QBook – A QGIS Cookbook for the Pacific GIS Community

MACBIO
Published: 07 February 2017
Last edited: 29 March 2019
remove_red_eye 5374 Views

Summary

Supporting the sustainable planning of marine biodiversity in Pacific Island States, MACBIO assists partners in their efforts to strengthen GIS capacity and address the demand for license-free spatial data tools in the region. Based on the open-source application QGIS, the “QBook” is a free, dynamic, Moodle-based, on and offline GIS training hub and marketplace. This QGIS “Cookbook” provides easy access to GIS training materials, data and resources for regional GIS beginners & practitioners.

Classifications

Region
Oceania
Scale of implementation
Multi-national
Ecosystem
Beach
Coral reef
Deep sea
Marine and coastal ecosystems
Open sea
Theme
Coastal and marine spatial management
Fisheries and aquaculture
Islands
Protected and conserved areas governance
Science and research
Species management
Challenges
Lack of technical capacity
Lack of public and decision maker’s awareness
Poor monitoring and enforcement

Location

Suva, Central Division, Fiji | South-West Pacific

Impacts

A close collaboration with the Geoscience Division of the Pacific Community, the University of the South Pacific and a growing range of partner organizations around the QBook was established. This provides a conduit for a variety of spatial data applications, such as mapping and monitoring the status of natural resources and their uses, e.g. as part of marine and terrestrial spatial planning. GIS Training follows two approaches. Tutorial based training in line with skills is complemented with problem based training in line with themes/scenarios. Thus the QBook offers relatable learning based on local scenarios, tailored to the users’ background, supporting open source as well as licensed GIS software. This offer is currently used by over 200 active users throughout the region. Beyond these training opportunities, the QBook is a Pacific wide marketplace and platform for exchange on GIS and spatial planning, data and resources. Currently eight national and regional organisations are actively using and contributing, as well as jointly administering the platform.

Contributed by

b5d6360d_2470's picture

Team MACBIO GIZ MACBIO