Certificate course in

Remote Sensing and GIS for Natural Hazard Assessment

Spatial data are perfectly suited to studying, identifying, characterizing and monitoring natural hazards. Remote sensing and GIS are becoming mainstream technology, being applied in many organizations and work processes with a geographical orientation.

This course concentrates on hazard-related information extraction from remote sensing image data and on GIS-based data-driven modelling for hazard susceptibility mapping.

Remote sensing images and map data are used for expert-based visual interpretation of landforms, for identifying and characterizing different natural hazards and their controlling factors, and for image-based change detection. Digital image processing techniques as well as more advanced remote sensing approaches (e.g. radar, laser scanning) will also be considered. Digital terrain modelling provides terrain parameters to support hazard identification and to serve as input for landslide and erosion modelling.

Towards the end of the course, small teams of participants will carry out a remote sensing-based hazard identification or a hazard susceptibility mapping project assignment

It is possible to combine this course with the certificate course Natural Hazard and Risk Assessment.

For whom is the course relevant?

This course is aimed at working professionals and postgraduate students who wish to use satellite images, DEMs, aerial photographs and other spatial data for hazard identification and susceptibility assessment, or for the analysis and monitoring of landscape/surface processes. Participants should have active working experience of using remote sensing and GIS. The course requires an affinity with landscape processes.

What will be achieved?

On completion of this course, participants should be able to:

• select, (pre-)process and interpret remote sensing image data for landform interpretation and hazard identification
• select and use multitemporal images for change detection of natural hazard processes
• construct hydro-morphometric parameter maps by digital terrain modelling
• select and prepare factor maps as input for data-driven modelling of landslide/soil erosion susceptibility
• critically evaluate and communicate the quality of a landslide/erosion susceptibility map resulting from data-driven hazard modelling.

What is the course content?

This course starts with an overview of selected landforms and surface processes (e.g. mass movements: fluvial, coastal, aeolian, erosion), and their identification using image interpretation. This also involves the generation of stereo images and the selection of relevant colour-composites.
The geomorphological approach to hazard mapping is complemented by the use of DEMs and digital terrain modelling for hydrological and morphological analysis of hazard processes. Different approaches to remote sensing-based change detection for hazard assessment are considered. These include the use of multisensor image data and different techniques for change analysis, such as vegetation indices, image ratios and principal components. 

The course continues with a focus on data-driven modelling methods to find out where hazards exist and disasters may occur in the future. The GIS-based Weights of Evidence approach is applied for a bivariate statistical landslide susceptibility assessment. In a similar manner, the production of erosion factor maps as input for empirical erosion models (e.g. USLE, SLEMSA) is considered.

Throughout the course, the potential of free or low-cost image data (e.g. ASTER-VNIR/SWIR, LANDSAT-ETM, stereo images from Google Earth data, SRTM and ASTER-GDEM), open-source software (e.g. ILWIS) and software extensions (e.g. Taudem for ArcGis) is emphasized.

An important part of this course is training participants to solve problems independently. Therefore, the last three weeks of this course are devoted to a challenging hazard identification and susceptibility assessment project.

Why choose this course?

The remote sensing and geo-information focus of this course provides a unique opportunity to experiment with spatial approaches and techniques for hazard assessment.

This Certificate course is also a course block in ITC’s MSc degree and Postgraduate diploma courses in Applied Earth Sciences. Hence this course also provides a good opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with an international group of students and professionals with a shared interest in surface processes, natural hazards and disaster risk management.

Admission requirements

Academic level and background

Applicants for the Certificate programme should have a Bachelor degree or equivalent from a recognised university in a discipline related to the course, preferably combined with working experience in a relevant field.

Some courses in the Certificate programme or separate modules require knowledge of, and skills in, working with GIS and/or digital image processing of remotely sensed data.

Skills in taught or related subjects are a prerequisite for some courses in the Certificate programme or separate modules. Even if the applicant satisfies the overall admission requirements, acceptance is not automatic.

English language

As all courses are given in English, proficiency in the English language is a prerequisite. If you are a national of one of the countries in this list (PDF), you are exempted from an English language test. Please note: the requirements when applying for fellowships may vary according to the regulations of the fellowship provider.

English language tests: minimum requirements

Only internationally recognised test results are accepted.

Computer skills

Applicants lacking computer experience are strongly advised to follow basic courses in their home countries.