Updates QGIS for Hydrological Applications, 2nd Edition

Updates since QGIS 3.22

The instructions in the book QGIS for Hydrological Applications, 2nd Editon, were written for QGIS 3.22. Since then some features have changed. This blog gives an overview of the most important changes per chapter.

Chapter 1: Preparing Data from Hard Copy Maps

The Georeferencer tool has been moved from the Raster to the Layers menu, because now you can also georeference vector layers.

The icons in the Georeferencer tool have also been updated. Check the Georeferencer documentation on the QGIS website for the meaning of the icons.

Chapter 2: Importing Tabular Data into QGIS

No significant changes

Chapter 3: Spatial Analysis with Map Algebra

The Raster Attribute Table (RAT) is core functionality since QGIS 3.30 and therefore you don't need to install a plugin. This video shows how you can use it in Section 3.2 of the book:

Chapter 4: Stream and Catchment Delineation

Also in this chapter you'll use the Raster Attribute Table, which is now core functionality as mentioned in the changes for Chapter 3. 

Furthermore, there have been some changes in the SRTM Downloader Plugin. The plugin now mosaics the downloaded tiles into a Virtual Raster (VRT) layer. Therefore, you can skip mosaicing the SRTM tiles in Section 4.3. This video shows how the updated plugin works:

However, I have experienced issues with that while working with unreliable internet connections. The plugin will not check that some tiles were not downloaded and the result will be a VRT layer that you can't use. Therefore, I recommend to use the OpenTopography DEM Downloader plugin instead:

In the video another DEM is chosen that the one we use in the book, so please make sure that you choose SRTM 30! Also here you don't need to mosaic DEM tiles and if you download for your extent, you can also skip subsetting the DEM.

Chapter 5: Adding Open Data to Your Catchment

No major changes.

Chapter 6: Calculating Percentage of Land Cover per Subcatchment

In the end of the chapter, you'll create a chart with the Data Plotly plugin. There has been an update to the plugin to easier match the colours in the legend of the chart with the colours of the GIS layer. Check this video:

Chapter 7: Map Design

This chapter has no major changes.

Good luck with the book and please let me know if you have any issues!