GIS for Oceania Short Courses

As Senior Sustainability Analyst at the CIFAL Honolulu, I managed the development and implementation of a portfolio of six short courses certified by UNITAR and focused on promoting sustainability and resilience in the Pacific. I created and taught two of these courses: GIS Strategies for Oceania, and Applied GIS for Oceania.

Target Audience: This course is ideal for students and professionals interested in environmental conservation, disaster management, climate resilience, geopolitics, and social development in the Pacific region. It is also valuable for those pursuing careers in geospatial data science and its applications.

GIS Strategies for Oceania is an interdisciplinary course exploring the application of geospatial data and technologies to address pressing issues of sustainability and resilience in the Pacific region. As the Pacific region faces unique challenges related to climate change, environmental conservation, disaster preparedness, and social equity, geospatial data and strategies play a pivotal role in developing effective solutions. This course equips students with the knowledge and skills needed to navigate these complex issues.

This class is more conceptual than technical in nature, and is focused on:

1. Using systems thinking to determine appropriate indicators of sustainability and/or resilience in particular systems and geographies (in the Pacific) of interest to each student.
2. Identifying and evaluating existing geospatial data relevant to key indicators.
3. Identifying and overcoming barriers to the use of geospatial data for measuring sustainability and/or resiliency in Pacific geographies of interest.

Learning outcomes:

1. Discuss the unique considerations of geospatial data;
2. Identify the value of geospatial data for sustainability and resilience;
3. Search for and access existing geospatial datasets;
4. Scope geospatial data challenges in Pacific Islands and support the development of effective policy for enabling data environments;
5. Improve the capacity of their organization and/or community for the future of geospatial data use

Applied GIS for Oceania is designed as an introduction to mapping techniques in R with a focus on vector data related to sustainability and resilience. This course does not require any previous knowledge or experience with R, GIS software or with sustainability and resilience concepts. However, the course is designed to also be useful to those with a background in coding, geospatial analysis, and sustainability.

This class is technical in nature, and is focused on:

1. Using R, Rstudio, and GitHub to create and share clean reproducible code.
2. Creating maps using multiple layers of vector data
3. Creating clear and compelling spatial data visualizations
4. Using APIs to download relevant environmental and social data

Course Structure: This course is self-paced and requires independent work, but also offers support in the form of optional, virtual office hours and regular feedback from the instructor.

The first four weeks of the course we focus on getting started with R studio and GitHub, learning the basics spatial data visualization using R, and understanding fundamental principles of cartographic design. The final two weeks of the course will be dedicated to producing an individual project showcasing the student’s geospatial abilities and skills. The challenge project will focus on a geographic area and data topic of the student’s choice.