5. Create Graphs with the Data Plotly Plugin

The time series in our CSV file can be used to create graphs with spreadsheets or other software. In QGIS we can create graphs with the Data Plotly plugin.

1. Install the Data Plotly plugin from the Plugins Manager.

2. Click in the toolbar to open the Data Plotly panel.

Let's visualize precipitation as a bar plot.

3. Change Plot type to Bar Plot.

4. Change the Layer to PandT.

5. Choose time as X field and Total precipitation [kg/m^2] as Y field.

Don't bother about the Legend title, we'll not show a legend for the graph. Keep the blue colors for Bar and Stroke.


6. Go to the tab and uncheck the box for Show legend.

7. Type Precipitation as Plot title.

8. Change X label to Time and Y label to Precipitation [mm].

9. Click Create Plot.

10. Adjust the panel to the proportion of the plot that you would like to see. Click to export the plot to a PNG file.


  • How can we improve the bar plot?
Now let's create a plot for the air temperature at the IHE Delft location.

11. Go back to the tab.

12. Change the Plot type to Scatter Plot.

13. Change the Y field to Temperature [C].

14. Change the Marker and Stroke color to red, change the Marker type to Points and Lines. Keep the rest as default.



15. Go to the tab and change the Plot title to Temperature.
16. For the Y label we want to use the degrees symbol. Click the Data defined override button and choose Edit.... from the drop-down menu.
17. In the Expression String Builder create the following expression:
'Temperature' || ' (' || char(0176) || 'C)'

18. Click OK.



19. Click Clean Plot Canvas to remove the precipitation plot.

20. Click Create Plot.



21. Click to export the plot to a PNG file.

  • How can we improve this plot?