Winter Buzz at FOSS4G Hokkaido: Event Report

Introduction

FOSS4G Hokkaido 2024 is a conference for people who work with open source geospatial software (FOSS4G). The FOSS4G Hokkaido Organizing Committee hosted it in Sapporo, Hokkaido, from February 14 to 15, 2025. State of the Map Japan 2024, a conference for OpenStreetMap (OSM), was held at the same time.

This article reports on the event with a focus on topics related to QGIS.

Day 1: Hands-on day

Day 1 was the “Hands-on Day,” with four FOSS4G courses. Participants learned practical skills, such as basic QGIS operations, WebGIS development with Svelte MapLibre GL, and GIS processing in R.

The hands-on sessions let participants try FOSS4G tools in realistic scenarios, such as working with data in QGIS and building web maps with simple code.

Day 2: Core day

Day 2 was the “Core Day,” with presentations on a wide range of topics: case studies of using and developing FOSS4G, the appeal and potential of working as a geospatial engineer, and reports from FOSS4G events abroad.

Below are the presentations related to QGIS.

Remapping disaster information with QGIS and open data

This presentation was by Murakami of the River Improvement and Conservation Section, Sapporo Development and Construction Department, Hokkaido Regional Development Bureau.

A rainfall distribution map based only on AMeDAS (Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System) data did not fully reflect the history of flooding. Murakami said that they added data such as dams, rivers, and administrative areas and created a new rainfall distribution map in QGIS.

The presentation also showed examples of a 3D hypocenter distribution map, which displays hypocenters in three dimensions, and a tsunami inundation height distribution map. It also covered how these maps are used.

Murakami started using QGIS out of a wish to make a beautiful rainfall distribution map. To make the maps easier to understand, they add geographic details such as river names, which helps viewers relate to the maps more.

An Amazon Location Service plugin for QGIS, built with FOSS4G

This presentation was by Kirimoto of MIERUNE Inc.

Amazon Location Service is a location service provided by AWS. It offers features such as routing and geocoding, and the plugin was developed out of a wish to make these features available in QGIS as well.

Once the plugin is installed and settings such as the Amazon Location Service API key are configured, map display, routing, and geocoding become available in QGIS. Its intuitive operation was impressive. Simply clicking on the map canvas geocodes a location, and specifying a start and end point runs a route search.

The Amazon Location Service plugin is published in the official QGIS plugin repository, and anyone can use it freely. However, an AWS account is required, and the terms of use for the data should be kept in mind.

Visualizing the sound environment with GIS

This presentation was by Kayanuma, Hata, and Hayashi, students in the Regional Environment Laboratory at Hokkaido University.

As the phrase “visualizing the sound environment” in the title suggests, the presentation reported research results on noise prediction, wind turbine noise, and aircraft noise.

The presenters shared concrete examples of using QGIS in their research, such as calculating noise levels from parameters with a QGIS plugin and visualizing the results from other analysis software and tools clearly on a map. They also noted that an aircraft noise prediction model has not been implemented in QGIS and said they hope it will be implemented as a plugin in the future.

Seeing the three students present together and clearly enjoying themselves was memorable.

TENGUNGUN: Using QGIS as a point cloud data hub

This presentation was by Tagusari of Hokkaido University.

In recent years, many local governments have published point cloud data, and analyzing it together with other information may yield new insights. However, the way the data is provided is far from user-friendly. To get point cloud data for a given area, users had to select and download each mesh in that area individually. According to the presentation, the need to solve this problem led to the development of TENGUNGUN, a QGIS plugin that retrieves point cloud data efficiently.

The plugin was developed with two goals: to identify and download point cloud data for a region selected in QGIS, and to provide a unified way to access data offered by different local governments.

TENGUNGUN is published in the official QGIS plugin repository, and anyone can use it freely.

Extracting building information from point clouds and SAM

This presentation was by Eguchi of the Graduate School of Engineering at Hokkaido University.

Noise prediction requires geospatial data such as buildings. However, existing data has misaligned building positions and lacks information on noise barriers, embankments, and cuts. This causes differences between predicted and measured values. The idea was that using 3D point cloud data would enable high-accuracy predictions based on more accurate information about structures.

As a result, buildings in the study area were detected with high accuracy. Because no region-specific parameters were used, the method may be applicable to any region where point cloud data exists.

“Digital Mapping”: a general education course with FOSS4G and open data

This presentation was by Ono of International Christian University and Temple University, Japan Campus.

The presentation introduced an effort to visualize geospatial data with QGIS and Leaflet in a general education course that students in any major can take, as an example of using FOSS4G in education.

For QGIS, the course uses the area around the university as its subject and teaches basic operations such as changing symbology and using the Field Calculator. In the future, the plan is to add spatial analysis, such as creating buffers and union, to the lectures.

What stood out most was that students get the chance to work with geospatial technology regardless of their major, and that QGIS is being used effectively as an educational tool.

Conclusion

At FOSS4G Hokkaido 2024, users and developers of geospatial technology gathered in one place and shared information on a wide range of topics. Through case studies from research and education and examples of plugin development, the event was a valuable opportunity to learn about, and discuss, the current state of active QGIS use and development.

A recording of the livestream is available to watch on YouTube.

FOSS4G events are held around the world. Recently, it was decided that FOSS4G Global, the international FOSS4G conference, will be held in Hiroshima Prefecture in 2026.

If you are interested in FOSS4G, including QGIS, consider joining other events as well.

Read more FOSS4G event reports