Am 28.11.25 um 14:37 schrieb Herrmann, Frank via QGIS-User:
Before making internal decisions, we would like to learn from the experience of the QGIS community, especially from people who have used QGIS in archaeological or heritage-related projects.
I don't use QGIS for Archaeology per se, but for forest management plans. Since forest soil is usually undisturbed for centuries, the forests are full of historic and archaeologic sites ("Bodendenkmäler").
It is vital in forest management that these sites stay undisturbed. So in preparation of a management plan I use officially/openly available data of the Bodendenkmäler and I also check the DGM if there are any abnormalities or distinctive features visible. I mark everything on a map that I'll load into QField and check the sites when I'm on location.
I would be very grateful for any insights on the following questions: Do you use QGIS only as a GIS client, or have you also used it for documentation/database-like workflows in archaeology or cultural heritage?
I use it in documentation/database-like workflow for forest management. If I have the data available, I will load past management plans to track the changes to the new management plan. I mostly use Spatialite and occasionally PostGIS. Both have the benefit of being able to use a variety of tools to extract data from and write data into the database. For the management plans I have a couple of R-scripts with a collection of functions in combination with SQL-script templates.
In the past I've also used LibreOffice Base to manage the data and bring it into reports.
Are there known limitations when using QGIS for long-term excavation documentation, metadata management or multi-user environments?
I strongly recommend to do any documentation, metadata and multi-user management in a database. There are no specific limitations when using QGIS, the limitations are more on the database side.
Do you have recommendations for combining QGIS with external databases (e.g., PostgreSQL/PostGIS, SQLite/Geopackage)?
Geopackage works great a data exchange format and as a singe-user database. Although for the latter, I prefer Spatialite, as it has more functions in the database. For multi-user, (incremental) backups, version control there is no way around PostGIS.
Generally, I strongly recommend to use a Free Software/Open Source solution. For your specific use case you will easily pay the same if not more for a proprietary CAD/GIS solution, but then no-one else can benefit from your specific developments and licensing internally in your org is a hassle. One forest administration that I know is set on ESRI products since decades, but the licensing and distribution restrictions now lead to a lot of workers using QGIS for their tasks. So now they have two GIS infrastructures, one official and expensive, on informal with no proper documentation or backup strategy. It's the same as the uncontrolled distribution of macro-ladden Excel-sheets in large organizations.
If you don't have the expertise in-house, you should hire a consultation agency to help you set up a database schema and an initial workflow. QGIS specific and already in the market with a lot of solutions for the public sector, norbit GmbH comes to my mind. They are also contributors to QGIS: https://www.norbit.de/
Best regards -- Tobias A Schula Forestry Expert [email protected]
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