Learning objectives and lecture structure
Author of the course unit
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralf Bill coordinates the project OpenGeoEdu.
He has been Professor of Geodesy and Geoinformatics at the University of Rostock since 1994. His textbook "Grundlagen der Geo-Informationssysteme", published in 2016 in its 6th edition, is considered the standard in GIS education in German-speaking countries.
For years, Prof. Bill has been working with open geodata and increasingly incorporates it into his teaching in order to generate individualized tasks for students and thus promote their creativity.
Learning objectives
The goal of the course unit is to get to know the essential terms, the workflow and functionalities as well as applications of geo(graphical) information systems (GIS). This beginners or refresher course serves in particular to facilitate the work in the case studies. After working on this lecture script in self-study, you should be able to master the essential basic ideas of GIS. The textbook "Grundlagen der Geo-Informationssysteme" or other english textbooks are recommended for consolidation.
Lecture
The lecture consists of an introduction to embedding geoinformatics in the scientific environment. Afterwards important terms are explained. The processing chain IMAP (input/acquisition, management/modeling, analysis and presentation/visualisation) is dealt with in an overview and in a few places deepened with reference to the later work with open geodata also. The application potentials and the GIS product spectrum are also briefly touched upon.
Exercises
In the exercises you will learn how to start working with geo-information systems and acquire skills in selected processing steps of a GIS, which will be beneficial for the later case studies. As a result of each example, thematic reviews are produced in the form of maps, diagrams, evaluations, which are compiled in a written document according to the rules of science.
