Geographical information systems 15 credits

About the course

The course provides advanced knowledge of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing, primarily with applications within environmental science, including ecology and geoscience.
The course focuses on theoretical knowledge within GIS and remote sensing, in addition to practical applications of various GIS programs in order to process and analyse various types of spatial data including raster and vector data and to create maps. The course assumes that the student has a basic understanding of the following aspects within GIS and remote sensing: projections and coordinate systems, basic processing of vector and raster data including creation of files, selections from attribute tables, editing of vector data and attribute tables, digitizing new vector files raster math and georeferencing. The course focuses on processing and various types of analyses of GIS and remote sensing data, including digital elevation models, satellite imagery, interpolations, spatial modelling, etc.
Data will be obtained and handled during the course from various digital databases, maps, orthophotos, and GPS points. Various types of digital data are included as course material, including from the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), the Swedish Land Survey (LM), the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences (SLU), and the European Space Agency Copernicus Earth Observation program.

The course is divided into two modules of 10 ECTS and 5 ECTS.
Module 1:
Theoretical elements: focus on understanding the theory behind GIS analyses and how they are used in scientific studies, through lectures and seminars.
Practical exercises focus on learning to conduct advanced spatial analyses in various GIS software.
Module 2:
Project: Includes a project where the students obtain their own spatial data to answer their own research question.