Program

Tutorial: 22 October 2024 (am)

Collecting data in the field with free & open source geospatial tools: QGIS, QField, and Mergin Maps

Presenters: John Bryant, Grant Boxer, John Duncan

Duration: 3 hours (plus a break for morning tea)

More information

In recent years, not one, but two excellent QGIS-based mobile apps for field geospatial data collection have gained a large following: QField and Mergin Maps. Both apps are free & open source and can function entirely offline, with cloud-based utilities for syncing field data to a central location.

In this tutorial, we'll:

      1. walk through the process for setting up a data collection project in QGIS, with offline base maps, the ability to capture photos, and field-friendly data capture forms with dropdown lists, constraints, and real-time data validation
      2. get some fresh air, taking our project into the field with a brief walk around Esplanade Park in Fremantle
      3. return to our home base, where we'll sync our field data on a cloud platform.

Participants are asked to bring a laptop with a recent version of QGIS, and a mobile device (we'll install Mergin Maps at the workshop, if you don't already have it). We'll get in touch in advance to provide further details.

Conference Day: 23 October 2024

Schedule

8:30
10:00
Morning tea
10:30
Welcome to FOSS4G Perth
10:45
11:05
Discovering shipwrecks using open datasets
Patrick Morrison
talk
Smart Maps Portable: JICA Enhances Geospatial Capacity using Raspberry Pi
Hidenori Fujimura
talk
11:45
Break
12:00
Mapping water trees and tracing travel routes in Noongar Boodjar
Anna Ischenko
talk
12:20
13:00
Lunch
14:00
15:00
15:30
Afternoon tea
16:00
16:40
17:15
Social event!

Keynote Speakers

In collaboration with ISPRS, FOSS4G Perth is hosting two keynote speakers:

karen-joyce

Karen Joyce

 A biographer for Mother Earth, using satellites and drones as my scientific illustrators

I share my experiences drawn from 25 years as a geospatial scientist in academia, military, industry, and small business to help people discover science beyond lab coats and test tubes. But I have an ulterior motive. I am passionate about how we can use drones and geospatial technology to watch over our environment and its changes. So the more people I can inspire to join me, the faster we can put plans in place to help keep our environment healthy into the future.

ahi-saipaia

Ahi Saipaia

 From Paddock to Polygon: co-development of open-source geospatial applications and workflows for mapping diverse cropping systems in the Pacific

Ahi is the lead Technical Officer for the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Forests and Fisheries (MAFFF), Tonga. Ahi was a technical expert on an Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) funded project using open-source geospatial applications to map and monitor Tonga’s diverse agricultural landscapes. Since the project’s end, she has assumed a lead technical role with MAFFF overseeing multiple nation wide crop surveys and agricultural mapping initiatives, resulting in one of the South Pacific’s most detailed and temporally consistent agricultural datasets.

Invited Speakers

FOSS4G Perth welcomes special guest speakers Andrew Dowding & Tim Cable from Winyama.

Empowering Indigenous Communities with GIS: Micro-credentialing for First Nations Land Management
Andrew Dowding

Andrew Dowding

Andrew’s role is to manage and guide Winyama, create opportunities for the team to grow into their roles and most importantly to generate work for the organisation to be sustainable. Andrew is from the Ngarluma traditional owner group and grew up between Perth, Sydney, and the Pilbara. Andrew’s passion is Indigenous mapping and the use of technology for cultural safeguarding. He co-founded Winyama in 2018 to provide more opportunity for Indigenous people to work in the geospatial industry and within the broader digital economy.

Tim Cable

Tim Cable

Born and raised in Perth, Wilman Noongar man, Tim is a versatile and experienced Senior IT consultant with a passion for innovation and client satisfaction. As a Contracted Cloud Solutions Architect, Developer, IT Systems Consultant, and Systems Administrator, Tim thrives in dynamic, client-facing environments. Tim brings a wealth of experience in IT Managed Services, handling pressure with grace. He manages multiple clients and projects effortlessly, showing adaptability and a knack for learning quickly. Tim's dedication to giving back is evident in his volunteer work, reflecting his desire to make a positive difference.

Presentations

Discovering shipwrecks using open datasets
Patrick Morrison - WA Museum
There are more than a thousand shipwrecks in WA, but only 300 have been located by archaeologists. We report several recent discoveries, made using open multibeam datasets, databases of historic vessels and underwater photogrammetry techniques. This includes the oldest known wreck in the Swan River.
Smart Maps Portable: JICA Enhances Geospatial Capacity using Raspberry Pi
Hidenori Fujimura - Japan International Cooperation Agency
Smart Maps Portable uses Raspberry Pi to enhance geospatial capacity through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The kit focuses on cloud-native web maps and satellite positioning. A live demo will show how the system supports international development goals.
Mapping water trees and tracing travel routes in Noongar Boodjar
Anna Ischenko
This research presents the traditional knowledge of Gnaama Boorna (water trees) in Menang/Merningar Noongar Country, and demonstrates the development of a culturally informed, agent-based movement model using NetLogo that can be used for predicting the location of water trees in the landscape.
An Overview of Open Source Web Mapping Tools
Cholena Smart - Mammoth Geospatial
A quick look at open source web mapping options, such as GeoNode, Lizmap, G3W-Suite, and JavaScript libraries (eg MapLibre). These tools make it easier to share data, publish maps, and keep information up to date. This talk will outline what each tool does best and when you might use them.
Building Identification on Campus: A CityGML-Based AR Smartphone App
Adam Abdul Razak - Curtin University
This research integrates GIS in a digital twin framework for building identification on campuses via smartphones. Using CityGML data, users point cameras to match live images to 3D models. Utilizing AR Foundation, and Google's ARCore, this aims to enhance navigation.
Critical analysis of methods used in public transport accessibility
Nathan Regan - Curtin University
Recently published studies have made claims around the accessibility of public transport in Australia. This presentation will show how I assessed the geospatial analysis techniques and methodology, using freely available open source solutions - and how improvements could be made.
QGIS for Subsea Route Analysis using Projection for Vertical Exaggeration
John Lang - Geologist/Retired
Multidisciplinary teams used QGIS to compare and contrast the route options using summary charts and cross sections. A new method using projection to plot length (KPm or M) vs. elevation (MSLm) at different vertical exaggerations was developed.
How open source transformed MNG's PIT reports: From QGIS to Mergin Maps.
Chris Scott - MNG
Open source software revolutionised MNG Locate's Pit reports by boosting efficiency, & accuracy. Tools like QGIS & Mergin Maps allowed seamless data integration, real-time updates, & better resource management. This streamlined reports, improved data handling, & fostered business innovation.
The geologist toolbox QGIS plugin
Michel M. Nzikou
Aerial imagery in bands form is the gold mine for exploration in hard rock environments with low vegetation. We built a QGIS plugin that scrapes sentinel data via an automated graphical modeller producing natural and regolith images which can help increase the search and mineral annotation space.
Hyperspectral satellite imagery in QGIS
Grant Boxer - Consultant Geologist
QGIS now includes plugins that enable the import and processing of hyperspectral satellite imagery with over 220 spectral bands. Demonstrations of the EnMAP-Box and Orfeo Toolbox will include examples of imagery applied in mineral exploration and vegetation monitoring.
Building the Network
Gabriel Diosan - City of Canning
My presentation is about rebuilding the City of Canning footpath data to enable network analysis. The project spanned over 5 years and involved significant time in digitising footpaths, learning new capabilities in QGIS, funding improvements in QGIS and eventually releasing the data as open data.
QGIS Plugins for Mineral Exploration
Jack Green - Gold Road Resources
Challenges in the mineral exploration industry exist around data creation (and compliance) and data discovery. Through a series of custom QGIS Plugins we have improved data compliance when planning exploration activities and the discovery and display of the data used by key stakeholders.
Remote sensing for scalable weed mapping in agriculture
Roberto Lujan Rocha - UWA
My PhD project will predict weed locations in Australian grain farms using open-source tools like QGIS, Python, and satellite data. This approach will use multi-temporal spectral analysis, offering a scalable alternative to costly AI methods. It will address the $3.3B annual cost of weeds to growers.
Exploring open-source methods for anomaly identification in agricultural fields
Monica Danilevicz - UWA
The presentation explores methods for identifying anomalies in Australian agricultural fields using publicly available datasets. We compare the performance of unsupervised and weakly supervised algorithms to process time-series data, highlighting the factors affecting the model performance.
Lost in indoors? Indoor mapping for navigation using FOSS4G tools
Nimalika Fernando - Curtin University
This presentation will share my experience in exploring the open data and open standards for the preparation of indoor maps, which are essential for indoor navigation applications. I will go through my journey of mapping campus buildings on OSM, visualizing, and using them with FOSS4G tools.
Smartphone based Indoor Pathfinding Application for the Visually Impaired
Prabhjot Kaur Virk
This presentation covers the architecture and implementation of a smartphone-based indoor pathfinding app for the visually impaired. Built with Flutter/Dart, it uses a Django API with PostgreSQL/PostGIS and OpenStreetMap data. The A* algorithm ensures optimal routing, enhancing accessibility.
Harnessing GIS and Free Open-Source Data for Flood Risk Assessments
Alexandra Maskell - JB Pacific Scientists and Engineers
Exploring the use of free, open-source geospatial datasets to improve flood risk assessments. We'll examine various flood hazard maps across WA, identify free datasets that can be leveraged to generate meaningful statistics and discuss how these insights can help a diverse range of stakeholders.
Validation of 32 Years of Fire Records in the Mundaring Catchment
Ana Carvalho - Edith Cowan University
The Landgate Fire History Database was validated using GEE's Python and JavaScript APIs with Landsat, MODIS, and random forest to confirm burned/unburned pixels in fire perimeters and dates, achieving over 95% accuracy and revealing significant inaccuracies in the FHD.
LLM generated python for geospatial analysis in GDAL native environment
Diana Ong - Nika.eco
We advance geospatial data science through providing optimal dev ops for anyone to build geospatial models in a GDAL native environment while being supported by GPT-like co-pilot that is trained for geospatial python. This significantly reduce costs and increase accessibility.
EO-Insights: Accelerating Open Earth Observation Data Management & Analysis
Lavender (Qingxiang) Liu - FrontierSI
EO-Insights is a public python package for managing and analysing open Earth Observation (EO) data. The tool aims to speed up iterative research and development with open EO data. The presentation will highlight the package's features and demonstrate real-world applications through notebooks.
Training sensor-agnostic deep learning models for remote sensing
Nick Wright - UWA
We present methods for developing sensor-agnostic deep learning models for remote sensing, highlighting our open-source OmniCloudMask. This state-of-the-art model demonstrates advanced cloud and cloud shadow detection capabilities across various satellite sensors.
Canopy Conundrum: How FOSS Helps us to See the Forest Through the Trees
Duncan Kinnear - Select Carbon
To measure the growth of forests we need to calculate canopy cover over time. Small UAVs are helping us to collect reliable data at scale. We are using OpenDroneMap, PDAL, GDAL and Python to wrangle point clouds into meaningful and repeatable datasets.

Social Event