5. Accessing Data Over the Web

Many government and private corporations have made available datasets for use in GIS programs. There may be usage restrictions and the conditions of use should be checked at the data source. The amount of free data on the web is truly amazing and users are encouraged to explore the web for data.

QGIS has many options to access on-line web datasets. These can be in the form of a WFS (web feature service - vector data), WMS (web map service - raster data) or as a WMTS (web map tile server - tiled raster data, e.g. Google Earth). Australian data can be searched at “data.gov.au” and Western Australian data is available at “data.wa.gov.au”.

Satellite data for the ASTER, Landsat, MODIS and Sentinel missions can be downloaded and processed via the Semi-Automatic Classification plug-in in QGIS or via the USGS EarthExplorer portal and this is discussed below. Remote sensing satellite data (including Hyperion multispectral scanner and radar data) can also be downloaded via the USGS EarthExplorer and ESA (European Space Agency) websites.

• 5.1. Australian Data Sets
• 5.2. Geological Survey of Western Australia
• 5.3. Landgate and Open Data WA
• 5.4. Geoscience Australia
• 5.5. Digital Elevation Data
• 5.6. Coordinate Reference Systems