Training
What can I do with the Bougainville Natural Resource Portal?
These training documents and accompanying presentations have been developed to support users in their journey to using open spatial data infrastructures effectively and efficiently. Not only will this curriculum teach the basics of the Bougainville Natural Resource Portal, it will also include training on the complementary open-source softwares Kobo Toolbox and QGIS.
What is Kobo Toolbox?
Kobo Toolbox is a suite of open-source, widely used field-level data collection tools which can utilize mobile Android devices (for example, phones or tablets). The tool box includes Kobo Collect, which can be downloaded from Google Play and allows for offline geo-located data collection. This can be useful for minimizing redundancy, duplication, and time and cost required to do data collection in the field and digitize it afterwards.
In these training documents we will learn how to create an account on Kobo Toolbox, create a survey online, and connect it to a mobile device using Kobo Collect. Learn more about Kobo Toolbox here.
What do I need to start using Kobo Toolbox?
- A computer with internet connection (to set up and create an account and survey)
- Android device (for field data collection)
Documentation
Training presentation: Kobo Toolbox Training: Field data collection with mobile devices
What is QGIS?
QGIS, which stands for Quantum Geographic Information System, is a rich and full-featured open-source desktop GIS software. It does not require an internet connection to use, however, several additional features are available to users that can connect to the Bougainville NR Portal via web map services (WMS). This is discussed in the training slides and documentation.
In these training documents, we will stick to the basics of QGIS, including an introduction to spatial data terms and concepts, navigating the interface, loading data and styling it, and creating a map using the QGIS templates developed for this project.
What do I need to start using QGIS?
- A QGIS installation file (Accessible here: https://qgis.org/en/site/forusers/download.html)
- A computer with at least 5 GB of internal storage
- A mouse is recommended
Documentation
Training document: 03_GISMetadataGuidanceNote_Guideline_UNDP_042022.pdf
Training presentation: QGIS Training: Make maps and download data
What is the Bougainville Natural Resource Portal?
The Bougainville Natural Resource Portal is an online data platform for sharing and communicating data and insights about the region. It uses the Geonode open-source infrastructure as a backend, with some customizations to make it more user-friendly. The Natural Resource Portal is perfect for stakeholders including government, NGOs, civil society organizations, and local residents to share and access information, share project data, compare datasets across different scales and timeframes, and turn commitments into action. It does not have the same suite of features as QGIS, however, it is still possible to create and share interactive maps, multimedia stories, and upload pictures and documents using this participatory platform.
The training documentation goes over the infrastructure of the Bougainville NR Portal, how to register an account and sign in, download and upload data, and create and share interactive maps.
What do I need to use the Bougainville Natural Resource Portal?
- A computer with an internet connection
Documentation
Training document: 02_BougainvilleNRPortal_GuidanceDocument_UNDP_042022.pdf
Training presentation: Bougainville Natural Resource Portal Training: Making data participatory, open and actionable
Metadata Guidance Document
For making good decisions we need good quality data, with which we can build decision-making systems, and retain and re-use the data in similar situations in future. All these are impossible without accurate metadata.
Metadata is data about data. Metadata is information stored in a database, text document, or xml file that describes the purpose and creation of the data. The metadata describes what the data is about, when, how and by whom it was created, and how it can be used.
Every dataset can be defined by creation date, name, description, license, quality and many more attributes. For instance, a GIS dataset containing some point locations can be described by its name, the creator, creation date, region name, its purpose, and its accuracy. But, without these descriptors encapsulated as metadata, it will be just a set of seemingly random latitudes and longitudes.
This document has been developed to explain more about metadata and file naming conventions, and gives suggestions for their use in GeoNode and QGIS.