[GIS] Converting point layer to raster grid that shows frequency of points per cell uisng QGIS

Question

I have a point layer that shows the distribution of a species.

Is it possible in QGIS to convert this point layer to a raster grid in which the value of each cell corresponds with the amount of points within that cell?

Until now, I only managed to attach attribute values to the grid cells. I have already added a column in my attribute table that has the value '1' for each point, hoping that there is a way to use a sum of attributes for each grid cell.

Answer 1

This is a kludge but it does work - haven't found a way to go directly from points to raster yet (but am hoping someone gives a solution here!).

Starting with a point grid (random points in the Serengeti from the Vector|Research tools|Random points tool):

Create a polygonal grid of the same extent and cell size as the raster you'd like to have (this from Vector|Research tools|Vector grid):

Use Vector|Analysis tools|Points in polygon, using the polygon grid and the point layer:

This gives you a new grid (here colour coded by the number of points in each polygon cell):

Now use Raster|Conversion|Rasterize to convert this to a raster, using the PNTCNT attribute for the raster values and the same cell size as chosend for the grid:

... giving a raster with values as per the points in each cell: