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Advanced Cartography and Reporting

Maps are the final link between geospatial analysis and planning decisions. Advanced cartography ensures that maps are accurate, legible, and visually balanced.

1. Professional Print Compositions

Designing a professional map layout requires organizing key elements to guide the map reader's eye:

  • Visual Balance: Place the main map canvas prominently. Align title, legend, scale, and references cleanly.

  • Scale Bar Configuration:

    Scale bars must display logical, rounded numbers (e.g., \(10\text{ km}\), \(50\text{ km}\), rather than \(13.78\text{ km}\)).

    Configure proper step increments in the properties panel.

  • Graticules (Coordinate Grid Overlays):

    Include grid overlays with latitude/longitude lines (for degrees/minutes/seconds) or projected coordinates (for meters).

    Label grid coordinates on the outer border of the frame.

  • Typography Hierarchy:

    • Title: Large bold font (\(20-28\text{ pt}\)), sans-serif (e.g., Arial or Montserrat) for readability.

    • Labels: Intermediate font sizes. Use text buffers (halos) on multi-color layers to ensure text legibility.

    • Source/Metadata: Small font (\(8-9\text{ pt}\)) at the bottom detailing the coordinate reference system, data creator, and acquisition dates.

  • Overview Inset Map:

    A small map showing the location of your main map within a broader regional context (e.g., showing a specific watershed highlighted inside the country boundary of Nepal).

    QGIS Configuration: Lock the layers and style configurations for the inset map canvas so it does not shift when you edit the main map canvas.

2. Dynamic Mapbook Generation (QGIS Atlas)

The Atlas tool in QGIS automates the creation of a series of maps. This is useful for generating standardized reports for multiple administrative units (e.g., districts, sub-basins).

  • Coverage Layer:

    A vector layer containing the boundaries that define each page.

    The atlas will iterate through each feature, centering and zooming the map canvas on that feature's boundary.

  • Dynamic Labels:

    Use QGIS expressions to dynamically update titles, dates, or page numbers based on the attribute table of the coverage layer:

    "Basin Name: " || [% "basin_name" %]

  • Scale Controls:

    Choose between keeping a fixed scale for all pages, or using a dynamic scale that adjusts to fit the feature boundary with a buffer margin (e.g., \(10\%\) margin).

3. Step-by-Step Exercise: Constructing an Atlas

In this exercise, we will build an automated map booklet for three river sub-basins.

  1. Open Print Layout:

    With your styled layers loaded in QGIS, go to Project > New Print Layout....

    Name it Basin_Atlas.

  2. Add Map Canvas:

    Use the Add Map tool to draw a rectangle covering the left side of the canvas.

  3. Enable Atlas Generation:

    In the right-hand panel, select the Atlas tab.

    Check the box to Generate an atlas.

    Select the Coverage Layer (e.g., sub_basins.gpkg).

    Set the Page Name attribute to basin_name.

  4. Configure Map Properties:

    Click on the map item in your layout.

    In the Item Properties panel, check the box Controlled by Atlas.

    Select Margin around feature and set it to 10 %.

  5. Add Dynamic Title Text:

    Use the Add Label tool.

    Insert the following expression:

    Watershed Report: [% "basin_name" %]

  6. Preview and Export:

    Click the Preview Atlas button in the toolbar. Use the arrow buttons to cycle through each sub-basin page.

    Go to Atlas > Export Atlas as PDF... to export all pages as a single PDF map booklet.