Bachelor

The Geoinformatics Research Group is involved in the design of the following bachelor modules:

Module Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Geographic information systems (GIS) are used to record, manage, analyse and present spatial data and have become an indispensable tool, particularly when tackling the interdisciplinary geospatial challenges frequently faced by the environmental sector such as natural hazard assessment, land use planning, environmental monitoring, wild animal management and biotope registers. This module provides students with the theoretical background and key skills needed to use these Systems. Module description

Module Natural Hazards and protected Forests

Switzerland frequently experiences extreme weather events. Organisational, construction or landscape-related measures are essential in areas where such hazards cannot be avoided, and long-term protection can be achieved through the appropriate maintenance of waterbodies and protected forests. In this module, students learn how to assess the interrelationships between potential hazards, potential damage and protective functions in the field and to identify suitable protection measures on this Basis. Module description

Module Applied Geoinformatics

In this module, students acquire in-depth knowledge and skills in applied geoinformatics through practice-oriented case studies. This includes the management of geodata in databases, the assessment of data quality, the automation of analysis processes, network analysis, and the publication of results with new web-based media. Module description

Module Remote Sensing

This module teaches the physical, theoretical and conceptual fundamentals of remote sensing as well as developing the essential skills of processing remote sensing data and evaluating products using this technology. Module description

Other Modules

The Geoinformatics Research Group is also involved in the following modules: Basics of Nature Management 3 and Open Space Management.

Master

Module Research Methods

The module provides in-depth methodological competences for practice-oriented and applied scientific work in the field of "Environment and Natural Resources" at MSc level. Initially, this includes general, interdisciplinary methodological competences such as e.g. theory of science, computer-based data processing or statistics. In addition, the module also allows for methodological specialization with regard to a natural science or a socio-economic approach to scientific problems and issues. The methods and skills learned in lectures, seminars and practical exercises are directly applied in interdisciplinary case studies. Module description

Module Patterns and Trends in Environmental Data

How can you conceptualize and then detect patterns and trends in environmental data? In this module students practise transferable data science skills using a typical applied ecology case study: the study of people's and animal's movement behaviours in natural and built environments. This module examines typical data analysis work-flow, starting with data capture, followed by pre-processing (cleaning, filtering, aggregating, reshaping data), analytical modeling, and finally visualisation of outcomes, using the R statistics and visualization environment. Module description

Module Remote Sensing for Ecology

Ecological systems are diverse and spatially heterogeneous areas. Key research topics in these landscape mosaics include the analyses, quantification and scaling of ecological flows, land use and land cover change, relating landscape pattern analysis with ecological processes, conservation and sustainability. In this context GIS analyses in concert with remote sensing using unmanned aerial or aquatic vehicles (UAVs), autonomously or remotely operated and equipped with various sensors such as NIR (Near infra-red), TIR (Thermal infrared) or ADP (Acoustic Doppler Profiler) offer new opportunities for scale appropriate measures of ecological phenomena at high spatio-temporal resolutions. Module description

Continuing Education

CAS

The Geoinformatics Research Group is responsible for a number of sub-modules within the CAS in Soil Mapping and the CAS in Vegetation Analysis and Field Botany, as well as contributing to CAS courses outside ZHAW at ETH Zurich and the University of Applied Sciences Rapperswil.