You can load the Safecast Map as a layer in QGIS

[Jan Helebrant]

Dear colleagues,

thanks to a user community I am able to provide you a possibility to load Safecast Tile Map layer in QGIS. I was told this is a thing you can find out from the documentation so there should be no legal issues with using the map layer outside the Safecast web app - I hope...

The only thing you need is to download the *.QLR file to your PC and then drag and drop it to QGIS map window - the layer should load without need to set anything. There seem to be some error messages with the Safecast layer from time to time but I cannot say whether there is an issue with the QLR settings or this is Safecast related error...

enjoy

regards

Jan

[Rob Oudendijk]

Jan,

Great find. Very useful.

The only issue is that the map data you pull is old. 2023-08-04 is the last retiled data.

We are still working on getting the replacement going. Test are on GitHub at https://github.com/Safecast/Tilemap/tree/Local-version-rob

Here is a screenshot:

Warm Regards,

Rob Oudendijk

[Jan Helebrant]

Thanks,
I'll look forward to the new map. Then I'd update the file for loading into QGIS. I also found out that you can add a legend - I got a color scale image from Safecast GitHub (three color scales in one image) and cropped it to just one. The resulting PNG could be linked to QGIS. Works locally but would probably also load from somewhere on the web - I'll try loading from my GitHub...

Best regards

Jan

Dne středa 13. srpna 2025 v 3:08:42 UTC+2 uživatel oudend...@gmail.com napsal:

[Jan Helebrant]

Hi all, 

I just posted the qlr here

https://github.com/juhele/opengeodata/tree/master/GIS_supporting_layers/GIS_layers_5_Radiation_citizen_measurements

along with other citizen measurement data sources. It also loads a legend in QGIS - a PNG file from the Github.

enjoy

Jan

PS: if you are interested in visiting potentially "more radioactive" places, then you might be intersted in this dataset (PS: I cannot guarantee all the places are legally accessible)

https://github.com/juhele/opengeodata/tree/master/Open_geodataset_of_uranium_mines_and_deposits

Dne čtvrtek 21. srpna 2025 v 15:55:13 UTC+2 uživatel Jan Helebrant napsal:

[Rob Oudendijk]

Jan,

Thanks for all the work. 

Looks great!!

Regards

Rob Oudendijk

[Rob Oudendijk]

All,

The new map (with MCP server at https://simplemap.safecast.org/mcp-http and http-streaming protocol)  is getting better and better https://simplemap.safecast.org/

Warm Regards,

Rob Oudendijk

[Rob Oudendijk]

One more screenshot: 

[BRS_Maulwurf]

Uhhhh loooks awesome 

[Jan Helebrant]

Hi,

looks great but I am afraid you can easily overload it with the number of the points to display - and many points are probably overlapping and the certain zoom level so these are "useless" in that particular map view...

But I am really glad to see some progress.

BTW, is there any place managing the translations? This looks a bit strange to me, I would like to compare it with the English original and possibly correct it:

regards

Jan

Dne sobota 14. března 2026 v 17:04:37 UTC+1 uživatel pfinn...@outlook.com napsal:

[Rob Oudendijk]

Jan,

Thank you so much for mentioning the issue. In my mind I had the idea to do those things later, but I noticed too many irregularities with the setup and decided to tackle the translations. After an about one hour or so  got most languages converted. Not only the main text, but also an admin UI for customizing the languages. Some vide-coding and with Claude Opus made things much faster and easier.

Please refresh the pages and check. Please give me feedback.

Warm regards,

Rob Oudendijk

[Jan Helebrant]

Hi,

I am going to check the translations soon and will let you know. I am glad the map (https://simplemap.safecast.org/) works. I would suggest to change the legend and point info primarily to microSv/h units which you have been using all the time and which is also consistent with display of bGeigie Nanos and CzechRads and also with all the nice infographics produced by MEXT.

Another reason why we stick with this unit for dose rate levels when communicating with the public is that low values ​​(less than 0.3) correspond to the normal natural background (i.e. in Czechia, I know that in Japan it is much lower). And the "dangerous" values are really high numbers. The infographic below was originally created by the State Office for Nuclear Safety and used in one of their presentations, we have slightly modified it (the original scale used nano, micro and milliSieverts per hour, which the public often finds confusing). I also made the graphic more appealing and added the information for residential limit (in Czechia).

regards

Jan

Dne neděle 15. března 2026 v 12:36:53 UTC+1 uživatel oudend...@gmail.com napsal:

[Rob Oudendijk]

Jan,

Thank you for the reply. Looking forward to seeing your report on the translation. 

For the legend we followed suggestions of Azby Brown. Leaving out the green.

Hugs and peace,

Rob Oudendijk

[Jan Helebrant]

OK,

first I have a suggestion related to the UI - is it possible to make the panels and legend less transparent? I have problems to read the descriptions and the legend. In addition, the legend is probably in mR/h (did really Azby recommend to switch to this unit from microSv/h? - it is not even an SI unit...) but in legend I see something "R/H":

   

Second part is related to Czech translation:

1) the page title now says "Safecast Nová Mapa - Radiologická mapa planety Země" (English: "Safecast New Map - Radiological Map of Planet Earth") - while not incorrect at all I would recommend to rather stick with term "radioactivity" because the public may possibly have the term "radiological" connected to hospitals and man-made radionuclides while significant part of the Safecast dataset might include only "natural radioactivity" so I would IMHO suggest:

English: "Safecast New Map – Global map of radioactivity"

Czech: „Nová mapa Safecast – Globální mapa radioaktivity“

2) the settings:

I would simplify it a bit:

- Letadlo: 200+ km/h pro letecká měření

- Auto: 7-200 km/h pro měření za jízdy

- Pěší: pod 7 km/h pro chůzi nebo měření na místě

- Gammaspektrometrická měření

regards

Jan

PS: I'll let you know if I come across anything else.

Dne čtvrtek 19. března 2026 v 13:22:11 UTC+1 uživatel oudend...@gmail.com napsal: