Fall Means GIS: FOSS4G Hokkaido 2025 Report

Introduction

FOSS4G Hokkaido 2025 was held on September 26 and 27, 2025.

FOSS4G stands for “Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial.” The event is a conference for sharing knowledge and information about open source geospatial technology. FOSS4G events are held across Japan and around the world. FOSS4G Hokkaido is the Hokkaido edition, run by the FOSS4G Hokkaido Organizing Committee.

This article gives an overview of FOSS4G Hokkaido 2025 and highlights the presentations themed on QGIS.

Day 1: Hands-on day

Day 1 was the “Hands-on Day,” and two QGIS courses were held: “QGIS Beginner Course: Getting Started with GIS” and “QGIS Intermediate Course: Playing with Satellite Images.” Being able to learn everything from introductory to intermediate skills is one of the great appeals of FOSS4G events.

Other courses were also offered, such as “Geospatial Data Analysis with R” and “Let’s Build a WebGIS with Supabase.”

Day 2: Core day

Day 2 was the “Core Day,” with 18 sessions on a wide range of topics, including case studies of using and developing FOSS4G and presentations on data formats and database systems.

Below are the presentations related to QGIS.

Trying out QGIS courses

This presentation was by Kanazawa and Umetani of the Faculty of Engineering at Hokkaido University.

Starting with no experience with QGIS at all, the two took four courses in order, beginning with the basics. They shared what they thought of the courses and how they applied what they learned to create a disaster prevention map of their local area.

They ran into challenges while making the map, such as the difficulty of collecting the necessary data, the effort of choosing suitable plugins from among the many available, and trouble narrowing down features. In the end, they said, they were able to create a hazard map on par with the one published by their local municipality.

Unlocking the full potential of QGIS with SpatiaLite!

This presentation was by Yamazaki of MIERUNE Inc.

SpatiaLite extends SQLite with support for spatial functions and is easy to use as a file-based database. In QGIS, it can be used from the Browser panel, DB Manager, and the Python Console.

The presentation explained that, in some cases, SpatiaLite spatial queries make processing simpler to write than using QGIS Processing or PyQGIS. It also pointed out that table values can be updated directly, so existing data can be updated without generating a new layer, as Processing tools do.

QGIS use and outlook in Hokkaido’s agricultural organizations

This presentation was by Yamamoto of the HOKUREN Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives.

There are many GIS services, but Yamamoto found tool selection and data consolidation and compatibility to be challenges. The presentation described a case of using QGIS personally for tasks such as remote sensing data analysis. Using a published report on methods for estimating poorly drained areas in farm fields as a reference, Yamamoto carried out the analysis on their own and eventually even tried modeling some of the steps in Model Designer.

Wanting to increase the number of colleagues who use QGIS at work, Yamamoto also described the QGIS training session held within the company. The content of the session and a vision for solving problems with QGIS were also discussed.

Format championship: displaying PLATEAU data in QGIS

This presentation was by Kita of Aero Toyota Corporation.

The presentation showed the results of comparing 3D display speed across six formats. When displaying an area of 10 km × 8 km in central Sapporo, GeoParquet rendered the whole area fastest. The presenter added that results also depend on factors such as machine specs, so the comparison does not purely reflect differences in file format alone.

QGIS LAB by MIERUNE has an article on working with PLATEAU 3D city models in QGIS. Read it if you are interested.

An invitation to OpenStreetMap mapping

This session was not directly about QGIS, but it covered editing data in OpenStreetMap (OSM), which can also be used in QGIS as XYZ Tiles. It is included here.

This presentation was by Hokkosha of OpenStreetMap Japan.

Aimed at people with little OSM editing experience and people who did not know OSM at all, the presentation explained how to edit through live demonstrations using roads and buildings.

On registering convenience stores, the presenter described the careful work of preparing the data, such as confirming the official address from a receipt bought at the store and checking business hours from the text posted on the store’s glass door. This painstaking effort came across clearly and was very impressive.

To learn more about OpenStreetMap, see the article below.

Conclusion

An archive of the FOSS4G Hokkaido 2025 livestream is available to watch on YouTube.

FOSS4G events are very appealing: hands-on sessions teach knowledge and skills, presentations bring the latest topics, and attendees can meet others who use the same tools and libraries. Because they are held all over Japan, consider joining the next event if you are interested.

Information on FOSS4G events in Japan is available on the website of the OSGeo Japan Chapter.