Fundamentals of Integrating a Database into GIS

This short course introduces the topic of external databases and their integration into GIS. Some background knowledge of databases and GIS is helpful, but not required. Familiarity with cultural heritage & humanities terminology is advantageous, but not required.

In this course we will cover:

  • What is a database? Using data appropriately
  • Attribute tables in GIS and when do we need a database?
  • Cultural Heritage & humanities databases – common formats
  • Database design for GIS – linking tables and external databases
  • Common Query types
  • Import and export functions

Cultural heritage & humanities databases come in many forms, however most of this data has a spatial component and so GIS is a common companion tool. No matter what GIS platform you are using there are common techniques for dealing with cultural heritage & humanities data, whether within the attribute tables or by linking tables or using a full database in conjunction with the GIS. In this course we will use the renowned open source Quantum GIS (QGIS) software, but specific information can be given for other platforms such as ArcGIS and MapInfo.

A variety of database formats will be discussed, including Heurist, and the most common forms of cultural heritage & humanities data will be covered. This course deals with the technical specifics of integrating data into a GIS and covers common tasks. The topic of database design and the use of linked tables and external databases is introduced. These are vast topics on their own and the objective of this course is to familiarise participants with conditions for the appropriate use of each, rather than to provide an in-depth coverage of the entire subject. Frequently used queries are discussed at an introductory level.

By the end of this course participants will be able to integrate a basic database into GIS layers in a way that allows for a range of common queries to be run on the data. This will allow participants using cultural heritage & humanities data with GIS to work confidently and efficiently to produce useful outputs, whatever their specific requirements.

For more information, see our main training page.