2.7 Overview of the process
In the previous lesson, you have been familiarized with the case study that the rest of the course will be built upon. To bring our map to life, we are going to go through the following process:
- We will build our form in KoboToolbox - a popular data collection platform. KoboToolbox lets you build forms that work offline in mobile devices. We need the form to work in mobile devices because we must collect accurate GPS data - which we can achieve by using smartphones or tablets. KoboToolbox supports many question types that include GPS points, GPS lines and polygons.
- We will then deploy this form onto mobile devices that can be used to collect data in the field while offline
- Our enumerators will use the forms to collect data from water points
- At an agreed interval, the enumerators will be uploading the data to the KoboToolbox server where we can access it as one database
- We will download the aggregated data and load it into QGIS. QGIS is a popular free and open-source GIS software that lets us organize, and visualize spatial data
- We will use the data to build thematic maps complete with labels and symbols
- We will then package our map and export it for printing or including in our reports