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Back to Geographical Information Systems - Part 1

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Geographical Information Systems - Part 1 by École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

3.5
stars
94 ratings

About the Course

This course is organized into two parts presenting the theoretical and practical foundations of geographic information systems (GIS). - Together theses courses constitute an introduction to GIS and require no prior knowledge. - By following this introduction to GIS you will quickly acquire the basic knowledge required to create spatial databases and produce high-quality maps and cartographic representations. - This is a practical course and is based on free, open-source software, including QGIS. If you study or work in the fields of land management or the analysis of geographically distributed objects such as land use planning, biology, public health, ecology, or energy, then this course is for you! In this first part of the course, we will focus on the digitization and the storage of geodata. In particular, you will learn: - To characterize spatial objects and/or phenomena (territory modeling) with respect to their position in space (through coordinate systems, projections, and spatial relationships) and according to their intrinsic nature (object/vector mode vs. Image/raster mode); - About the different means used to acquire spatial data; including direct measurement, georeferencing images, digitization, existing data source, etc.); - About the different ways in which geodata can be stored - notably, files and relational databases; - How to use data modeling tools to describe and create a spatial database; - To query and analyze data using SQL, a common data manipulation language. The second part of this course will focus on methods of spatial analysis and geodata representation. In this section, you will learn: - How to describe and quantify the spatial properties of discrete variables, for example through spatial autocorrelation; - To work with continuous variables. In particular, we will look at sampling strategies, how to construct contour lines and isovalue curves, and we will explore different interpolation methods; - To use digital elevation models and create their derivative products (i.e. slope, orientation); - How to evaluate the interaction between different types of geodata through overlay and interaction techniques; - How to create effective maps based around the rules of graphic semiology; - Finally, we will also explore other, increasingly common, forms of spatial representation such as interactive web-mapping and 3D representations. You can find an interactive forum for course participants on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/moocsig...

Top reviews

SA

Aug 5, 2020

this course helps me a lot in putting things I knew in the unprofessional or crude way into a more organized professional manner. if you are looking to learn the basis of GIS this is what you need

SS

Jun 27, 2020

it will help me for my career development thanks coursera

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26 - 29 of 29 Reviews for Geographical Information Systems - Part 1

By Barbara T

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Oct 17, 2021

I have learned a lot about how to use QGIS, not just to load, create, and edit maps, but also to query spatial and topological data, and to become a little more knowledgeable about some areas of computer technology as needed for working with QGIS and PostGres. It took me twice as long as the recommended 6 weeks, but it was worth all the effort and the research that was necessary for me to keep up with and follow the material in this course.

By William G D

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Jun 16, 2020

The content of the course is really good, I appreciate the effort of the teachers, however, the platform that marks the tests needs to be improved. Generally speaking, I have learned a lot with this course, albeit without a basic understanding of GIS.

By Anjali V R

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Apr 23, 2022

Very informative course on open source software like GIS and SQL. It was difficult to understand at first due to the language and translation in the slides but got a hang of it slowly.

By Freddy N R P

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Feb 6, 2025

Se deben actualizar los contenidos y evaluaciones, adicionalmente la traducción del material no es muy buena y también es confusa, lo que dificulta los temas