Developing a Minimal GIS Plugin for Teaching Introductory QGIS

Keywords: GIS, QGIS, Python, Minimal GIS, introductory GIS
Session Type: Virtual Poster
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 4/9/2021 09:35 AM (Pacific Time (US & Canada)) - 4/9/2021 10:50 AM (Pacific Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 52

Abstract

The MiMiGIS (“Middlebury Minimal GIS”) plugin for QGIS delivers a set of easy-to-grasp tools that align with fundamental human geography concepts, designed for students in Middlebury’s introductory GIS course. The goal of such a “Minimal GIS” concept is, as Marsh, Golledge and Battersby (2007) propose, to focus on development of spatial thinking and comprehension of geographic concepts while lessening the impediment of complicated and sometimes non-intuitive tools. This plugin includes two Processing algorithms, Group By and Direction and Distance. Group By groups features in a layer by values in one or more fields (“group fields”) and calculates summary statistics for any number of fields (“summary fields”), with an additional option to dissolve geometries based on the group fields. At this point, no other dissolve tool in QGIS simultaneously allows the choice of multiple group fields and multiple summary fields. Direction and Distance allows the user to calculate the distance and azimuth from an origin point to all features of an input layer. This tool is particularly useful for teaching concepts of urban structure because it allows students to examine spatial relationships between the central business district of a city and the surrounding census tracts or block groups. The plugin also installs a set of Mapbox Maki icons and National Park Service icons with customizable fill color for modifiable SVG symbology. The three aforementioned tools and resources were the ones we judged to be of most immediate need, but we plan to expand the plugin’s functionality over time.