Course objectives

• Provide basis for the conception, functioning and potential applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for the management of environmental resources and forests.
• Bring practical experience of a GIS software for the conception, design and use of a spatial database for natural resources management.
• Develop skills for the assessment and expression of needs in GIS, and provide knowledge on what is possible to do with such a tool in a professional environment.

Course contents

• Lectures
  • Introduction to GIS: concepts and functions; basic data models
  • Geographic databases and geo-referencing, projections systems
  • Relational databases: entity relation-model; conceptual, logic and operational models; SQL language
  • Links between GIS and relational databases
  • Data capturing and organization
  • Vector analysis
  • Map design.
• Practical work:
  • GIS implementation (QGIS software) from data related to natural ecosystems management.

Teaching and learning methods

The course consists of lectures and practical work (total: 24h).

Course evaluation

Individual exam.

Target skills

By the end of the unit, students should be able to

• explain the principles of GIS for applications in rural resource management
• use a database management system to design and implement a database for forest resource management
• use GIS software to complete a number of rural resource exercises, design a GIS model, enter data and complete a number of queries relevant to forest resources management.

This course does not provide skills of remote sensing.