QGIS4 for Water: What's New, What's Next

[music] Hi, I'm Craig with the International Water Training Institute. On behalf of the Australian Water School, welcome to today's webinar on QGIS for water. Now,

fittingly, since we're talking about geospatial tools today, let's take off by having a look at the tremendous geospatial spread of the live attendees who are joining us. We've got well over

a thousand participants from almost 100 countries. we can map where you are in

countries. we can map where you are in the world here and today we'll learn more about how to map some of the really important things in your own world being the Australian Water School webinar

today that will include groundwater and surface water in all of its forms. Before we introduce to you our expert presenters, I did want to preview some additional resources that are available

to any of you who want to take a deeper dive. So, we've got a couple of upcoming

dive. So, we've got a couple of upcoming courses you can see here in March. Um

those watching the YouTube recording may be able to go back and uh attend these courses. Uh for those attending the live

courses. Uh for those attending the live session, these are still coming up. So

get your registrations in. We've got

CQIS with merging maps and then we have a master class. This will be eight sessions that will take you right from uh zero to hero on this thing. um you

will be able to uh start from scratch and then in the end confidently uh work with your QGIS skills and get raw terrain data that you'll start with into

some working practical hydraological examples. Scan these codes today and you

examples. Scan these codes today and you will get a 10% discount. So look at that uh code there and enter that at the registration when you submit it. We do

have a lot of previous resources available to you if you go to the Australian Water Schools website. Uh

we'll post the link here uh to this one into the chat line, but there is a training hub and on the training hub if you go down and look at the topics there right in the middle uh is CUGIS. And so

if you want to click on that one, you'll see that uh our presenters today and our friend Sabber and a couple of others have previously joined us uh for about I think we've got about 10 webinars. These

are free one-hour webinars that you can have a look at in addition to a bunch of additional courses. And so you can

additional courses. And so you can really take a deep dive into some of this material. There's a lot of

this material. There's a lot of practical things that you can do with this. I certainly have learned a lot and

this. I certainly have learned a lot and I use these uh some of the skills that I've learned from these webinars and these courses. I use it every day in my

these courses. I use it every day in my work as a water professional and I think you will see some of those applications as well. Curt Hans Jiannis, let us know

as well. Curt Hans Jiannis, let us know where you're joining us from today, what you do, and maybe if we can get a little bit nostalgic if you can share when you first ran across GIS in any form,

whatever it was, whatever version it was. Hans, where are you coming to us

was. Hans, where are you coming to us from today?

Hi, I'm tuning in from Rotterdam in the Netherlands, very early morning. Yeah,

my first experience with GIS was during my studies physical geography at Utret University and it must have been my second year in 1998 where we used Arc Info on Unix.

Awesome. A Unix system. Kurt, um, over to you. Let's see what vintage you might

to you. Let's see what vintage you might be.

Yeah, good good morning. Uh, from little north of Copenhagen, Denmark here. So,

it's also early and my first exposure was very similar to Hans. It was 1997 and it was Arc Info version 6 or something like that on a Unix mainframe.

All right. [laughter] And uh Kurt and Hans have been with us for quite a few webinars and you may be familiar with some of their content before for those veterans of our uh the Australian Water

School content. But uh for his inaugural

School content. But uh for his inaugural debut here um we've got Yonas. Yonas uh

let us know a little bit about yourself.

Hi, good morning everybody or good afternoon or good evening wherever you are. I am Yonas. I'm your special

are. I am Yonas. I'm your special analyst and modeler. Thank you for having me. It's my uh my debut here. I

having me. It's my uh my debut here. I

was Hans student. Uh my first experience with GIS generally with just special analysis was in 2015 my first day at work as well and it was with Arkmap I

think 10.1 or 10 something.

Yes.

And then Yeah. That was my first day.

Excellent. Well, good to meet you all.

Um, yeah, I guess I predate some of you.

I was in 1993. I was an intern and using manifold systems back then. Uh, that was the very first exposure I got to it. And

then, uh, yeah, all the way through some of the EZRI products. But I was very, uh, very thrilled to see some of this open- source software come out where we could customize it as we uh, you know, to to do whatever you need it to do.

And, um, there's a lot of our previous content has covered some of that. Now

let's uh have a look at the poll results here. Any surprises in terms of the use.

here. Any surprises in terms of the use.

Um it looks like a lot of people obviously QGIS users um joining us today. Maybe let's start with Hans. Any

today. Maybe let's start with Hans. Any

surprises there uh that you see in terms of the background of the attendees today?

Well, if I look at uh what sectors uh people come from, it's there the distribution is very uh irregular. So a

lot of people from commercial consulting joining today. I think that's that's

joining today. I think that's that's nice. and government people are there

nice. and government people are there but much less from utilities and there are no NGO people or people from the agricultural sector. So I found that

agricultural sector. So I found that surprising because water is everywhere.

[laughter] Yeah, let's let's get some NOS's out there. Get the word out. Um Kurt, any

there. Get the word out. Um Kurt, any surprises that you see there? [snorts]

Oh, I wouldn't say there's too many surprises. I mean, in terms of the

surprises. I mean, in terms of the software people use, I think it's a pretty typical distribution, but I'm glad to see that we added Google Earth Engine just before we got on this morning and um 18% are using that. So

that's good to see.

All right. Um, Jonas, any uh anything that stands out to you there from the survey?

Yeah, I I would say that the the the experience level is pretty much intermediate and we have some advanced users and some uh they are not using

QJS. So hopefully with this uh course it

QJS. So hopefully with this uh course it would be their their kickstart.

Exactly. Exactly. And um you know looking at that spread that's the challenge uh for our presenters today.

We've got experts, we've got uh mid-range users and we've got some absolute beginners. So, we want to keep

absolute beginners. So, we want to keep this content tailored to you. We want to make it challenging for those who are uh advanced but not overwhelming for those who are brand new. And that's how we approach our courses as well. So, the

way this is going to work, we'll turn it over to Kurt first. The rest of us will drop into the background. Um Hans will continue with some of the presentation.

Jonas will be answering some of your questions in the background. Kurt, I can see your screen just fine. Over to you.

All right. Thanks, Craig. So, this is going to be a presentation on what's new in CUGA. So, this is going to be a

in CUGA. So, this is going to be a little different than other webinars we've done because instead of focusing on a specific topic area, we're going to focus on the CUGIS software and and what

new features uh can be found in it. So,

my name is Kurt Mankey again. I work for Septima and we're an open- source geospatial firm in Copenhagen, Denmark.

So, I want to begin with a little primer on CUGIS versions because it can be confusing to beginning users. There's

always three different versions of CUGIS available to install on a computer.

There's what we call the long-term release. This is what we recommend for

release. This is what we recommend for most users. It's what we use in our

most users. It's what we use in our courses um because this is released each spring and supported for an entire calendar year with no new features introduced. So, it's a stable product

introduced. So, it's a stable product that you can use in a production environment for an entire year.

simultaneously every three months, every four months, three times a year, we have what's called the latest release of CUGIS, which is um still stable, but it's going to have new features as

they're added. So, this would be

they're added. So, this would be something you'd use if you want to use some of those new features that come out. And then simultaneously, there's a

out. And then simultaneously, there's a nightly version. You can install a

nightly version. You can install a nightly version. This is especially easy

nightly version. This is especially easy on Windows if you want to test a new feature, for example.

We are at a a a major point in time here because these are the major version histories of CUGIS. So you know version 1.0 was released back in 2009.

Then in 2013 we had version two and then in 2019 version three. So these are ma major versions of CUGIS. And you can see we're on the cusp of version 4 being

released in the next coming weeks. And

so what I'm going to do as I go through this is cover some of those new features that we can find in the current long-term release. And then at the end

long-term release. And then at the end we're going to talk about what we can find in CQIS 4 when that's released in a few weeks. And I want to preface this

few weeks. And I want to preface this talk by saying that this talk I'm not going to cover all the features. That

would just be uh a couple hours. I'm

just going to show features that are relevant to hydraological analysis and I'm and then even then I'm going to cover maybe 25 features. So what I'm showing here on the screen are the

visual change logs for CUGIS. And so I encourage you to visit the visual change logs. Every time a new release of CUGIS

logs. Every time a new release of CUGIS is put out, you can go here and click on that version and get a visual list of all the new features. Usually there's

some sort of uh animated gift and a description that goes along with it so you can see um if there's anything there that would help your work.

So I'm going to start here. I'm going to go chronologically. So I'm going to

go chronologically. So I'm going to start with what's new in our current long-term release and that's 340 Bratos Llava. It was just released last year.

Llava. It was just released last year.

So I imagine many of you are using 340.

And I want to cover some of the new features that are going to be found in 340 Bratislava when you compare it to the previous long-term release in 2024

334 Prison. And so just to kind of bring

334 Prison. And so just to kind of bring this in to kind of remind you how these releases happen, the the latest

long-term release in is going to include features released at 336, 338, and 340.

So, I know it's a lot of version numbers, but I'm trying to want to get everyone used to how CUGIS versions are released and produced. So, we're going to go chronologically starting with 336

Maiden Head. And I have for each one of

Maiden Head. And I have for each one of these a little heart-shaped word cloud that shows the weight of different features released in that version. So,

you can see there's a lot of features here. I'm just going to go through a few

here. I'm just going to go through a few of them. So to start out, I have an

of them. So to start out, I have an analysis here of a biodiversity connectivity that I've done. And this is to show that in processing, when you run

a processing tool and you're on this log tab, there are some tools that will produce some kind of output. And you can see that in this results viewer panel and click on that link and open that up.

But that link is now also available directly in the log panel of the processing tool. So you can open that

processing tool. So you can open that up. So this is just one of these

up. So this is just one of these features that could affect all kinds of workflows. So that just makes it easier

workflows. So that just makes it easier to get to that resulting log file.

This is going to be a point cloud feature and point clouds. Um the reason I'm including these is they can be an important source for elevation data especially with hydraological analysis.

So there's a lot of new point cloud features. This is probably one of the

features. This is probably one of the areas of CUGIS that's grown the most in recent years. So this is a point cloud

recent years. So this is a point cloud styling feature. So here I have a point

styling feature. So here I have a point cloud that's classified. So you can see which points represent ground, which represent vegetation, which represent

buildings. And you can

buildings. And you can control the point size for each one of those points in this point cloud data set. But you can now also in the layer

set. But you can now also in the layer styling panel rightclick on an individual class and alter the size of that particular class. So you have much

more fine control over how you render those individual points in different classes.

There's another really nice feature with point clouds rendering which allows you to uh render the point cloud as a surface. So here I have the same point

surface. So here I have the same point cloud styled with attribute by ramp. So

I'm looking at the elevation values of the points here. And this feature uh render point cloud is surface basically uses an interpolation to fill in the gaps and make it look like a solid

surface. So when we have a point cloud

surface. So when we have a point cloud here um using the RGB rendering it almost looks like an air photo. So just

fills in the gaps and makes the point cloud look a little sharper.

Okay. So those are a few from 336. Let's

move on to 338 Grenobyl.

So this is an important feature. CUGIS

typically always had red, green, blue color model support. It now has CMK support cyan magenta yellow and

black. And this means that true CMK

black. And this means that true CMK colors can be written um into a PDF, for example. And this is important if you

example. And this is important if you want to get something printed at a print shop to have those pure CMK colors encoded in there. So you can now switch

the color model in CUGIS to uh CMYK from RGB and see the CMK sliders. So you

could set a color in CMYK. But the the important thing is that those are encoded in anything you output from CUGIS.

This is another processing enhancement.

So you may not know that in CUGIS you can go into the processing history and you can see all the processing tools that you've run. Um, and this can go quite a ways back in time. And if I find

one, um, this has been improved so that I now see the entire output log from that processing tool, including how long that took to run when I originally ran

that. And if I expand it, we also get

that. And if I expand it, we also get the respective Python and CQIS process commands. So if you're interested in

commands. So if you're interested in running the the Python equivalent of a processing tool, that will give you the equivalent Python command to run from a

command prompt. So that's a nice

command prompt. So that's a nice enhancement to the processing history.

Another thing related to processing is CQIS has a graphical modeler which allows you to visually lay an entire workflow out and create your own custom

tool to run an entire series of steps. U

for example modeling a catchment um from a DEM. So there's been some improvements

a DEM. So there's been some improvements to the modeler. First is that there are now is possible to select several steps

and rightclick and run the model just from those selected steps. When you have a large model, sometimes you'll encounter a bug. And this can really

help you figure out what's going on. You

can instead of running the model from beginning to end, you can select just one part of it and run it from that point.

So, here we're looking at um an an elevation profile of an old Viking ring for here in Denmark. And there's a new widget in CUGIS that allows you to put

an elevation slider on the map canvas and filter visually what you're seeing.

So, I'm going to turn on this elevation controller and I can now scrub what part of this DEM that I'm seeing on the map.

So I can for example isolate the ring of this Viking ring for and see what values constitute the actual ring itself.

So this is a really handy widget anytime you're working with elevation data just to be able to explore that data a little bit and um understand it a little better.

The next feature has to do with mesh data. We have a class here on on mesh

data. We have a class here on on mesh data. So mesh data is very useful for

data. So mesh data is very useful for for weather for example. And so here we have a weather mesh data. And there's

basically just a new symbology icon for the vectors which are called wind mesh barbs. So these are a standard

barbs. So these are a standard meteorological symbol. You have more

meteorological symbol. You have more tails on the barb for higher wind velocities and fewer on lower wind velocities.

That's just a styling feature for mesh data. And now we're going to move to 340

data. And now we're going to move to 340 bratus lava. And so again, we see a lot

bratus lava. And so again, we see a lot of new features in the wordcloud. We're

just going to um highlight a few of those. And this is another uh basically

those. And this is another uh basically processing feature that's going to make your life a little easier. So there's a lot of tools in CUGIS that are called mult have multi-layer input. So if you

want to mosaic a DEM, a series of DEM tiles, um you need to drag all those tiles into a multi-input to mosaic them.

Well, now in CUGIS, any of these here we're looking at point cloud tiles instead of DEM tiles, but the concept is the same. If I'm going to basically

the same. If I'm going to basically merge all of these point clouds into one, there's a multi-layer input. I can

now just drag and drop from the layers panel into that input and populate it that way. I can also do the same thing

that way. I can also do the same thing from a file explorer on my system. I can

just grab those tiles from my file browser and drag them in there. So, this

is a quality of life improvement.

Another feature that is so nice that it already feels like it's always been there is in the processing toolbox, there's going to be tools that you use over and over and over again. And

there's now the possibility to create favorites. So I can go and find a tool

favorites. So I can go and find a tool that I use a lot, rightclick on it, and choose add to favorites. Then this

favorites category appears. And I can populate that with any particular um tools that I use. This would be at the CQIS profile level. So if you have

different profiles for different projects, you could have different sets of favorites and different profiles, for example. So, a super useful um tool so

example. So, a super useful um tool so you can make all your commonly used algorithms easy to find.

And this last thing I'm going to cover at 340 is a a one of the few vector features I'll show because it's it's symbology for linear features which

allows you to add um linear referencing marks along it. So, this happens to be a trail, but it could just as easily be a stream. And I could add kilometer

stream. And I could add kilometer markings with this renderer along that feature. And so you have full control

feature. And so you have full control over the the distance of these markers along that linear feature and control over the labeling of those markers as

well. So you can style them any way you

well. So you can style them any way you want. You can you have all the font

want. You can you have all the font controls and everything else. So here

I'm using this expression to populate the kilometer markings along this trail.

So that's a really handy feature.

I guess I do have one more here for for this version of CQIS 340 brought lava.

And this is a really nice raster styling trick. So here I have a bunch of weather

trick. So here I have a bunch of weather radar raers. And you'll see they each

radar raers. And you'll see they each have this little clock icon next to them, meaning that they have a temporal setting so that I could use the temporal controller to make a temporal animation.

And here I have some that have a a blue color ramp and some that are still the default black and white. And if I want to copy and paste the style historically in CUGIS with raster data, it would just

overwrite the entire style and I would lose my temporal setting. But now I can rightclick in CQIS and choose just the aspect of the style that I want to copy.

So I can copy just the symbology without the temporal properties. So I can copy just the basically the color ramp part of that symbol. right click on another

raster and apply that color ramp without overriding my temporal settings. So,

this is a really nice feature that allows you to fine-tune how you're copying and pasting styles between raers.

And with this feature, it's becoming um more and more common for all of us to work with cloud data providers um um Amazon cloud buckets and things like

that. So now if I open up the browser

that. So now if I open up the browser panel in CQIS there is a cloud data provider and I can add new connections like AWSS3

Microsoft Azour and I can go in and give a name to my connection. You set this up like you'd set up connections to most other things. Um you give a name for the

other things. Um you give a name for the the bucket. And the nice thing about

the bucket. And the nice thing about this depending on the type you've chosen here I'm working with AWSS3.

I can go in and set all the credentials for that connection such as my AWS access key, my AWS secret access key, um

the region and all of that. So you set up your connection as you need to. And

then once that's done, you have access to that bucket via the browser panel and you can just drag and drop from the browser panel from your bucket into

CUGIS. So super handy now that we're all

CUGIS. So super handy now that we're all moving towards more and more cloud storage.

Okay. So that is the last feature I'm going to cover in the long-term release.

So all everything I've showed up to now is what you'll find in the new long-term release 340 bratoslava. I'm going to finish out my section this morning by

talking about features in the two latest releases. Two new features you'll find

releases. Two new features you'll find in the two latest releases. 342 monster

and 344 Solern. So starting with 342 monster, there are new processing algorithms. There are metadata tools.

There's a whole suite of metadata tools for managing metadata. There's also two very interesting raster processing algorithms. One called raster minimum

maximum. This algorithm extracts the

maximum. This algorithm extracts the extrema, the minimum and maximum values from a given band of a raster layer and

outputs those as points. There's also a related tool, the zonal minimum maximum.

So here you could take for example a catchment vector layer and a DEM and you could identify the highest and lowest

points in every zone every catchment for that raster layer and again those would be output as points. So very interesting

for exploring your raster data. There's

also been enhancements to the stack provider in the data source manager. So

stack stands for spatial temporal asset catalog. It's a way to discover and add

catalog. It's a way to discover and add data to CQIS. So there are now in the stack provider. I'm connected to a stack

stack provider. I'm connected to a stack service here and I can see the individual data assets. If I click on filters, I can filter by spatial extent

just those that are found in my current map canvas or temporal extent. And now

my result is filtered for those just found in my current map extent. I can

then click show footprints and I'll see the actual footprints as I highlight those different assets. So I can choose which one I want to add to my project.

So here I've added this satellite image to my project in the stack catalog. So

this is a very makes using the stack catalog very user friendly.

A raster related feature in 342 monster is raster labeling. You've always been able to raster vector features, for example, stream names or catchment

areas. But here we can now also label

areas. But here we can now also label raster pixels. So you can label with

raster pixels. So you can label with pixel values and you have all these tools for setting how those are configured. So if you have a floating

configured. So if you have a floating point raster, you can configure how many decimal points are displayed. You can

reample over multiple pixels. So you can coarsen the labels and you can also use all of the standard labeling tools. I

can put halos around my labels and things like that. So this is um again very useful for learning more about a given raster data

set and actually seeing those values without having to click identify on each one.

So this is a point cloud feature. So

there is a way to store point clouds called a virtual point cloud which is very similar to a virtual raster. It's a

JSON file that stores the source information for all the different point cloud tiles. So here in the layer

cloud tiles. So here in the layer styling panel there are virtual point cloud styling options. So here I'm looking at a virtual point cloud and when I'm zoomed out I can just see the

overview here which is a lower resolution version of this virtual point cloud. I can also show extents only

cloud. I can also show extents only which shows me the individual tiles that make up this virtual point cloud. I can

show both extents and the overview. And

finally I can also show tile labels so I can see which data sets are contributing to this virtual point cloud.

Now we're going to look at 344 Sol which was released last summer. This is the final feature release of the CQIS 3X branch. So this that's important to

branch. So this that's important to remember and there's been more model builder improvements. So in the model

builder improvements. So in the model builder you can now um see that there's a toolbox tab and the toolbox tab contains all the input parameters and all the algorithms. Eventually the

inputs tab is going to go away. So this

is simplifying the graphical user interface for the model builder. There's

a new algorithm here, the fill sync, swang and lube. And what I'm showing here is that you can now drag and drop to connect an input to an output or connect an input to a processing

algorithm. So you can connect to those

algorithm. So you can connect to those sockets interactively. So it makes

sockets interactively. So it makes developing the model much more straightforward.

And as Phil syncs, Wang and Lou is a CQIS native version of the Saga tool.

There's also an interesting very powerful um new feature. Basically,

there's a process of moving the database manager and getting rid of it and putting all that functionality into the CQIS browser panel. And so, it's now

possible to execute SQL directly from the layers panel. So for example, I can rightclick on a layer and I can choose

execute SQL. So here I can use any SQL

execute SQL. So here I can use any SQL statement to just basically do a simple feature selection. But there's also

feature selection. But there's also spatial SQL. And so here there's a bunch

spatial SQL. And so here there's a bunch of tools on top or I can manage my SQL statements. Here I'm going to reuse one

statements. Here I'm going to reuse one that I'd used before. And this is a spatial SQL statement that's going to buffer the train stations by 500 meters.

I can load the result of that as a new layer. So I'm creating basically a view

layer. So I'm creating basically a view um a new layer based on a SQL statement that is a buffer of those train stations. So this is very powerful. I

stations. So this is very powerful. I

can also rightclick on this and update the SQL layer which will allow me to go in for example and change the buffer distance and refresh this layer with a

larger buffer distance.

So for vector layers, this is an incredibly powerful feature.

I'm going to finish up with 342 and 344 with point cloud data. So there's some features that have been added at 342 and 344 for editing of point cloud

attributes. You can't edit the actual

attributes. You can't edit the actual position of the points, but you can edit the attributes. And you do this in the

the attributes. And you do this in the 3D view. So here I have the 2D map

3D view. So here I have the 2D map canvas on top and the 3D map canvas docked on the bottom. And in this particular case, you know, you may want

to create there's algorithms in CQIS for creating a raster layer from a point cloud layer. So you may want to export

cloud layer. So you may want to export just the ground points as um a terrain surface for example. And here we can we

have a classified point cloud. So we're

seeing um in green high vegetation in this kind of pinkish color buildings and brown is the ground. And so you can see

here on this um castle the tower is mclassified as high vegetation. So if we were going to you know export and create a surface of just tree cover for example

um that would be an error. But we can fix this. So there's now an editing

fix this. So there's now an editing widget in the 3D view.

And I have a number of controls I can use. I can isolate the tower to better

use. I can isolate the tower to better edit it. I can enter expressions to also

edit it. I can enter expressions to also limit what is selected.

And then I can select features that I want to classify as building. So,

anything I cover above the line here is going to be reclassified as a building.

There's a number of tools in here for selecting points. There's a paintbrush

selecting points. There's a paintbrush tool that I can use and anything I cover again will be reclassified to building.

So, there's a number of really useful tools in here. I can now put this back to the full extent when I'm done and my power has been edited and reclassified correctly.

There's another point cloud cross-section tool that can help basically isolate points for your editing operation. So here with the

editing operation. So here with the cross-section tool, I can define it with two points and then a third which is the width to basically pull out this cross-section of the point cloud and

then just work with that in editing mode and then return it till the full full view when I'm finished by disabling the cross-section. So, a lot of fantastic

cross-section. So, a lot of fantastic tools in this toolbar for editing point cloud attributes now.

And finally, at 344, there's a 3D globe view now in CUGIS. So, you'll find this in the same place you'll get 3D views.

So, you now will have the access to a new 3D map view from the view menu or a new 3D globe view. And so, the globe view is almost like Google Earth in

CUGIS. You can put any layers on there

CUGIS. You can put any layers on there and you have the same controls for creating 3D flythroughs and animations that you do in the 3D viewer. So here

I'm zooming into a location in Bosnia where a conference was held.

So there's a lot of potential. This is a brand new tool and most people haven't played with it much, but I encourage you to explore that.

Okay, so now we're going to move into talking about CQIS 4.0 which is going to be called Noroping which was after last year's conference in Sweden.

So CQIS 4 is going to be a major foundation change. There's a underlying

foundation change. There's a underlying library that CQIS sits on called QT and historically for the last many years

it's been based on QT5 which is deprecated. So there's been a big change

deprecated. So there's been a big change to move QIS from QT5 to QT6.

So this will futureproof the CQIS codebase. It'll take advantage of modern

codebase. It'll take advantage of modern libraries with significant performance and security improvements and it will simplify long-term maintenance and development.

So when is this going to happen? Well,

initially this was targeted for last October. It's now scheduled for this

October. It's now scheduled for this month, February 2026. And even with that, there's been a there's been a couple bugs found and so it's been

delayed by a few weeks. But by early mid-March, we should see the release of Q just 4.0.

Importantly, this is not going to be a long-term release. It's going to be a

long-term release. It's going to be a regular release. So, CQIS 4.0 will be a

regular release. So, CQIS 4.0 will be a regular release. It's anticipated that

regular release. It's anticipated that there will be some bumps and bugs found with CQIS 4.0. So, no one's recommending anyone use four in a production

environment, but it'll be out there for testing and evaluation.

The next long-term release in the CQIS 4X series will be version 4.2, which will be released this summer. So, one

thing to be aware of is if you have plugins in CQIS, they need to be updated so that they'll be compatible with CQIS 4. So there's information you can find

4. So there's information you can find online for how to update a plugin to

work with QT6 and Q just 4.

So here is the timing of this transition to four. It's a little complicated. So

to four. It's a little complicated. So

right now we have our current long-term release QGIS 340 Bratoslava and our latest release is 344 Solar. In a few weeks when CQIS 4 is released, it's

going to be considered a latest release and the long-term release will switch to be 344.

By this summer, we'll come out with a new version of 344 and CUGIS 4.2 will be released. Then

it's anticipated that the first version of four, I misspoke on the previous slide. The first version of four that

slide. The first version of four that will be considered a long-term release is going to be 42, but it won't be until this fall that that becomes a long-term

release. And at the same time, CQIS 4.4

release. And at the same time, CQIS 4.4 will be released. So by the fall of 2026, everyone should start planning on

transitioning to QIS 4.

So, some of the changes that you can expect in CQIS 4 is there's a new welcome page. So, here we're seeing this

welcome page. So, here we're seeing this new welcome page in CQIS 4. Um, it's

kind of updated to match the branding on the updated CQIS web page, which was updated last year and modernized. You

have your templates for your your thumbnails for recent projects and there are links to support CUGIS and go to cudis.org. org. And then there's also

cudis.org. org. And then there's also templates. So we can open up an open

templates. So we can open up an open street basemap template to start with um a map.

There's also um some of the things relevant to working with hydraology.

There are annotation markers that you can now set as 3D billboards. So in the 3D view, you'll be able to have these

kind of billboard markers for stream names, gauge stations, things like that that you want to represent in 3D.

There's also a very big um change to model builder which is really nice.

First up, there's a new panel for configuring both inputs and algorithms. So here I have a conditional branch algorithm and when I select it in the

model I see the configuration panel open up on the right. So this is just again a makes it a little more user friendly.

There are now color-coded sockets and connecting lines. So these will

connecting lines. So these will basically represent different data types and different types of connections in model builder to make it a little more

um easy to understand. Also all the various inputs or parameters for an algorithm will be now displayed when you

expand to see all those sockets. So

here's a buffer algorithm and I can see the distance and all the other parameters of that buffer buffer algorithm as well as the uh input layer.

Another feature with this rework of the model builder is this is a a very much asked for feature. You can now show the feature count flowing through the model

inside the model designer. So these

numbers after you've run a model will show how many features are represented in that branch of the model as you're

flowing through. So that can really help

flowing through. So that can really help not only understand the output but also sometimes debug something if if something isn't behaving correctly. it

may be that you have the wrong thing connected and you can quickly see by the number of features that um it something is not behaving correctly. So this is

going to make using model builder quite a bit nicer.

There are also two new algorithms related to smoothing DEMs. There's a raster Gaussian blur that applies a Gaussian blur filter to an input raster

layer. So this may be of interest. And

layer. So this may be of interest. And

there's also a featurep preserving DEM smoothing algorithm. Um this applies a

smoothing algorithm. Um this applies a feature preserving smoothing method as described in Lindsay at AL 2019 and it's effective at removing surface roughness

from digital elevation models without significantly altering sharp features such as breaks and slope, stream banks,

terrace scarps, etc. So these may both be of interest to those working in hydrarology.

There's also a new point cloud algorithm called compare point clouds. So here

this is um an an area where people are interested in whether there's been landslide activity and we have point clouds from different dates. Using this

algorithm, I can compare the 2023 data to the 2015 data, set some parameters and run the algorithm. Then it will

output a new point cloud with extra attributes added to it that I can then use to style this point cloud. It comes

in with an RGB rendering, but I'm going to use attribute by ramp. But I'm going to choose one of these new fields called distance, which will show the basically

the change in elevation from 2015 to 2023. So I can see where the greatest

2023. So I can see where the greatest landslide or terrain movement was in this area. There's a lot of use cases

this area. There's a lot of use cases for this compare point clouds algorithm.

There's now also an elevation profile manager, similar to having a manager for 3D views and print compositions, print layouts. There's now a manager for

layouts. There's now a manager for managing elevation profiles, which means that you can have multiple elevation profiles saved in a project. And here

we're comparing these two different point clouds um over time in the elevation profile.

So with that, I want to give a heartfelt thank you to the amazing CQIS community, the the funders, the developers, the testers, all the users requesting features for making all these features

possible.

So Curt has been talking about the the new features and the different releases and what's coming up in QG4.

And I'm going to talk a bit about uh all the plugins uh that are useful for well not all the plugins because there are too many uh but I'll highlight a few. So

plugins and tools that are useful for uh water professionals uh with the migration uh from QGIS to version 4 which is basically that a new

library is used for the user interface.

Uh so this is called QT and we are moving from QT5 to QT6. bit of a technical story that doesn't affect users too much. But this means that many of the plugins need to be ported to a

version 4 version and uh many plugins did that not all and some are still in the process. Um so you can easily find

the process. Um so you can easily find on the CQIS website and that's the animation on this slide. There's a

section on plugins and you can find which ones are already ready for QGS4.

One of the plugins that is still in transition and which we use a lot in courses is the PC ruster tools plugin.

It's very useful for hydraologists and to give you a little bit of history, it was always my my dream to have PC raster integrated in uh CQIS. It's a

tool from Utre University which uh hydraologists and people in environmental science sciences use a lot for modeling, spatial dynamic modeling, stoastic modeling and even data assimilation. But it comes with this

assimilation. But it comes with this very nice set of map algebra tools that you can use uh potentially in CQIS. And

I started prototyping it during the co times and and it seemed to work quite well in the cond environment. But then I uh wanted it as a real plugin and I got

in touch with Nile Dawson. that your

amazing Australian top cutest contributor who also recently won the uh soul cuts prize which is awarded to people with outstanding reputation in uh

open-source geo [gasps] and then we could launch the plug-in in on 24th September 2021 and by now as you can all see in the very uh recent

screenshot of uh yesterday more than 90,000 uh people have downloaded the plug-in so uh it's used a lot and we have also integrated the plugin in chapter 4 of the book for hydrological

applications. Uh second edition, the

applications. Uh second edition, the first edition we used workflows for catchment delineation based on the saga tools which still work but uh if you have the second edition we'll use the PC

ruster tools plug-in and it's now very easy to install it on Windows using the OG4W installer thanks to Jurgen Fischer who is the uh package manager and

maintains the OG4W installer.

But uh if you're not on Windows then it also work great on uh cond and all operating systems. And I've been in touch with Nile over the past days to um move it uh to to port it to QGS4. We are

still fixing the last uh bugs. Uh once

you've installed uh the PC Ruster tools plugin, it's a processing provider plugin. So it's not just installing the

plugin. So it's not just installing the plugin, you also need to install the tool. Then you'll find uh these very

tool. Then you'll find uh these very nice tools in your processing toolbox and they're organized in different groups. And if you look uh in the

groups. And if you look uh in the hydraological and material transport operations then there's a little gold mine of tools that you can uh use to model fluxes in the landscape and do

analysis uh uh taking into account the the the flow direction and the flow paths. Another very useful plugin for

paths. Another very useful plugin for hydrarology is the crayfish plugin. A

lot of these tools from the original crayfish plugin have landed as native tools in cis. But there are some tools that are very useful for uh hydrarology and flow direction and I will I'll show

that in the next slide. The crayfish

plug-in has some tools to convert flow direction raers that are produced by PC Rust or by Saga. We could even make it also for grass to uh a mesh format in

this case the grip format. And that

gives us the opportunity to use the uh mesh styling panel to visualize flow directions not just as pixels but as uh as arrows. And now there's another nice

as arrows. And now there's another nice tool in CQIS that landed very recently.

That is the fill syncs tool which comes originally from Saga but is now available as a native tool in CQIS. So

in the next slide you'll see how to uh use a combination of these two. So here

we have a nicely styled uh digital elevation model and we're going to use this new native Phil syncs wang and loot tool to calculate the flow directions

and I don't need all the outputs. I just

need uh flow direction raster which I'm going to give the file name here.

And as you see, I made this for the 30-day map challenge, which is always nice to see what people make in uh GIS.

This results in a flow direction raster.

Not really intuitive to interpret. It's

just a bit of a grayscale, but we can do that much better with the tools that are available. So, I'm going to install the

available. So, I'm going to install the Crayfish plug-in, which has been ported to QGS4 by contributors, by the way. Originally

it's from Lutra Consulting and uh then you find a crayfish section in your processing toolbox and this output is in the saga format. So that's

very important. Every flow direction tool has its own encoding of the flow directions. So this native one of Q just

directions. So this native one of Q just now uses the saga encoding. So in

Crayfish you need to choose Saga flow to grip. So now it's converted to a mesh

grip. So now it's converted to a mesh format.

And in the browser panel, we can now recognize the mesh format with that little icon that you see there. And if

we drag it to the map canvas, it will load. And if your screen turns

load. And if your screen turns completely yellow, it worked in the correct way. And now in this mesh

correct way. And now in this mesh styling panel, you can switch to the arrows, give it a fixed uh length because here they're not depending on a certain variable. It's just uh

certain variable. It's just uh directions that it needs to take. And we

fix it to a certain length.

And we need to further tweak it to uh make more sense out of it. And here you see the arrows loading. And we can also

fix it to a user grid uh to make it a bit more intuitive. So here's a 10x 10.

We switch to a 20x 20 pixel spacing here on the screen. You see then the general direction of the water flow. We can

change the color of the arrows.

And what we can also do is uh change uh the line width if you want. Uh there are other ways to visualize uh this with not only arrows as a symbology but also

streamlines or uh traces. Um and this also works pretty well in the 3D view.

So what's important if you uh go to the 3D view is that you choose a D a DM layer. Here I use the DTM raster layer

layer. Here I use the DTM raster layer that I had prepared and I increase the tile resolution a bit to have a better result. I maximize it to full screen and

result. I maximize it to full screen and it starts rendering. And here we see the flow directions in the 3D view. In some

cases this doesn't work with your hardware and uh in that case you could also try the CQIS to 3 uhJS plugin uh which is another way to visualize layers

in 3D and CQIS. There are also many other resources available on the website. If you go to the Cutis website,

website. If you go to the Cutis website, you will find the resources hub where people can share styles, projects in a geo package, for example, graphical models. Kurt already showed you uh the

models. Kurt already showed you uh the graphical modeler and you can share those models here. 3D models, which are 3D objects that you want to put in the 3D view. Uh layer definition files,

3D view. Uh layer definition files, these are uh files that can link to online layers. A map gallery that

online layers. A map gallery that showcases very nice maps made with CQIS.

And the last one that you show uh you saw was the uh processing scripts. So

instead of making plugins, you can also make little Python scripts to uh create your tools. And we also have a very nice

your tools. And we also have a very nice course uh on Australian water school dealing with uh by QGIS and making uh these kind of tools which you can share through this uh QGIS resources hub. So

you can upload your own model and uh you'll find that also on the website.

You can choose a little uh picture for your model and fill in the metadata.

needs a name. It needs a description.

You can add some uh tags here. So, I'm

uploading here one that you can find about uh stream and catchment delineation which automates the full procedure using the PC roster tools. And

uh what's important is to indicate the dependencies because to run this model people need to install the PC roster tools plug-in.

Then you confirm that you accept this license. It will be public domain and

license. It will be public domain and then you can upload your model.

After uploading it goes through a review process where reviewers can approve or reject and give recommendations for improvements and then finally it lands there on the CQIS model hub and you can

find uh uh some really nice models there and you can uh see the metadata and download your model. So there's a plugin that connects to the API of the QGIS uh

hub and that's the QGIS hub plugin.

After installing, you get this icon and it will show you all the resources that are in the hub. So when it connects, it will find all these nice resources and you can uh choose which type you're

looking for. So let's see if we can find

looking for. So let's see if we can find the uploaded models there. And we see the stream and catchment delineation model there, but I'm going to show another one which is called the height

above drainage model. If you click on a model, it will give you the metadata.

And the nice thing about this plug-in is you can add it directly to your CQIS. If

you click that button, add the model to CQIS. The model will be added uh to your

CQIS. The model will be added uh to your processing toolbox and you can edit the model or modify it or try to understand how it works and learn from it, which is really great. And you can do this with

really great. And you can do this with all these nice resources that are uploaded to the hub. And then you can uh run the model in this case height above

nearest drainage uh which you will also learn in one of our courses to to make this uh model and uh tools related to that.

So these graphical models then produce a user interface with a little help text on the right which is useful for users.

Then you run it and then there's the result. this a

relative elevation model of some meandering river here and with a bit of styling we'll then see the result. I

cannot show all the plugins and some have not been ported yet. But there's a very nice plugin, the ArcGeek calculator plugin which is very useful for hydraologists to for example uh

calculate stream orders.

And you just choose your elevation model. Uh choose a flow accumulation

model. Uh choose a flow accumulation threshold. This catchment is a bit

threshold. This catchment is a bit smaller so I'll reduce it here to 300 pixels.

You can add some smoothing here because it will delineate the streams with different uh orders. It uses two types of orders here, the stroller and the

shre orders.

And I choose an output.

Can save it to a gio package.

Give it a name and then run it.

And this tool or these tools from the R key plugin uses grass in the background.

So you can see some calls to grass here in the log.

After running uh we can find our stream network there and the stream network has an attribute table uh with some information that we can use as hydraologist like the stroller or the

shre orders but also the stream type. Is

it a starting uh stream or is it an intermediate stream?

Now, this information can also be used to style your stream network. And a

simple line uh can be much improved by using the interpolated line renderer.

And with the interpolated line renderer, we can vary the width of a line based on an attribute. So if we choose the straa

an attribute. So if we choose the straa orders there as a beginning and an end value, it will find the different orders and we

can uh set the width then to a range and tweak the colors to blue. And there we get a nicely rendered uh river network.

There's more we can do with the plug-in.

So we can do a very quick catchment or watershed delineation which also uses the grass tools and we can select our uh pore point which is the outlet of your

catchment.

So I'm zooming in here on this stream and I'm looking where I can put uh a point to identify the outlet. Then I

click on the point in the uh in the river in the map canvas and it will paste there our coordinates and I can

smooth it even uh further if I want and save the result to a geo package.

So I can add it to the existing one that we created. And then I run it.

we created. And then I run it.

And there it runs all these grass tools in the back end. And in the end we have our catchment nicely delineated here.

And then we can also apply some really nice styling uh to it. For if you want to highlight your catchment, we can use a inverted polygon shape burst fill technique.

where we make a ramp of the inverted polygon from gray to white with a little transparency.

We use the distance uh shading style. Uh

reduce it a little bit.

Increase the blur strength.

And now we see our catchment uh highlighted from the background.

And it's also nice to have a little black line so we can stack these styles.

And now we have a little black outline of our catchment here too. These are

things you learn also in our courses step by step.

Also the whole delineation method is covered in our uh master class where we will go even uh much further than this.

Um I'm clipping now the streams to the catchment boundary. Just a simple clip

catchment boundary. Just a simple clip operation.

And I can now copy the style so I don't have to go through all these steps again and paste it to the clip layer.

And if I hide the other layer, then you see nicely clipped your uh river network. Now the plug-in can do some

network. Now the plug-in can do some more very nice things which we'll also cover in the master class. And this is about morphometric analysis. There are

all kind of morphometric parameters that we can uh calculate from the catchment and from the streams that are useful for hydraologist to get an idea about uh the

characteristics of the catchment. So

when we run this tool it will uh create some uh really nice outputs in the log you will find the temporary folder where things are saved. It will

give some verbal output here. And if I go to that folder which is a a temporary folder here I can find here a HTML file and if I open the HTML file it will give

me the hipsometric curve in an interactive way. So I can query this

interactive way. So I can query this curve can find the data on the points and uh it's a very nice visual output that the plug-in produces.

It also produces a PNG of a picture of the curve that you can use in your reports.

But there are more morphometric parameters that it use as an output. So

I'm going to style the outlet point here with a SVG marker. You can use SVGs.

This is shipped with some SVGs, but you can also download your own. I'm going to use a simple one here.

And if I open the attribute table of that point that was uh generated then I find here a whole list of morphometric uh parameters that you can use for your

catchment analysis.

So a great plug-in to uh to explore which has been ported to QGS4. A very

nice development is uh for for people working in the urban environment is the Ebergis plugin and that's based on the Eber uh model and the swim model. The

Eber model is an open-source hydraulic model to one and to the 1D dual drainage model which can be linked to uh to swim.

It has really uh some advantages like parallelization for GPU via high performance computing and a fully distributed hydraological approach. This

has now been integrated into QGIS through a plug-in that uh gives you the power of the interface of QGIS with uh the Ear model and that's then the EER

GIS plug-in and in that way we have an integration with uh swim the 1D model and the Iber uh 2D uh model for calculations in the GIS interface using

shallow water equations and this was all possible in the cooperation of uh the company BGO which also is known from the river GIS plugin for pipe water systems. and all these organizations here on the

slide. What it needs as input data is

slide. What it needs as input data is the rainfall DTM curve number and a land use map and the drainage network and

some other information of the urban drainage and then it will uh model the drainage system components and different operating scenarios normal conditions or

searchcharged uh conditions that in the 2D and 1D urban model and then the input data that is given here uh has certain attributes with it uh that will be used

in in the plug-in uh with a certain representation. And here you see how the

representation. And here you see how the plug-in adds to your QS user interface with some uh buttons that are useful for this type of modeling and it will then create uh the mesh for you which is also

visual here and then the results are here in the uh user interface of QGSN.

You can see it's temporal data. So it

uses the temporal controller to animate the results. And here you see the

the results. And here you see the animations with uh the temporal controller for the the water depth and the water velocity in this uh urban environment. So very nice integration of

environment. So very nice integration of models in QGIS. And you can also explore the results through the web through a web interface. And also the results can

web interface. And also the results can be seen in the swim model as you can see here. I'm going to give the word to uh

here. I'm going to give the word to uh Yonas uh who will be doing the master class together with me and Ronas has a couple of slides to present too. One of

the things that I'm going to highlight in this in this presentation is the type of uh work that I am doing because I am like a good example because I went through this type of master class. So

the thing that I uh that I am going to present here is going to be first addressed if you join the master class in the first four lessons. many of the things that that I use. So for one of

the things is if you are interested or if you work in any sector one of it could be the thing that I do uh bringing resilience to cities or generally in climate adaptation things uh whether

it's a parcel whether it's a city if you are running a risk exposure analysis not only water but any other things any environmental hazards you can do it at

scale and then you can zoom in to do some scenario modeling you can either you can go a long way in QJS and You can also use QJIS or any of the tools as as

as an to to filter the inputs for for other modeling. So examples could be for

other modeling. So examples could be for example I focus in Urban areas but it is also applicable in in any type of areas.

This is completely uh without using any other tool than the tools that you can do in QGIS. You can identify water logged areas, infiltration zones when you have like several rusters. You can

do any type of early analysis and and and you can also delinate the flow direction and a potential accumulation.

You can find uh the pets or the catchment outlets within an urban uh area and then you can delinate the catchment. Moreover, you can even go to

catchment. Moreover, you can even go to another deeper analysis of how green your neighborhood is or how livable your neighborhood is. How many houses are

neighborhood is. How many houses are under under good green coverage or good canopy coverage and you can even detail it to a specific house to a specific

neighborhood and and and region. And of

course it's been covered with all our presenters that there is a big [snorts] uh section also for graphical models to automate your workflows or also to automate the inputs that you will use

for other uh tools.

That's it from my settings.

Excellent. So you do see a couple of things here on this upcoming master class. Uh what we'll do then Yonas if

class. Uh what we'll do then Yonas if you want to turn your uh camera back on.

If we do get Kurt joining us again, we'll bring him back on as well for the Q&A, the panel back on here. So, uh,

yeah, Yonas, um, I'd like to have you just pick one of the questions bec, uh, the ones that have been upvoted the most, the things that you've been frantically typing away on in the background. What would you like to share

background. What would you like to share with our live audience and with the YouTube recordings uh, later on? Because

those watching the YouTube channel won't see this chat. So, uh, what would you want the world to know about the things that you've just uh, addressed for us?

Yeah, the questions are uh interesting.

Some of them very technical, some of them general uh questions. One of the interesting questions that I might also uh forward it to all of you is uh with

the rise of the plugins that has a free version and also paid version, how do we see it in the context of the open source environment? Is it is it a good practice

environment? Is it is it a good practice or not? Um there are other questions

or not? Um there are other questions like um very technical measuring between two points in QGIS how to do that and I have to say many of

the things uh that that are mentioned will be like very pretty much uh detail in the master class and and more how to do this sort of analysis and how to how to make them work.

Yeah. Thanks. Uh Hans back to you.

You've been uh frantically answering quite a few questions in the background as well.

Yeah, there was a nice question about if the two flows plugin is uh being ported to uh QS4. And I think it's nice for people to see how to find if your

favorite plug-in is ported or not. Um so

let me share my screen for that. Yep. So

if you go to the Cutis website, cut.org work and then you go to resources plugins and there you find here these cudis

ready section and that will give that whole list but if you use the search here you and you search for your favorite plug-in like tflow

then you'll find it here if you click on the title it will open the the tflow information if you go to details no uh sorry to versions

Then you can see which versions are supported. If it says 4.0, it means it

supported. If it says 4.0, it means it is already ported. So that's great news for Toflow uh plug-in users. But you can do this for all the plugins that you are using and to see if it's ported. If not,

get in touch with the developer and ask uh if it's ported or finance if you are in a hurry. [laughter]

They're great work and to keep your workflows going in the future.

Excellent. No, that's awesome. Um thanks

for doing that uh that demo. It's great

to see that um you know because we do have a lot of Toflow users that uh join these calls um and it's great to see.

Now Kurt, I'll ask you a very easy question I think not so much a technical question.

Uh how do I get my city's name on a future release? [laughter]

future release? [laughter] I see a lot of city names coming up. How

do we uh how you know I I live on the zigzag. I think that'd be a cool name um

zigzag. I think that'd be a cool name um here in uh in Australia. But uh yeah, how how do you go about choosing those names?

Well, Craig, that you'd have to uh host a CUGIS conference, hackfest in [clears throat] your town. So, that's

how they happen. They're they're named after places where conferences have been held. So, that takes um local people to

held. So, that takes um local people to do all the hard work of organizing those meetings.

All right. So, all of you users out there, thousands of uh attendees going to be watching this even on our YouTube channel, get your local group together, host a conference, and you'll get your

name in lights on the next uh on the next version. So, um, Yonas, back over

next version. So, um, Yonas, back over to you. We'll just go around the room

to you. We'll just go around the room maybe one more time with a question each and then we'll wrap it up with some closing remarks. Yonas, anything you saw

closing remarks. Yonas, anything you saw that you wanted to address?

I think many of the questions that I saw are also interested. Maybe you can you can highlight a bit on that about the elevation filtering and how it can be used for different use cases or or where

to find it or how to use it just in the brief way. And there are also um

brief way. And there are also um interesting questions about integration of the Q.js plugin in and compatibility with Q.js. Maybe some of them some

with Q.js. Maybe some of them some plugins that are used in S3. I think

with the proper configuration and and pipeline they can the core models can work in Q.js as well. It's nice to to always come back to the open source. So

you can also use the different uh other plugins that might work with it as well.

Perfect. Um, Hans, any um final question that you wanted to cover?

Well, I was just looking at this question about uh can crayfish export to DXF or 3D mesh file uh types. So, the

many of the the crayfish uh tools have landed in in CQIS itself. So, the the conversions the first place to look at is in the mesh section of the processing uh toolbox. Maybe we can also quickly

uh toolbox. Maybe we can also quickly share the screen to to show that. So

there's this whole mesh uh section and it uses the MD doll uh library. So if

formats are supported or conversions are supported by MD Doll uh which is in the back end then uh you can uh convert it.

So there's some export functions here but the specific one that was asked I'm not sure about that.

Perfect.

Okay. Um and so Kurt um were you able to see any of those questions otherwise we'll uh let you answer in on text. Was

there anything you wanted to cover from the questions before we uh before we wrap this up?

Yeah, I think maybe is answered to some degree, but there are some a lot of questions about the elevation filtering widget. So, yeah, that can be obtained.

widget. So, yeah, that can be obtained.

You you you configure that from project properties. You define which layer

properties. You define which layer represents the elevation in the project and then you can go in and find that from the uh the what is it? Layers menu. It's it's not

too difficult to find. It's it's one of those first menus. you'll you'll see a filtering section and and you can find the elevation filtering widget. So, it's

fairly easy to uh to open once you find that. And uh it's can be used with any

that. And uh it's can be used with any data. It can even be used with mesh

data. It can even be used with mesh data. So, um it's a fantastic way any

data. So, um it's a fantastic way any any raster or mesh data set you can set up as use with that elevation filtering and and explore your data visually that way.

Ah, that that's I love that tool. You

know, we've got a lot of salt lakes and things here in in Western Australia, and by using that filtering, it almost looks like you're running a model because you can change the elevation and and if you

do the the the the coloring correct, it you can fill and uh empty your lakes and see what happens as they fill and empty.

Uh and it's just really handy. I love

that tool. Um thanks for showing us those. If you do want a practical

those. If you do want a practical handson, uh take on this thing uh and you want to try some of these things yourself, do come along to this course.

Um, you know, a lot of the attendees today have been very emotionally involved. I'll say emotionally because

involved. I'll say emotionally because the emojis, I don't think I've ever seen so many emojis flying across my screen from everybody who appreciated uh what was being said, who loved what was being

said, and who put that astonished look at, "Wow, I didn't know QIS could do that." Do come along to these courses,

that." Do come along to these courses, scan these QR codes in to get the discounts. What we'll do then uh have

discounts. What we'll do then uh have one last go around the room at uh some closing remarks uh from our veteran users. I saw in the background somebody

users. I saw in the background somebody said they started using GIS in 1983 um as an adaptation of MicroStation.

Thanks for all the comments coming in the background. If somebody used the

the background. If somebody used the original GIS, which was the Canadian Geographic Information System in 1963, if there's anybody online who did that,

you'll win a prize. So, if anybody used the original GIS program in 1963, CGIS, um we'd love to hear from you and let us know what you want to see more of uh throughout the rest of this year and

next. So, let's go around the room one

next. So, let's go around the room one more time. Give us your closing remarks

more time. Give us your closing remarks um and let us know maybe uh a little bit about what you're going to see, you know, uh in this course coming forward.

So, we'll go back around the room.

Yonas, I'll start with you and then Kurt and then Hans to close it out. Final

closing remarks, Jonas.

Yes. So in this master class you will see everything from data from installing the plugins from the software from the updates and all the way to delinating the catchment working within the

catchment working within an urban area with a small setting you'll learn all the use cases the good practices and the tools that you need to to yeah to be if

you are an intermediate be an advanced and if you're an advanced even to learn more more tools that's right and uh you know when I think back to university days uh 90% of what I learned I've never used again

since then. I I don't do much

since then. I I don't do much integration and things like that. But

when you go to one of these courses, 90% of what you learn you will use in your daily life. At least that's been my

daily life. At least that's been my experience. Kurt, closing remarks from

experience. Kurt, closing remarks from you.

Yeah. Well, first I want to apologize for my technical difficulties, but I I would like to highlight the the merge and maps course. So merge and maps is a platform that allows you to integrate field data collection with CUGIS

directly. So, if you want to field

directly. So, if you want to field verify model results and things like that by going out in the field and and recording data with your mobile phone, Merge and Maps is a tool to do that. And

this class is going to give you a lot of tips and tricks on how to do that well and effectively. So, um, take that

and effectively. So, um, take that class. It's a short one and it's going

class. It's a short one and it's going to be really useful.

Perfect. And from one, you know, one of the best instructors on the planet. U,

the feedback from our previous courses that Kurt and Hans have been involved in has been, uh, tremendous. uh and you know everybody has a great experience.

Uh Hans bring it home for us.

Yeah, I can highly recommend that uh field data collection uh with QTSM merging maps course. We've been working a lot with mergin maps and I think that course is really great. Also uh Kurt has

has this uh nice book uh about uh using mergin maps. So fantastic stuff and I

mergin maps. So fantastic stuff and I also would like to uh remind people that uh with Vincent Post we made a really nice course on PIQGIS and making tools.

already mentioned it and uh there's also this great uh mesh course. So it really depends on your own uh needs what to do but I think we cover quite range from field data collection to climate

modeling with mesh data in our course portfolio at Australia water school and it's really great to be here again and doing nice courses in this uh in 2026.

Thanks.

Perfect. Yeah, thanks for that. So you

know we mentioned art geek. Um, so if you want to be a CQIS geek, uh, you can geek out on this stuff with us coding and scripting. Um, we get uh into into

and scripting. Um, we get uh into into the details of this, but again, we start you out from the very beginning.

Absolute beginners, we will get you up to speed. Your instructors will be able

to speed. Your instructors will be able to help you along the way and we make sure nobody gets left behind. So with

that, thank you for joining us today.

Thanks to all the attendees. Thanks to

the presenters for offering your time here for the industry to make the world a better place. So with that, we'll sign off. We'll see you again next time with

off. We'll see you again next time with the Australian Water School.

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