FAQ

You can contact us via the form here if you have a general question or need help with your project. If you want to join one of our workshops or lunchtime talks, then go to Events and register directly for the event you are interested in.

Have a look at our introductory workshops. They can help you to get an idea of the possibilities. Check out our lunchtime talks to get some inspiration. Then consider your research question and data. Is there a spatial component in your data? In case you feel unsure, please contact us, we are happy to help you.

Furthermore, there are introductory QGIS courses organised by other providers i.e., Zentrale Informatik.

There must be a spatial component in your data to do a GIS analysis or visualisation. For instance, a GPS track of an animal, historical ship routes, the spread of a disease, the spatial evolution of a language, the distribution of precipitation etc.  

For the format of the data there are many possibilities as long as the data is georeferenced. You can start with a csv table for instance. Please contact us if you have any questions, we are happy to help you!

The Hub offers three principal services:  

•  a service hub responding to requests for advice 
•  regular practical workshops to develop skills and promote GIS use; and 
•  a free to use web-mapping server, allowing you to publish project results quickly and easily to the web

All the services are free during the duration of the project.

The city of Zurich offers a wide range of open data and so-called showcases if you need some inspiration.

opendata.swiss offers Swiss open governmental data, sorted according to categories.

With your Switch edu-ID you can access Swiss topographic raster and vector maps, digital elevation models and orthophotos provided by GeoVITe.

There are all kinds of open data sources. In case you look for specific open data, get in touch with us.

• You could start with QGIS, an open-source GIS software. It runs on the most common operating systems (Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, Windows, and Android) and supports numerous vector, raster, and database formats and functionalities. 
• You could start with ArcGIS Online, which is a cloud-based mapping platform. No need to install, update or maintain anything. As a student or researcher at UZH, you can register here for free. ArcGIS Online comes with additional apps. You will find more information on ArcGIS Online on our Tutorials site.
• Or you could also start with ArcGIS Pro, for which a license is needed.

We work with different GIS softwares. If you don’t have any licence, you might try QGIS, an open-source GIS software. It runs on the most common operating systems (Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, Windows, and Android) and supports numerous vector, raster, and database formats and functionalities.  

GIS stands for Geographic Information System. It is a system containing a database and software tools with which data can be created, stored, managed, analysed, and visualised.

QGIS or ArcGIS are names of softwares offering the functionalities of a GIS. This is the short answer. You will find a much more elaborate answer, detailing the advantages of either software, in this blog post.

QGIS: You can find the software as well as instructions on how to install it here.

ArcGIS Pro: If you are a UZH member, you can request an ArcGIS Online Account and an ArcGIS Pro Desktop version by filling out the following form.
Outside of UZH, you can sign up for a free trial version of the software here.

The city of Zurich offers a wide range of open data and so-called showcases if you need some inspiration.

opendata.swiss offers Swiss open governmental data, sorted according to categories.

With your Switch edu-ID you can access Swiss topographic raster and vector maps, digital elevation models and orthophotos provided by GeoVITe.

There are all kinds of open data sources. In case you look for specific open data, get in touch with us.

Please note that some of the documentation provided by QGIS is available in different languages. Just click on the dropdown in the upper right corner to change it from English to another language:

Documentation (qgis.org)

QGIS User Guide

QGIS Training Manual

QGIS – YouTube Channel

Books: Books (qgis.org)

If you register for an event, you immediately get a confirmation.
If you have a question with regards to content, it depends a lot on the question, but also on our resources. If your question is easy to answer, we can get back to you quite quickly. If things are more complicated, we will advise you and give you an estimate on how long it takes. In the latter case, we will also need some input from you, and it will be more of a collaboration than just delivering an answer to you.

During our project (1 June 2022 to 31 March 2024), our services are covered by the Digital Society Initiative and free for you. But there is a catch in it :-): We do expect you to share your result with us and on our website to further promote our services.