Geomatics and GIS
Curriculum: HYRIS
Term: 1st year, 2nd Semester
CFU: 6
SSD: GEOS-03/A
Duration and Schedule: available here
Office hours: Thursday/Friday 10-13 AM
OBJECTIVES
Natural events such as earthquakes and hurricanes can be hazardous to man. The disasters that natural hazards can cause are largely the result of actions by man that increase vulnerability, or lack of action to anticipate and mitigate the potential damage of these events. Planners are familiar with the bewildering array of disparate pieces of information that have to be analyzed and evaluated in the planning process. The process is complicated, however, by entirely new data sets on assessment of various natural hazards, separately and in combination, and by the need to analyze these hazards with respect to existing and planned development, choose among means of mitigating the damage the hazards can cause, carry out an economic analysis of the alternatives of mitigation versus no mitigation, and determine the impact of these alternatives on the economic and financial feasibility of the project.
Along with these added complications come techniques for managing the information so that it does not overwhelm the planner. Among these are geographic information systems (GIS), a systematic means of geographically referencing a number of “layers” of information to facilitate the overlaying, quantification, and synthesis of data in order to orient decisions.
DESCRIPTION
Modern GIS technology and datastreams provide the synoptic, time-sequential views of the Earth that these research activities require. We propose here to offer a comprehensive course of instruction through which both science students as well as students in related disciplines may benefit from the intellectual activity and technological resources currently available. The basis of this program would be a course in GIS theory and application. We envision a highly interactive environment in which students will be taught the technical basis for Geographic Information Systems GIS and then be introduced to a wide range of applications building conceptual modelling methodologies. Although GIS is most closely allied with the Natural Hazard studies, it is essential to any discipline that relies on an understanding of natural phenomena on different spatial scales. For this reason, the approach would be to provide a firm background in the scientific principles of GIS but also to consider the more far-reaching applications related to social and economic issues which may benefit from a more global perspective. An important aspect of this course would be a strong interconnection among classroom instruction, informal discussion and “conceptual” experience with GIS.
The current availability of a multitude of synoptic and time-sequential datasets from sources like COPERNICUS makes this type of learning opportunity a reality that was unthinkable a few years ago.
REQUIREMENTS
The course starts from very basic concepts, but are required some formal introduction to the field of computing, both to provide a firm background in the fundamental principles as well as to provide motivation for the applications that are to follow. Students should also have some background in physics to understand the phenomena involved (GIS is using spatial data as the Remote sensing one) and some background in mathematics (like Boolean algebra) to understand the operations in data processing and their meaning. Further, the student should have a strong desire to learn and understand how risk assessment methods can be built on top of new and emerging technologies, such as the Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
REFERENCES
Fischer, Manfred M., and Arthur Getis, eds. Handbook of applied spatial analysis: software tools, methods and applications. Springer Science & Business Media, 2009.
De Smith, Michael John, Michael F. Goodchild, and Paul Longley. Geospatial analysis: a comprehensive guide to principles, techniques and software tools. Troubador Publishing Ltd, 2007.
Graeme F. Bonham – Carter “ Geographic Information Systems for Geoscientists. Modelling with GIS”; Pergamon, 1998.
Sistemi informativi territoriali. Principi e applicazioni, 2020 di Federica Migliaccio (Autore), Daniela Carrion (Autore) – https://www.goodbook.it/scheda-libro/federica-migliaccio-daniela-carrion/sistemi-informativi-territoriali-principi-e-applicazioni-9788860086075-3220312.html
ASSESSMENT
Assignments will be handed over and graded during the course. The final examination will consist of a presentation of a study case for each student. Students will be admitted to the final exam based on a satisfactory performance in the assignment.
Institution: IUSS
E-mail: andrea.taramelli@iusspavia.it
Voice: +39 0382 375847
Fax: +39 0382 375899
Bio: Dr Andrea Taramelli is Professor at IUSS University, Pavia and Senior Scientist in Remote Sensing and Surface Coastal Process at the Institute for Environmental Protection and Research Rome.
He has degrees from the University of Perugia and Master Business Administration applied to environment from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. His doctorate on landslide singularities (power-law concept) was undertaken jointly between the University of Perugia under Professor Carlo Cattuto and Jeff Weissel’s geomorphology group at the LDEO of Columbia University. His postdoc was on Assessing topography and surface changes using SAR techniques and multispectral imagery at LDEO of Columbia University
He took up a University Lectureship position (2003-2007) and Fellowship at Perugia University (2006 – 2009), and a Lectureship at La Sapienza University Roma (2009-2011).
He is actually teaching at IUSS Pavia “Economical aspect of Space Strategy” and “GIS and Remote sensing’ for master and PhD Programme in Risk and Emergency Management. His research includes science at the forefront of the development that links short-term surface processes to the long term development and dynamics of surface systems (Project Leader of GREEN DG ECHO and Project Scientist of two Operational Services implementation ASI-ISPRA projects on Habitat Mapping and Air Quality by means of innovative integration of remote sensing systems in national scale modelling; Project Scientist of industrial research and development in the field of experimental smart cities and communities: smart technologies for the management of water resources for irrigation and civil use; co-I of ECOPOTENTIAL DG Research, co-I of Copernicus User Uptake LOT1 and LOT2 DG Grow; co-I of In-Situ Copernicus Coordination Studies); uses new methodologies to develop earth process theories (“Modelling uncertainties in coastal and marine areas MERMAID DG Research, ECOSTRESS DG ECHO); investigates continental-scale surface system responses to future climate change (THESEUS FP7 and GMES User Uptake LOT1 DG Grow), innovatively broadens the sedimentary applications of spectral signal analysis and is redefining understanding of surface environmental responses to global change drivers, including through the use of multi-proxies to investigate new possible Sentinel Missions (PI of the CHIME Hyperspectral implementation ESA ITT).
Scientific Director of Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerca sul Telerilevamento applicato all’osservazione dello spazio e della terra (“CIRTA”). He is Italian national delegate at the European Commission Copernicus User Forum and Copernicus Committee and national expert at the European Maritime Spatial Planning technical group. He is a member of the ‘Coordination Committee for Space” at the Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri.
His research interests concern Earth Observation and Geomatcis applied to Geomorphology.
Instructor 2: Roberta Bonì: official webpage and CV
Institution: IUSS
E-mail: roberta.boni@iusspavia.it
Bio: Dr Roberta Bonì received her M.Sc. Degree in Applied Geological Sciences with honors in 2013, and a Ph.D. in Earth and Environmental Sciences in 2016 from the University of Pavia (UNIPV). From 2016 to 2019, she held a postdoc at UNIPV, focusing on Earth Observation (EO) technologies, such as Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, and in-situ data to monitor various types of ground
deformation, including landslides, land subsidence, swelling and shrinkage of clayey soils, and
liquefaction.
In 2019, she received an Excellence research fellowship grant from UNIPV to integrate satellite radar interferometric data with 3D hydrogeological models to support the sustainable management of groundwater resources. From 2021 to 2023, she became a fixed-term researcher (RTDa) at the
University of Urbino "Carlo Bo," where she taught courses in “Geomorphology and Soil Defense”, as well as “Applied Hydrogeology”. She is currently an Assistant Professor in Physical Geography and Geomorphology at the Department of Science, Technology, and Society (STS) of the University School for Advanced Studies (IUSS) Pavia, Italy.
Her research includes Geomatics applications for EO and geohazard assessment. Over the past 10 years, she has gained various experiences in training bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and PhD students in these topics.
She was involved as Responsible Research and Innovation Manager for a project titled “Sustainable
groundwater resources management by integrating earth observation derived monitoring and flow
modeling Results – RESERVOIR” (funded by PRIMA foundation and EU H2020). Additionally, she has
been a team member in national and international projects focused on geohazard studies using EO data, funded by the European Union and UNESCO-IUGS.
Currently, she is involved as Principal investigator of the IUSS research unit of a project entitled
“Enhancing our understanding of Subsidence RISK induced by groundwater exploitation towards
sustainable urban development – SUBRISK+” (funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU,
under the umbrella of the Research Projects of Significant National Interest (PRIN) 2022 National
Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) Call), and in a program financed by the French Development
Agency (AFD) aimed at assessing exposure to relative sea-level rise along the Gulf of Guinea in Africa (ENGULF).
Since 2015, she has been a scientific collaborator of the British Geological Survey (Keyworth, United Kingdom) and of the Geohazards InSAR laboratory and Modelling Group, Geological Survey of Spain (Madrid, Spain). Since 2021, she has also been an affiliate of the UNESCO Land Subsidence International Initiative (LaSII).
Her research interests concern Geomatics and Remote Sensing applications for geohazard risk
assessment