[GIS] Adding Google/OSM/Bing etc. style map layer to QGIS

basemapheat mapmappingqgisunited-states

I am aiming to create a heat map of Census tracts in Georgia based on population. I have all of the data – the population for each census tract in Georgia.

I've been able to create the heat map successfully by importing a census tract shapefile and following this tutorial: http://qgis.spatialthoughts.com/2012/03/using-tabular-data-in-qgis.html

However I am stuck on how to add a nice looking map layer underneath which will show common geographical features – highways, cities, water courses etc. I have tried importing OSM data from cloudmade but there is far too much detail. The map is supposed to be fairly high level but the shapefiles from there show every single road. I am trying to replace MS MapPoint (no 2010 census tracts). The functionality I am trying to get would allow for different levels of detail depending on how far I zoom. Generally just showing major roads / cities etc. I don't mind if this is automatic or manual.

Could anyone point me in the right direction?

Best Answer

Some options:

Use the OpenLayers Plugin. This plugin allows you to use Google, Bing or OSM's tiles as background image.
Create a custom vector style similar to Google or OSM. Underdark made a series of post on how to do this with OSM data using the New Symbology Rule based rendering. She even provided the qml in github.

No plugin required

There is a core functionality XYZ Tile Server provider which was implemented with some other nice UX enhancements for tiled services (available since QGIS 2.18). This means, that there is no need for an external plugin although for an easy setup you can still use external plugins (see bottom of this post) and it offers various improvements over pure plugin based solutions.

In the browser panel, locate the Tile Server entry and right click it to add a new service.

Enter the URL of the service which you would like to use, replacing x, y and z parts with curly brackets substitution as can be seen below.

Double Click the newly created entry to add the layer to the map.

Layers added this way:

Load faster
Support reprojection
Support printing
Are cached in a powerful way
Are compatible with QField

Some example URLs

OpenTopoMap

https://tile.opentopomap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

(See comment below for attribution)

OpenStreetMap

http://tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

Google Hybrid

https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=y&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}

Google Satellite

https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=s&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}

Google Road

https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=m&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}

(Codes for other tile types from Google found here)

Bing Aerial

http://ecn.t3.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/a{q}.jpeg?g=1

Configuration GUI

Since version 0.18.7 and in combination with QGIS >= 2.18.8 it's possible to use QuickMapServices as a very easy to use tool for configuring layers. Just check the "Use native renderer" checkbox (thanks @DmitryBaryshnikov)

[GIS] Google/OSM style map layer labels

Everything is possible with QGIS also. Hopefully this is what you are trying to achieve.

Keep your layer order such that Points and Line Layers are at the top followed by any polygon layers.
Keep "OpenLayers" layer at the bottom of all layers(like a base layer) in the Layers List. You can Drag and drop to achieve this.

enter image description here

Set transparency to any layer by right-clicking the layer and adjusting the transparency slider in the style tab as shown below.

transparency settings