Symbolizing datasets together

🌐 Symbolize data in QGIS

Add the datasets you looked at in the Data cross-compatibility exercise to QGIS. Use the Symbology tab in each layer’s Properties window to adjust the symbology so that the two datasets are visualized together in a meaningful way.

Items to consider:

  • For colormaps:
    • Color-blind friendly?
    • Perceptually uniform?
    • Contrast with basemap?
    • Contrast with other map elements?
  • For vector features:
    • Color
    • Marker shape/pattern
    • Size/thickness of points/lines
    • Fill/transparency of polygons
    • Grouping of many features in close proximity
    • Labels (See the Labels tab in the layer’s Properties window)
  • Scale-dependent rendering (See the Rendering tab in the layer’s Properties window).

If you’re struggling to visualize a particular dataset in QGIS, consider the example datasets.

🗃️ Save your symbology choices

For both layers, save your symbology choices as a .qml file with a meaningful name. Add these style files to your team’s GitHub repository.

⏱️ Finished early?

Consider enabling other layers from QGreenland and visualizing them alongside your data, for example the satellite imagery layers in the “Internet-enabled data” layer group. How would this change your symbology choices? Consider whether data transformation would also help with this visualization. For example, raster data could be converted to contours using the QGIS Processing Toolbox.

Don’t forget to save any changes to your GitHub repository. For fun, consider examining the commit history in GitHub and viewing the difference between two versions of your style file!