Content ¶

The Society of South African Geographers (SSAG) convened its biennial conference at the University of Pretoria during September 12-14, 2022, marking “their first in-person conference since COVID-19 lockdowns.”

The gathering featured keynote presentations on various research topics, roundtable conversations regarding South Africa’s energy initiatives, and GIS-focused workshops. Kartoza delivered a brief instructional session at this event.

Workshop Overview ¶

Kartoza’s presentation served as an introductory overview of QGIS and its application for creating publication-ready cartography. The session attracted sixteen attendees representing diverse professional backgrounds—academics, government surveyors and analysts, plus final-year and postgraduate students.

The instruction covered three primary components:

1. An introduction to QGIS’s user interface and navigation techniques
2. A practical case study involving digitization of “a theme park in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape Province”
3. A demonstration of the Layout Manager and its features for efficient map production

Key Takeaway ¶

The workshop illustrated how “open-source software like QGIS can be used not only to create maps, but also to carry out various GIS analyses.”

Acknowledgment ¶

Riley Kamstra, a former Kartoza intern, collaborated on the workshop presentation.