QScout: A QGIS plugin tool suite for georeferencing and analysis of field‐scouted and remote sensing data

Abstract

Abstract Field scouting is an important part of many research methodologies in plant pathology and plant phenomics. However, linking scouting data to field imagery is often hampered by the time‐consuming task of georeferencing with a GIS. Here, we present the QScout tool suite for integrating remote sensing imagery and raster data with field‐scouting data in QGIS, an open‐source GIS program. The central features of QScout are the Drop Pins and Locate Pins plugins, allowing the user to easily link scouted data to remote sensing imagery. QScout also includes the Value Grabber and Grid Aggregator plugins, which transfer raster data into pins and aggregate the data from the pins into a grid, respectively. The final tools, Drop, Grab, and Aggregate and Locate, Grab, and Aggregate, are plugins that combine subsets of the four core plugins. The interface allows GIS users to effectively make use of field‐scouted observations with remote imagery and can improve data organization, analysis, and identification of locations of interest for further scouting or targeted management. QScout is publicly available as a GitHub repository: (https://github.com/GoldLabGrapeSPEC/QScout).