Maps & GIS

We make maps that can be used in a briefing, a paper, or a field team — from GPS points and administrative boundaries to print layouts and web-ready files.

QGIS is our main GIS. We work with health, agriculture, environment, planning, and community datasets, and we keep the attribute table aligned with the same IDs as the research or operations file.

What we do

Maps people can use

Thematic and choropleth maps

Rates, counts, and coverage by region, district, ward, or custom catchment.

Point and facility maps

Clinics, schools, water points, or cases from GPS or geocoded names.

Field mapping

GPS tracks and points from ODK/Kobo, cleaned and projected in QGIS.

Print layouts

North arrow, scale, legend, and atlas pages for a report or wall poster.

Spatial joins and buffers

Link survey IDs to polygons, distances to facilities, and simple catchment analysis.

Web-ready exports

GeoJSON, GeoPackage, and static images for a website or dashboard.

Tools we use

GIS software and formats

QGISPrimary GIS — digitising, styling, print composer, processing toolbox

GPS / GPXField coordinates from phones and handheld GPS

GeoPackage / ShapefileStandard layers for sharing with other GIS users

GeoJSON / KMLWeb maps and Google Earth exchange

GeoTIFF / rasterSatellite or classified surfaces when the project includes imagery

OpenStreetMapBasemap and digitised features where official layers are incomplete

PostGISSpatial SQL when points and polygons live in PostgreSQL

ODK / Kobo geopointsLocation captured in the same form as the interview

R sf / Python GeoPandasSpatial joins in the analysis script when the map and the statistics must match

LeafletSimple interactive maps on a web page when a static PNG is not enough

Need this capability on a live project?

Tell us the dataset, the field setting, and the decision the work must support. We will propose a concrete stack and a delivery path.

Contact SAWE