QBook – A QGIS Cookbook for the Pacific GIS Community

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QBook – A QGIS Cookbook for the Pacific GIS Community

MACBIO

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.

Last update: 29 Mar 2019

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Context

Challenges addressed

Lack of technical capacity

Lack of public and decision maker’s awareness

Poor monitoring and enforcement

Scale of implementation

Multi-national

Ecosystems

Deep sea

Open sea

Coral reef

Beach

Theme

Species management

Protected and conserved areas governance

Islands

Coastal and marine spatial management

Science and research

Fisheries and aquaculture

Location

Suva, Central Division, Fiji

Oceania

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.