Sound natural resource management requires adequate geoinformation describing the spatial and temporal dimensions of ecosystems. This involves - in most cases - large datasets from multiple sources and stakeholders from different disciplines and institutions. The collection of these data and the definition of ad-hoc automatic data processing chains are nowadays necessary to support planning or management activities of a forest, agricultural or ecological systems.
During this course, the student will learn the basic concepts for the conceptual design and development of a prototype data processing chain based on Earth Observation (EO) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to support planning and decision-making in Natural Resource Management (NRM) situations. Upon completion, students will acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for the collection, preparation, processing and interpretation of spatial information provided by EO and GIS data to address a specific NRM problem.
At the end of the course, the student should be able to execute simple scripts, make minor modifications and search online for existing scripts to design a basic processing chain. The developed prototype must be presented, explained and justified in the final report.