Geospatial Data and GIS in Urban Resilience Management and Planning

Urban areas face growing challenges from climate change, water management, infrastructure development and disasters, and good planning decisions need evidence from spatial data and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This basic, hands-on course builds the foundational skills to find, manage, analyse and map geospatial data with free and open-source tools. Participants first explore open data sources on the web (OpenStreetMap, Google Earth and USGS Earth Explorer), then install QGIS, learn its interface and plugins, add and understand vector and raster data, create and edit their own layers, and finish by producing professional maps and sharing interactive maps online with MapHub. It is designed for technical experts in government and ProWAS-SASA partner institutions, such as urban and town planners, surveyors, water resource managers, environmental officers, infrastructure and disaster risk management specialists and GIS coordinators, and is delivered over four days of lectures, live demonstrations and step-by-step practicals.