in one view: raw coordinates became features only when given X, Y and a CRS; they became information only when given context.

6. Symbolise — Make the Data Yours

A good survey map reads instantly. In the Layers panel, open the field_plots layer → Layer Styling → Symbology (or double-click the layer → Symbology). Pick a colour and symbol that stand out against the basemap, sized so every plot is visible. Styling is not decoration — it is how you make the map communicate before anyone reads a single label.

7. Export to GeoPackage — Data That Outlives the Session

A CSV in memory is not a deliverable. We exported the styled points properly:

1. Right-click field_plots → Export → Save Features As…
2. Format GeoPackage (.gpkg), and save it into your project folder (the structure from Section 2 — outputs never mix with raw data)
3. Give the layer a proper name — future-you, next week, will thank you

GeoPackage is our house format: one self-contained file with geometry and attributes, no shapefile's 10-character column limit, and CRS-aware. Your data now exists as a real GIS layer, saved where it belongs.

8. The GPX Track — a Format That Carries Its Own Map

Then the same idea from a different angle: a GPX file — the standard GPS-track exchange format. Loading it is Layer → Add Layer → Add Vector Layer → the .gpx file. QGIS reads its geometry and its CRS automatically — no columns to assign, no CRS to declare. Symbolise the track like any layer.

The difference worth keeping for the exam of everyday practice: GPX carries its own CRS and geometry; a CSV must be told which columns are X/Y and what CRS they are in. Same goal, two contracts.

What You Should Have Now

• The standard project folders in ~/Sudan_GIS_Training/
• A first confident tour of the QGIS interface — menus, panels, Browser, Layers, canvas, Locator, status bar
• field_plots — 20 CSV points styled and exported as a GeoPackage into your project folder
• Offline context (roads, water_bodies) loaded and aligned with your points
• A GPX track imported and symbolised — compare it to the CSV's three-question dance

Then submit the graded deliverable: a screenshot of your field_plots layer over Sudan roads/water, to WhatsApp Course_Helpers.

What's Next

Week 2 — Permanent Metric Transformation (Project 1B): those points are still in degrees, and degrees cannot measure distance in metres. Next Sunday we convert the field points to UTM Zone 36N — permanently, on disk — so every buffer and area from here on is real engineering maths. And watching ahead to Week 3: we'll create our own data by digitizing — drawing boundaries yourself, the other way data is born when no existing dataset exists. Every Sunday 9:45 a.m.

Resources: YouTube playlist Applied Spatial Analysis Using QGIS — Live Sessions & Labs · Data in 04_Survey_Sample_Files/ and 01_Data/training_wgs84/ · Course site saltco.org · Software QGIS (free & open source, offline) · Full publish kit in recordings/zoom_recordings/01_WEEK1/

Did I miss something? Tell me in the Q&A or open an issue — this archive is living and I will update it. — Sallah