Objectives and Contextualisation

After a first course in Geographic Information Systems (GIS or SIG), in which solid knowledge based on the conceptual and methodological foundations of the discipline and an important practical skill have been achieved, this course constitutes an applied approach in the context of the management, analysis, representation, etc., of the geographic information from the environment of a GIS applied to the modeling and simulation of urban systems. The course, however, also aims to expand knowledge in its own field, so the objectives are both of a theoretical nature, as corresponds to a second level in which we must consolidate, deepen or expand knowledge, as well as of practical nature, in this case no longer in the form of the small examples of a first course, but as application cases derived from the needs in research, geographic information, interpretation of data and analysis and modeling of urban networks, in some cases, with application to real systems.

The course does not intend to train in a specific software, but to understand the logic of geographic information systems and modeling, the basic operations and the common and more specific applied tools of some software. The student will have to learn the necessary concepts, understand what strategies it is convenient to plan and decide which operations to apply in each case to obtain the desired results.

The very maturity of the use case will allow the students to find what functionalities they need from the software in each situation and choose or adapt to the possibilities that they will find at each moment and place of the future development of their activity.

One of the objectives of the course will also be to know own dynamics and practical cases of modeling of urban systems and networks (such as road networks, public transport networks, urban freight transport distribution or minimum transport routes) and to know cases applied to elements of inventory and control of assets with GIS tools.

Among the objectives set out in the course are:

• Expand knowledge on formats and data sources useful for the realization of geographical studies of all kinds; Attention will be paid to both de facto and de jure standards. The theoretical discourse will be dressed with a series of examples both from the most conceptual point of view (punctual data of irregular geographical distribution, zonal data, etc., in different formats and origins, with special attention to those provided through Internet) and thematic (demographic data, public transport, inventory of assets, etc). In this context, knowledge about the meaning, interest and use of metadata standards, on spatial data infrastructures and remote sensing will be expanded, briefly introducing some new data exchange and input formats, paying special attention to the advantages and inconveniences that these can generate for end users.

• Identify and use different sources of information data, as well as its operating principles, access policies and standards.

• Reinforce the practice of digitization and topological vector structuring as one of the basic sources of data incorporation into a GIS. This objective will be achieved in many applied cases and will be completed with the reworking of materials in classical operations such as the grouping of polygons by thematic criteria, etc.

• Know some applications and methods of generation of the most common types of digital models and their practical application in dynamics and urban environments.

• Reinforce the knowledge of the GIS analysis tools in the context of the real applications raised in the course, analyzing and presenting some use cases on the modeling of urban and territorial dynamics such as public transport networks, control of assets on public roads, etc.

• Know how to integrate previous knowledge so that the student is able to take geographic information and, autonomously, integrate it into a GIS to analyze it. The compilation of regional information onvarious aspects, human and physical, and its correct structuring and documentation prior to the application of modeling or simulations is a summary objective of the course.

• Learn to present their own works and small projects related to the search of data and result publication, evaluate critically their own work, taking care of the style and presentation formats.