Register here to participate in the online training sessions
What
In this online training series we combine the power of GIS (Geographic Information System) with OSM (Open Street Maps), one of the most complete repositories of the Indian Himalayas. GIS+OSM is a powerful combo to study and analyze the geography of the Himalayas and plan your traverses across multiple passes in detail on your laptop before you head out in the mountains. We also cover DEM (Digital Elevation Model) to study the topography and plan seasonal traverses.
Pre-requisites
- Laptop or desktop (download & install QGIS from here)
Contents
Chapter 1 – Introduction to GIS & Base Maps
- Download and install QGIS
- Introduction to GIS
- Set up important base map layers
- Open Street Maps, Open Topo, Satellite, Waymarked Hiking, Thunder Forest, Survey of India maps
Chapter 2 – OSM & Geography
- Introduction to Open Street Maps
- Downloading geographical data from OSM
- Visualizing Himalayan valleys, mountain passes and peaks
Chapter 3 – Planning a Simple Traverse
- Planning a continuous traverse across multiple passes
- Villages, hamlets and dwellings (food supply)
- Campsites & natural shelters (night halt)
- Identifying POIs along your traverse
- Export a route for offline navigation
Chapter 4 – Elevation Data & Topography
- Downloading elevation data (DEM)
- Extracting elevation of Himalayan features
- Planning a seasonal Himalayan traverse
- Generating Contours
- Generating Hillshades
- Elevation Profile of a traverse
Chapter 5 – Geo-referencing topo maps
- Survey of India Maps
- Downloading topo sheets
- Coordinate Reference System
- Geo-referencing topo sheets
- Digitizing map features
- Exporting features for offline navigation
Chapter 6 – Importing Geographic Data
- NRSC Atlas of glacial lakes
- Importing data
- Using Attributes
- Visualization of features
Chapter 7 – Himalayan Explorers & Traverses
- Let’s take a closer look at some solo explorers from around the world and their month-long trans Himalayan journeys:
- Pete Jost (Australia) – Ladakh & Zanskar
- Laurent Berthod (Canada) – Leh to EBC
- Jeremy Bige (France) – Kashmir to Anna Poorna
