QGIS plugin for mineral prospectivity mapping
Getting started · Usage · Roadmap · Contributing · License
EIS (Exploration Information System) QGIS Plugin is a tool with graphical user interface for prospectivity mapping of critical raw materials.
EIS QGIS Plugin is a product of the EIS Horizon EU project, which seeks to implement a modern and comprehensive collection of digital mineral exploration tools. EIS QGIS Plugin consists of two main components:
- EIS Wizard, a comprehensive GUI plugin with guided processes and workflows for mineral prospectivity mapping
- EIS Processing Algorithms, the individual tools and algorithms available in QGIS Processing Toolbox
Important
EIS QGIS Plugin is still in active development! See roadmap for more details.
To use all features of EIS QGIS Plugin, you need to install both EIS QGIS Plugin and EIS Toolkit, the EIS computational backend. EIS Toolkit is separate from EIS QGIS Plugin to enable using large and complicated environment with machine learning and other heavy libraries. Currently, EIS Toolkit needs to be installed separately, but at a later stage EIS QGIS Plugin will incorporate EIS Toolkit installer.
- QGIS 3.X
- In QGIS, open the Plugins menu and select Manage and Install Plugins.
- In Settings tab, tick Show also Experimental Plugins active
- Select All tab and type "EIS QGIS" in the search bar to find EIS QGIS Plugin and press Install Experimental Plugin.
If you get a success message from the installer, you have now succesfully installed EIS QGIS Plugin!
Next, you need to define for EIS QGIS Plugin where you have installed EIS Toolkit. If you haven't installed EIS Toolkit yet, do that next. Installation instructions can be found in EIS Toolkit GitHub.
After you have EIS Toolkit installed in a Python virtual environment, you need to specify the installation environment to EIS QGIS Plugin. To do that, open EIS Wizard by clicking the EIS icon in the Plugins Toolbar.
In EIS Wizard, choose Settings page in the the menu. You can specify either a Python virtual environment with EIS Toolkit installation or a Docker image with EIS Toolkit. After you have set the required fields, you can click Verify to check if your configuration is OK.
Warning
Docker setup is still actively being developed and tested!
To launch EIS Wizard, simply click the EIS icon in the Plugins Toolbar.
EIS Wizard is divided into different parts each with their own functionality.
- Mineral system proxies: This page let's the user to choose their mineral system and study scale (custom option possible). A list of mineral deposit proxies is presented based on the selections and the user can process their raw data to produce a set of the proxies. The produced proxy data can be used for modeling later.
- EDA (Explorative Data Analysis): In EDA page, the user can produce basic exploratory plots, calculate statistics and use various exploratory methods.
- Modeling: The Modeling page facilitates model specific data preparation and running models. For machine learning models, training, application and testing are available separately.
- Settings: In Settings page, users can customize the behaviour of EIS Wizard and define the environment with EIS Toolkit installation.
- About: The About page has information about EIS QGIS Plugin and EIS project.
Note
A more detailed user guide will be created later.
EIS Processing Algorithms allow using all EIS tools separately and freely. They can be used in combination with EIS Wizard to increase flexibility, or exclusively for those that don't want the guidance of EIS Wizard. If you don't have Processing Toolbox open in QGIS, it can opened by clicking Processing and selecting Toolbox (or with CTRL+ALT+T shortcut). To find EIS Processing Algorithms in Processing Toolbox, you can look for the EIS entry in the list or use the search bar.
EIS Processing Algorithms can be launched by double-clicking an algorithm. In the opened window, parameters can be set and description of the algorithm read. QGIS Processing algorithms are fairly intuitive to use, but in case you are new to them, you can refer to various online guides.
Tip
EIS Processing Algorithms, like all algorithms in QGIS Processing Toolbox, can be used to create and save custom workflows in QGIS Model Designer.
- Milestone 1: Beta release 1 (May 2024). At this stage, the plugin should have the basic funtionalities required for a full MPM workflow implemented. Official testing phase begins. The plugin will be still under active development.
- Milestone 2: Beta release 2 (October 2024). All features should be incorporated at this time and the plugin useful for actual MPM work. Testing will continue and potential bugs will be fixed and the user experience refined.
- Milestone 3: Final release (April 2025). The plugin is considered complete and fully functional, and the EIS project ends. After this, the plugin will be maintained and bugs fixed, but majority of further work will lie on the shoulders of the open source community.
EIS QGIS Plugin (and EIS Toolkit) are still in activate development by the core team, but feel free join and contribute in any way you like!
- Ideas for new features are welcome, even if we already have a vision of the final version and its scope
- Initial testing and bug hunting are helpful
- If you wish to contribute by developing the plugin, read the CONTRIBUTING.MD for instructions
Licensed under GPL 2 or later.