← Introduction to GIS Software: QGIS

In-class Excercises

Part 1: Joining data in QGIS

  1. Download this data.
  2. Open the shapefile Public_School_Locations.
  3. Open the spreadsheet SAT_Results in QGIS. This has no spatial data associated with it currently, so select No geometry for Geometry definition.
  4. Open the Layer Properties for the public schools layer and click on the Joins tab on the left.
  5. Add a new join (+) with the SAT_Results layer. You will need to select Join and Target fields appropriately.

Part 2: Look at census data

  1. Familiarize yourself with the data available through the census using the following:
  2. How is uncertainty / margin of error handled by each?

Part 3: Download census data

  1. Go to American FactFinder.
  2. Select Guided Search, then click get me started.
  3. Download data counting owners and renters:
    1. Select I'm looking for information about housing.
    2. Expand Occupancy Characteristic.
    3. Click Owner/Renter (Tenure in Occupied Units) . Click Next.
    4. Under Select a geographic type select Census Tract.
    5. Select New York and then for county pick Kings.
    6. Select All Census Tracts within Kings County New York.
    7. Click Add To Your Selections.
    8. Repeat the steps (e)-(g) for the other counties in NYC: Bronx, New York, Queens, and Richmond.
    9. Click Next.
    10. When asked if you're looking for data for a race or ethnic group, click Skip This Step.
    11. Now you should see a list of available tables. Select Tenure up at the top of the list.
    12. Now you should see the data you selected. Click Modify Table and Transpose Rows/Columns, which should flip the table vertically and give you more rows than columns.
    13. Finally, click Download and OK without changing any options.
  4. Do the above again, this time picking something other than owners and renters. You should be able to do this by clicking 2. Topics near the top of the page.

Part 4: Join census data

  1. First, prepare your data:
    1. In Excel or some other spreadsheet program, open the owners and renters CSV downloaded in the previous part.
    2. Rename HD01_VD01 to total_households.
    3. Rename HD01_VD02 to total_owners.
    4. Rename HD01_VD03 to total_renters.
    5. Delete row 2, which should contain Id, Id2, Geography, etc.
    6. Delete all columns that do not have headers that start with GEO and that we did not rename.
  2. Now download the census tracts for New York using the Census Bureau's Cartographic Boundary Shapefiles:
    1. Click Census Tract under State-based Files.
    2. In the 2015 tab, use the dropdown to select New York.
  3. Finally, open both in QGIS (as you did with public schools and SAT results in Part 1) and join them.