Objectives and Contextualisation

After a first course in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), where solid knowledge based on the conceptual and methodological foundations of the discipline has been achieved and in an important practical skill, this subject constitutes an applied approach in the context of the handling, analysis, representation, etc., of geographic information in a GIS. The subject, however, also aims to broaden the knowledge in the field that is its own, so that the objectives are both theoretical nature, and correspond to a second level in which to consolidate, deepen or expand knowledge, such as of a practical nature, in this case no longer in the form of the small examples of a first course, but as use cases derived from the needs in planning and territorial management, research in geographic information, etc, from physical, regional, and human geographic perspectives.

In the course, it is not intended to train in a specific software. The message is that in the case of a case of use, the student must know (or learn if necessary) the necessary concepts, understand what strategies it is appropriate to apply and know what tools are within their reach. With this in mind, the maturity of the case of use will allow you to find out what features you need in each situation and choose or adapt to the possibilities that you will find at each moment and place of the future development of your activity.

Among the objectives set out in the course are:

• Know how to georeference analog cartographic documents for their incorporation into a GIS and know what are the acceptable quality criteria in this process. This objective will be achieved in several applied cases (different cartographic projections, scales, etc.).
• Expand the knowledge about formats and sources of data of utility for the accomplishment of geographic studies of all type; attention will be paid both to de facto and de jure standards. The theoretical discourse will be dressed with a series of examples from the most conceptual pointof view (punctual data of irregular geographic distribution, zonal data, etc. in different formats and origins, with special attention to those provided through the Internet) as thematic (demographic, meteorological, etc.). In this context, the knowledge about the meaning, interest and use of metadata standards, on spatial data infrastructures and on remote sensing will be broadened.
• Reinforce the practice of digitization and vector topology building as one of the basic sources of data incorporation into a GIS. This objective will be achieved in many cases applied (different cartographic projections, scales, etc.) and will be completed with the re-elaboration of the materials in classical operations such as the grouping of polygons by thematic criteria, etc.
• Know the main applications and methods of generation of the most common types of digital terrain models.
• Expand and reinforce the knowledge of basic GIS operations such as mosaic, clipping, changes in spatial resolution and cartographic projection or reference system (ED50 to ETRS89, for example), raster / vector conversions, etc.
• Expand and reinforce the knowledge of GIS analysis tools in the context of the real applications proposed in this course, such as territorial dynamics with remote sensing, both for urban growth and for forest fires, etc.
• Know how to integrate the previous knowledge so that the student is able to take geographic information and, independently, integrate it into a GIS to analyze it. The compilation of regional information on various aspects, human and physical, and its correct structuring and documentation is a summary objective of the course.