info.laji.fi

Knowledge base of the FinBIF

Laji.fi

QGIS plugin for FinBIF API

Link to GitHub: https://github.com/luomus/FinBIF-QGIS-plugin

Overview

The FinBIF API Plugin for QGIS allows users to fetch openly available data from the FinBIF API and load it directly into QGIS. This plugin provides a user-friendly interface to query the FinBIF API and visualize the data on a map.

Features

  • Fetch data from the data warehouse endpoint of FinBIF API
  • Load data into QGIS as vector layers
  • Support for various query parameters including taxon, geographical, and quality parameters
  • User-friendly interface

Installation

  1. Download the FinBIF-QGIS-plugin.zip file from the repository.
  2. Open QGIS and go to Plugins > Manage and Install Plugins.
  3. Click on the Install from ZIP button and select the downloaded plugin ZIP file.
  4. Click Install Plugin.
  5. The plugin should be visible on the QGIS toolbar

Usage

  1. Open QGIS and click plugin to open it
  2. Enter your FinBIF API access token in the General tab. If you don’t have any, you can request one from the “Get API KEY” button.
  3. Configure the desired query parameters across the different tabs (General, Taxon, Administrative, Geographical, Quality, Others). If you need more parameters (that are not pre-defined), you can add them on the Others tab using the format parameterName=parameterValue1. If multiple new parameters, separated by the ‘&’ character. Find all possible parameters from https://api.laji.fi/explorer/#!/Warehouse/get_warehouse_query_unit_list.

    For example: lifeStage=ADULT,JUVENILE&sex=MALE,FEMALE&individualCountMin=1.
  4. Click the Submit button to fetch data from the FinBIF API. Avoid fetching too much data at one query.
  5. The fetched data will be loaded into QGIS as vector layers.

Things to Note

  • An access token is required to use the FinBIF API.
  • Check the accuracy of your search criteria before starting a query to avoid unnecessarily burdening the API with requests for millions of records.
  • The plugin supports multiple coordinate systems, such as ETRS-TM35FIN (EUREF), the Uniform Coordinate System (YKJ), and WGS84.
  • The plugin only retrieves open data. As a result, the location/time information for sensitive species may be coarsened for some sensitive species. Read more about Sensitive Datasensitive data.

The plugin is designed to facilitate the use of species observation data in QGIS. Feedback is welcome.

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