Seeking tool to work out overlap between two polygon layers and their statistics using QGIS

Question

I have two polygons in QGIS. One is a land-use map, which polygons that include different types (forest, agriculture, urban etc). I also have a vector polygon that represents a flood extent. I want to work out the amount of flooded land-use types, so that I get:

Forest - 5,000m2
Agriculture - 15,000m2
Urban - 10,000m2 

(for example)

What is the correct tool to do this analysis?

Answer 1

The quickest way to answer your question (imho) : a good SQL query using QGIS DB Manager.

You choose Database / Database Manager / Database Manager then Virtual Layers / Qgis Layers and you can then try the following query (you open the SQL window by clicking on the 'wrench' icon) :

SELECT LU.type, sum(st_area(st_intersection(LU.geometry,FLO.geometry)) FROM LU, FLO
where st_intersects(LU.geometry,FLO.geometry)
GROUP BY LU.type

I called LU the land use table and FLO the flood table.

You get the cumulated areas of land types in your flooded zone. Once executed u can retrieve the result in your QGIS session :

Check the CheckBox "Load as new layer", fill in the fields expected by QGIS and then click on "Load Now !" - The result of your query will appear in the layer manager.

Answer 2

There are various ways that this could be tackled, quite a simple way would be to use the

Vector - Geoprocessing tools - Clip

to create a new layer with just the areas of land-use that are within the flood area. Layers need to be in the same CRS.

You could then use

Vector - Geoprocessing - Dissolve

to dissolve each land-use types into single polygons and then use the Field Calculator to recalculate the area of each land-use type polygon

Use area$ in the field calculator to return an area value. You may need to divide the function by an amount to convert it into a unit that is most useful. This will depend on the CRS. For hectares for example in a metric CRS this would be $area/10000.