Georeferencing Historical Maps
This workshop offers an introduction to georeferencing historical maps with QGIS. If you attend the synchronous, in-person facilitation, we will begin by exploring Koerner Library’s physical map collection on Level 2. The Hands On section of this workshop will then guide you through georeferencing a scanned historical map of Vancouver Schools from 1975. Whether you attend the facilitated event or work through this website in your own time, by the end of this workshop you will be able to
- Understand the essential concepts and steps for georeferencing a digitized historical map
- Demonstrate the georeferencing process using a desktop GIS software
- Evaluate errors involved with transforming a paper map into GIS data
- Formulate ideas for further using georeferenced maps with modern spatial data
Prerequisites
Before attending this workshop we recommend you establish a basic familiarity with the QGIS Interface. Check out the Library’s Map Production with QGIS for a gentle introduction. If you’re already familiar with QGIS, browse the full QGIS documentation for inspiration.
Georeferencing historical maps requires you download QGIS before the workshop. QGIS can be downloaded from qgis.org’s Downloads page. In most cases, you’ll want to download and install the Long term release instead of the latest release - currently QGIS 3.28.15 ‘Firenze’. This will give you most of the functionality you’ll need, without encountering the software bugs of newly released versions.
GIS Resources at UBC:
- General Informational website for all things UBC GIS: gis.ubc.ca
- UBC Library’s guide for finding and working with GIS resources: guides.library.ubc.ca/gis
- UBC’s GIS Slack (create your own channel or lurk!): ubcgis.slack.com
- Archive of all Research Commons workshops
- Contact UBC Library’s Geospatial team:
library.gis@ubc.ca - Schedule a 1:1 consult with the geospatial team here
This workshop was authored by Lily Demet and Alex Alisauskas.