Drone-Data-in-Agricultural-Research

Setting Up (detailed instructions)

1. Install QGIS

To install QGIS, start by downloading the installation file for your operating system:

https://qgis.org/en/site/forusers/download.html

Please install the long-term release (most stable) version, which is currently QGIS 3.16.8 (Hannover). We recommend using a Standalone installer.

Installation is usually very straight-forward. More detailed instructions are available at https://qgis.org/en/site/forusers/alldownloads.html.

QGIS is available on Windows, macOS, Linux and Android. Please note that this workshop was developed and tested on Windows. The software appearance or behavior may differ slightly on other operating systems.

Launch QGIS. If it opens, you’re in business!

2. Download the Workshop Data

The data for the workshop have been zipped up into a single file which you can download from:

https://github.com/tnelsen/Drone-Data-in-Agricultural-Research/archive/data.zip

Be sure to take note where the zip file goes! (When in doubt look in your Downloads folder).

3. Unzip the Data

Unzip the data to a location of your choice (your Desktop or Documents folder are good options). Double-clicking a zip file will usually open it; you should then drag the contents out and put them somewhere. On Windows you can also right-click a zip file and choose ‘Extract’.

4. Start a New QGIS Project

Open QGIS
Under the Project tab select New to create a new project (Ctrl + N)
Under the Project tab select Save As... (Ctrl + Shift + S) to save the project. Give it a name like multispectral_analysis.qgz.

Tip 1: You can save your QGIS project anywhere, but putting in the same location as the data folder will make it easier to find and move.
Tip 2: It is a good idea to regularly save projects while working on them (Ctrl + S).

5. Add a Raster Layer

Imagery from drones and satellites are generally saved in raster files (i.e., tif). A Raster Layer is simply a layer in your map that contains some raster data.

Add a raster layer by going to Layer » Add Layer » Add Raster Layer... (Ctrl + Shift + R). This opens the Data Source Manager.

Make sure the Source type radio button is selected to be File.
Click the ... button and find the Solano_2l20l20_index_ndre.tif file (in the downloaded Drone-Data-in-Agricultural-Research/example_data folder).
Choose Add to add the image to the project, then Close the Data Source Manager.

6. Conclusion

Can you see the raster layer? If so, you’re done!

You are now ready to move onto Multispectral Data Visualization!