Geography

This course examines spatial analysis and GIScience applications of spatial data handling for built and natural environments within the context of theoretical frameworks for understanding human-driven and physical phenomena. Topics include climate change, air pollution, healthcare access, transportation, and 3D game worlds.

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) is a computer system designed to collect, manage, edit, analyze and present spatial information. This course introduces the basic concepts and methods in mapping, spatial analysis, and GIS that enable students to make use of GIS software to study social phenomena. The following concepts are covered: an introduction to cartography and GIS; map design and visualization; map projections and spatial representations; GIS project design and implementation; collection and management of spatial data; spatial analysis and statistics; network analysis; qualitative GIS; uncertainty and how to deal with it; and open source data and software. A series of seminar exercises enables students to make practical use of GIS with hands-on experience. Throughout the course, students learn how to develop spatial research questions and how to conduct spatial analysis using ESRI ArcGIS Pro software and different open-source alternatives. A group project integrates the concepts covered in the lectures with experience from the seminars to explore a current research question.

This course uses a regional approach to highlight the main areas of conflict on the African continent. Using a reading grid based on an understanding of the spatial logics of actors in conflict, drawn from both history and the analysis of very contemporary phenomena and current events, this course differentiates between types of space and isolates their more or less belligerent characteristics. Drawing extensively on geography and the sociology of actors (polemology), this geopolitical analysis of the African continent uses methodological tools such as cartography and satellite imagery, as well as numerous readings, to review all of the continent's conflict zones. Examples highlight the use of geopolitical reasoning by political, military, and humanitarian decision-makers, as well as by economic players.

In this hands-on course, dive into real-world data and explore how GIS revolutionizes our understanding of the planet, people, and place. GIS combines the art of mapping, science of data analysis, and spatial understanding. From creating captivating maps to unravelling hidden patterns, you'll develop essential skills in demand in industry.

This course offers an introduction to Geographic Information Systems technology and its applications. Topics include: information gathering and editing; visualization, symbology, and composition of maps; spatial database management; spatial analysis and geoprocessing of spatial data.

This course examines critical importance of tourism policy to the competitiveness and sustainability of a destination and relates tourism planning to policy making. The course outlines the structure, content and formation of tourism policy and the planning and management
strategies articulated in the context of social, economic, political and environmental impacts of tourism.

Upon completion of the course, students are able to …..

1.. understand and apply key concepts and ideas relating to food and nutrition from a social science/human geography approach.
2.. understand and analyze food issues from a relational perspective, in terms of both its geographical dimensions as well as systems thinking.
3.. understand food as a contested domain, and being able to identify and analyze major issues of social justice and sustainability relating to food.
4. reflect critically on social and geographical issues of food, and develop and communicate an informed argument about them (academic skills).
5. apply a set of specific analytical tools with respect to food and nutrition issues.