Geospatial Data Collection with the Qfield app
Abstract
The slides accompany the practical session on "Geospatial data collection with the Qfield app" as part of the 2025 NFDI4Biodiversity & HeFDI & iDiv Seasonal School on Data Management in Biodiversity and Environmental Science. The session provided a topical input on Qfield as a geospatial data collection tool and practical instructions for the practical example Qfield project.During the workshop, the participants used Qfield to collect a traits dataset of 70 tree points, which were synchronized directly into one QGIS project. The participants learned how the project was set up in QGIS for the use in the Qfield app, with a choice of data types, contraints, and default values. Further, the workshop covered how collaborative data collection is enabled via QfieldCloud.
Full text
Alexandra Nozik, Geodata Specialist Geospatial data collection with the Qfield app 8th October 2025 Geospatial Data Collection with the Qfield app
Alexandra Nozik, Geodata Specialist Geospatial data collection with the Qfield app 2 8th October 2025 •Free and open source GIS •User friendly software for work with spatial data (visualizing, analysing, editing, creating) Welcome! For starters, do you know... QGIS? Qfield? •Free and open source app •User friendly app with simplified QGIS features for data collection
Alexandra Nozik, Geodata Specialist Geospatial data collection with the Qfield app 3 8th October 2025 Plan Collect Process Analyse Share Publish Archive ID Coordinates Tree species … T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 Data Collection is a crucial part of the research process
Alexandra Nozik, Geodata Specialist Geospatial data collection with the Qfield app 4 8th October 2025 Our mapping project today Qfield app You will map: Trees You will collect: Information about the trees Genus, species, coniferous/deciduous, DBH, circumference, trunk injuries, surrounding trees App will collect automatically: Metadata username of collector, timestamp
Alexandra Nozik, Geodata Specialist Geospatial data collection with the Qfield app 5 8th October 2025 Qfield app –access the project in the app Login to QfieldCloud Connect to projects From QfieldCloud Sync project from QfieldCloud to Qfield Open project in Qfield
Alexandra Nozik, Geodata Specialist Geospatial data collection with the Qfield app 6 8th October 2025 Qfield app –mapping objects Menu with layers Browse Mode & Digitizing Mode Press long on layer name to show or hide it from the map Qfield mapping buttons Snap cursor to current location Snap current location to screen center Set point location Enter attribute values, Save object
Alexandra Nozik, Geodata Specialist Geospatial data collection with the Qfield app 7 8th October 2025 Practical Part: Data Collection with Qfield Go outside, map and enter attributes for: 3 objects in our project. What works well? What doesn‘t work well? Come back You have 20min!
Alexandra Nozik, Geodata Specialist Geospatial data collection with the Qfield app 8 8th October 2025 Qfield app –send collected data to the cloud Changes in app not synchronized with QfieldCloud yet Sync changes from local app Qfield to QfieldCloud project
Alexandra Nozik, Geodata Specialist Geospatial data collection with the Qfield app 9 8th October 2025 Let‘s continue working with collected data in QGIS. Software QGISQfield app
Alexandra Nozik, Geodata Specialist Geospatial data collection with the Qfield app 16 8th October 2025
Alexandra Nozik, Geodata Specialist Geospatial data collection with the Qfield app 17 8th October 2025
Alexandra Nozik, Geodata Specialist Geospatial data collection with the Qfield app 18 8th October 2025 Description is what is displayed in Qfield. Value data type must correspond with the set field data type (e.g. integer)
Alexandra Nozik, Geodata Specialist Geospatial data collection with the Qfield app 19 8th October 2025
Alexandra Nozik, Geodata Specialist Geospatial data collection with the Qfield app 20 8th October 2025 Qfield summary •tool for (collaborative) geospatial data collection •Created and maintained by OPENGIS.ch company •features & layout compatible with QGIS •for variety of attribute types for geospatial data •available for IOS and Android mobile devices •easy on the mapping site •requires knowledge in QGIS on the creator‘s site •(free) and open source •Pricing currently for QfieldCloud (QGIS and Qfield app are free!) beyond the limitations of a free version, special offers for academia also exist Qfield get started Documentation on docs.qfield.org Discussion forum on community.qfield.org