QGIS and Debian: Making Geospatial Data Accessible Through Free Software

Track: Community, diversity, local outreach and social context

Type: Short talk (20 minutes)

QGIS is a powerful and accessible free software tool for working with geospatial data — and it is available directly from Debian’s repositories. In this talk, I will demonstrate how QGIS and other packages maintained by the Debian GIS Team are being used in environmental education and local sustainability initiatives in Brazil.

I’ll share real-world examples, including a current training program I’m organizing for public school teachers in Amparo (São Paulo), where QGIS is used to teach students how to generate and interpret their own environmental and territorial data. Through this, teachers and students become not only users of maps, but also producers of scientific data.

We will cover:

What QGIS is and its role in the free software ecosystem;
Real-world applications (e.g., environmental impact studies, interactive maps for municipalities, climate-related data analysis);
The strength of the QGIS community and ways to contribute;
Advanced features such as Python scripting (PyQGIS), plugin integration, and use with PostgreSQL/PostGIS.

As a long-time QGIS user and a recent Debian enthusiast, I’ve been exploring the broader Debian GIS ecosystem — including tools like GDAL, PostGIS, and the Debian GIS Blend. My journey has evolved from simply deploying QGIS in classrooms to wanting to understand how these packages are built, tested, and maintained within Debian.

I consider myself an advanced QGIS user who aims to become a contributor. In this talk, I’ll share my efforts to better understand the GIS ecosystem within Debian, the challenges I’ve encountered, and the milestones I’ve reached so far.

URLs

etherpad