And maybe you have a case where you need to be able to actually read the graffiti in a certain skatepark where hi-res aerial imagery is available? In that case, keep on reading. Or maybe you are looking for more context about an area that hasn't changed for years, or you want some high resolution media to use in reports or article. Sometimes it can be handy to have extremely hi-res imagery to identify specific details that are too blurry in satellite images. It is best to purely treat this as an extra resource. Not every city or town is covered, but I will give you the tools and tricks so you can find what is out there for your case.ĭon't treat the sources that will becovered as a replacement for the latest Maxar imagery or from Google Earth that has multiple years within their timeline function.
![quickmap services plugin qgis quickmap services plugin qgis](https://sector035.nl/user/pages/articles/aerial-imagery-in-qgis/qgis-quickmapservices.jpg)
But the highest resolution is gained from aerial photography, and the resolution in those can be absolutely stunning.
QUICKMAP SERVICES PLUGIN QGIS FREE
In this article I'll go over the installation of QGIS, some basics on the layout and how it can be fed with hi-res aerial imagery with a few simple clicks of the mouse.īut why would you choose to run QGIS, if you have the amazing free imagery of Google Earth, you say? Simply because there are towns or municipalities that offer extreme high resolution aerial imagery for free, sometimes up to 3.5cm, where Google Earth will 'only' provide up to 30cm resolution satellite imagery in Europe or the US, with some places up to 15cm. But an insurance investigator, law enforcement agency or journalist can easily use QGIS in several ways for things like geolocation, or gain extra information on a specific area or situation. QGIS is a free tool used by people working in geographical information science, usually dealing with any kind of information related to geography, topology, cartography and such. You can add it to your project by adding it to the XYZ tiles in the browser pane.In this article I'll show you how you can use QGIS to view aerial and satellite imagery by using publicly available datasets via Web Map Tile Service. If you have your own basemap service, or one you prefer to use in XYZ format. Right click your map tile service and select “Edit”Įnter your api key into the URL box by adding the following to the end of the URL:
![quickmap services plugin qgis quickmap services plugin qgis](https://qgis.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/pdokmetadata2.png)
Expand this item to see the different map tile services you have added using QuickMapServices. If this is the case, in the browser window on the left side of QGIS you will see an option for XYZ Tiles. Some map service providers require an API key to be used in conjunction with their map tiles. Select whichever basemap you want and it will be added to your map canvas immediately.
![quickmap services plugin qgis quickmap services plugin qgis](https://i.stack.imgur.com/dFITC.png)
Selecting the middle icon you will see a drop down with all the available basemap providers. QuickMapServices will show up as a new toolbar on your main toolbar list.
QUICKMAP SERVICES PLUGIN QGIS SOFTWARE
While QGIS is a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) package, and many of the plugins that are available for it are as well, you must be careful to follow the license agreement for the base map layers that you are displaying.įor example, Google Maps provides a map tiling service for non-commercial use only.Ĭlick the “Plugins” menu item in the top menu bar and select the “Not Installed” tab from the left pane of the plugins manager. Map services such as OpenStreetMap and Bing provide tile services that can be used to fill in details such as topography, road networks, hydrography and satellite imagery for a map without having to provide your own set of base features. Web based basemaps can provide an excellent context for a mapping project.