---
id: ch5-external
type: spine
title: "Desktop, field and data: what plugs into the platform"
readingTime: 2
standalone: true
core: false
teaser: "PoliRural+ connects to QGIS, QField, sister-project components and European data instead of rebuilding them."
voice: thinker
parent: null
diagram: fig-external-services
recallQ: "Which external tools and data sources does the PoliRural+ platform plug into rather than rebuild?"
recallA: "Desktop QGIS (through the Layman plugin) and mobile QField for GIS work, components from Data4Food2030, THEROS and ALIANCE, and the European data sources named in objective O5, such as INSPIRE, Copernicus, Eurostat and EOSC."
highlights:
  - "Design principle: integration over base development, and reuse of existing data"
  - "The QGIS Layman plugin publishes and syncs layers to Hub4Everybody; QField collects data offline"
  - "Inherited components: an E-Market for Local Food, Sentinel-2 cloud-gap filling, local weather forecasts"
status: accepted
concept: tool-ecosystem
lang: en
lens: generic
depth: standard
formalism: none
visuality: balanced
lengthBand: standard
genre: explainer
state: edited
carriers: prose|diagram
---

The platform does not try to replace established GIS software or data sources. Two of D4.1's design principles are **integration over base development** and **making use of existing data**, such as INSPIRE-compliant geospatial data, PSI Directive resources and Earth observation repositories (D4.1 §3.4).

## Desktop and field tools

- **QGIS** handles detailed editing and spatial analysis. The **QGIS Layman plugin** publishes vector and raster layers to the Layman server in Hub4Everybody, keeps them in sync, and manages access rights and metadata (D1.1 §3.3).
- **QField** takes QGIS projects to Android devices for field data collection. It works offline and syncs with Hub4Everybody once a connection is back (D1.1 §3.3).

## Components from sister projects

D4.1 lists components brought in from Data4Food2030, THEROS and ALIANCE (§2.1.1):
- an **E-Market for Local Food** built on PrestaShop, for direct sales of regional food, with IoT monitoring of transport conditions and blockchain traceability;
- **cloud-cover detection and "mosaicking"** for Sentinel-2 imagery, a validated method for estimating missing data for vegetation analysis and yield prediction;
- **localised weather forecasts** that combine Sentinel-2, GFS, HadISD and ERA5-Land.

## Data named in the objectives

Objective O5 commits the project to using European Research Infrastructures, EOSC, EU Data Spaces, INSPIRE, Copernicus, DIAS, Eurostat, FAO and other data sources (Grant Agreement). [Copernicus data](#c/copernicus-data) explains how satellite layers become local evidence. Partner projects add in-situ sensor data through SensLog and climate products from FOCAL; see the [research pillars](#c/research-pillars) (D4.2 §9.1–9.2).

**Sources:**
- D4.1 PoliRuralPlus platform design, §2.1.1 Key Components and Their Current State; §3.4 Platform Design Principles. [PDF](https://www.poliruralplus.eu/docs/162/D4.1_PoliRuralPlus_platform_design_v1.pdf)
- D1.1 Project Web Pages Update, §3.3 External tools. [PDF](https://www.poliruralplus.eu/docs/139/Attachment_0_53.pdf)
- D4.2 PoliRuralPlus Platform Beta, §9.1 FOCAL; §9.2 BioClima. [PDF](https://www.poliruralplus.eu/docs/421/D4.2_PoliRuralPlus_Platform_Beta.pdf)
- PoliRural+ public fact sheet (Grant Agreement facts), objective O5. [poliruralplus.eu](https://www.poliruralplus.eu/)