The fields of earth observation and geo-information science are gradually moving away from the traditional mapping or “inventory” type of science towards the understanding of the processes that shape our environment, predict future effects and provide reliable information to support planning and policy making.
This ten-week course focuses on solving problems within a specific application field. You can choose from a selection of fields and enables you to apply geo-information science and earth observation knowledge in a local (international) context, through Spatio-temporal analysis and the development of models while taking into account socio-environmental drivers.
For whom is the course relevant?
This ten-week course is designed for international young and mid-career professionals that perform, or aspire to perform, tasks predominantly in applied research, or require academic knowledge and skills to enhance the execution of their work.
You will be able to share your knowledge and experiences in group work, in discussion groups and during assignments.
If you have only a limited knowledge of the principles of GIS and earth observation, you could opt for the course Principles of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation.
Choice of content
You will choose one of the topics below. Each topic consists of two (7 EC) courses.
Applied Remote Sensing for Earth Sciences This topic consists of two 7 EC courses
Spectral Data Processing
This course focuses on remote sensing data processing from multiple missions, with emphasis earth science applications. The backbone is an introduction to scripting: writing own scripts allows to create custom processing solutions, and can also be used to automate the processing of large data sets for earth science applications.
More information can be found in our current Study Guide.
Spectral Geology
This course focuses on the use of spectroscopic methods to obtain geologic information related to, for example, minerals and rocks, mineralised and geothermal systems, soils and other natural materials. It is designed for students with a solid understanding of Earth Sciences who wish to use state-of-the-art spectroscopic methods to analyse the mineral content and texture of samples.
More information can be found in our current Study Guide.
This topic consists of two 7 EC courses
Acquisition and Exploration of Geospatial Data
One driver of today’s information society is geospatial data. Recent years have seen an increase in volume and diversity of geospatial data. In this course, you will use algorithmic thinking and programming skills to find, retrieve, store, and explore various geospatial datasets.
In scientific research significant time and effort goes into acquiring, understanding, and cleaning the data before the actual analysis begins. Maps and diagrams are not only used to present the final results but also to verify and explore the data during the whole data processing process phase. After this course, you will have a good overview of acquisition and exploration of geospatial data principles and methods.
More information about the course can be found in our current Study guide.
Scientific Geocomputing
In this course, you learn about developing algorithmic solutions to geospatial problems. Turn-key software systems for geo-information science and Earth observation are functionally powerful but have no instant solution to each geospatial problem. The ability to construct custom solutions is an essential capability of the Geoinformatics specialist, who should have competence in addressing geospatial problems by algorithmic solutions. You specifically learn about solution strategies, high-level solution descriptions in pseudo-code, and translations of these into implementation in some programming language. We will also discuss the scientific side of programming by an introduction into literate programming, which emphasizes documentation of code and the FAIR principles of scientific data management, which apply to data and code. We emphasize the role of data in geospatial algorithms, as these are often data-intensive. By reviewing and developing (pseudo-)code, you will increase your understanding of basic concepts in geo-information science and Earth observation like spatial filters, maximum likelihood classification, coordinate transforms and least-squares adjustment. The course’s programming language will be Python.
More information about the course can be found in our current Study guide.
Geo-information Management for Land Administration This topic consists of two 7 EC courses
Land Information Systems and Models
Land information systems are systems for acquiring, processing, storing, and distributing information about the land. They may contribute to secure land tenure or support land valuation, land use planning and land development. Despite contextual differences between countries, there are fundamental concepts that apply to all land information systems. The main objective of this course is to discover, apply, and assess these concepts and technologies – and inspire students to deploy them in the creation and maintenance of scalable real-world land information systems. Modelling of data and processes for land administration is a crucial part of this course.
More information about the course can be found in our current Study guide.
Responsible Land Administration
This course introduces land administration in the context of land policy and sustainable development using the land management paradigm as an initial guiding framework. The course relates state-of-the-art scientific knowledge to students' experiences, perceptions and country context.
More information about the course can be found in our current Study guide.
Natural Resources Management This topic consists of two 7 EC courses
From Data to Geo-information for Natural Resources Management
Sound management of natural resources requires adequate geo-information describing spatial and temporal dimensions of the ecosystems. This involves - in most cases - large datasets, originating from multiple sources and stakeholders from various disciplines and institutions. The internet plays an increasingly important role, not only for acquiring data but also for storing, sharing and disseminating data. An online information platform allows the sharing and exchange of data and information. This implies that data must be acquired, handled, (pre)processed, standardized and their quality and fitness for use must be assessed.
Based on information requirements for a forest, agricultural or environmental system, you will learn to implement this on an online platform. After the acquisition of data from various on- and off-line sources its fitness for use will be assessed. You will be introduced into statistical tools and techniques for exploratory data analysis and assessment of data quality.
More information about the course can be found in our current Study guide.
Systems Approach for Management of Natural Resources
This course has a multi-disciplinary focus. You learn to unravel and deal with the complexity and large variation in Natural Resources Management (NRM) issues. It challenges you to develop a common basis for the assessment of the multi-actor, multi-purpose, multi-level and multi-disciplinary nature of NRM.
Concepts of NRM are reviewed and discussed and particular attention is given to the importance of geo-spatial data, techniques and expertise in NRM.
You learn to apply systems thinking and analytical reasoning when translating complex real-world situations into conceptual diagrams. This enables you to describe and develop knowledge about how ecosystems work and how human activities make an impact on natural systems. You discover how this step is essential in identifying cause-effect relationships which exist in space and time. You are also challenged to select biophysical or socio-economic variables that need quantification. The application of remote sensing and GIS is targeted towards making claims about environmental problems and solutions. Conceptualizing real-world situations also helps students in identifying knowledge gaps and formulating research hypotheses.
Natural Resources Management is a multiple-stakeholder effort per default. Therefore, part of the assignments will involve working in multi-disciplinary teams.
More information about the course can be found in our current Study guide.
Urban Planning and Management This topic consists of two 7 EC courses
Planning Sustainable Cities
This course aims to develop a critical understanding of spatial planning based on academic discourses, the international development agenda and your own experiences. Throughout the course, the role of spatial data and information systems in urban planning and management will be highlighted and illustrated.
You will develop a spatial understanding of specific urban issues in your home country by applying knowledge and skills in spatial information handling. The concept of Sustainability will be introduced and discussed in light of its rise as a global development paradigm since the early 90s. We will address The Sustainable City as one of the visions of desirable future cities. We make use of GIS-based and statistical methods to measure the dynamics of working towards sustainability in an urban context. Available databases and data catalogues will be retrieved to map sustainability indicators. Different sustainability frameworks will be studied and debated, including bottom-up planning processes and concepts contributing to the sustainable development of cities and regions (such as Local Agenda 21, transition towns, cradle to cradle, peak oil, eco urbanism, and degrowth).
More information about the course can be found in our current Study guide.
Building Inclusive and Competitive Cities
Cities are unequal. Considerable parts of the urban population, especially in the Global South, are poor, whereas others are affluent. In part, poverty is associated with the influx of poor rural immigrants in need of jobs, shelter and basic services such as water, electricity, education and health care. Levels of access to these basic services can differ a lot between socio-economic groups and will also vary across urban space. To address such inequalities, contemporary urban development strategies and policies are directed towards the inclusion of socially and economically weaker groups. These groups need to benefit most from sustainable planning interventions. Here, inclusiveness and competitiveness need to be linked, only inclusive cities can be truly competitive. Successful cities offer competitive locations and are centres of innovation, where liveability and inclusiveness are important factors.
Classical economic models frequently disregard the role of geography when analysing the economic performance of an urban region, yet urban competitiveness requires an understanding of spatial relationships inside cities (e.g., variations of locational factors and clustering of economic activities). Furthermore, the role of land use (planning) and land markets is essential for understanding competitiveness in all its dimensions for building competitive and inclusive cities.
More information about the course can be found in our current Study guide.
Natural Hazards and Disaster Risk Reduction This topic consists of two 7 EC courses
Introduction to Hazard and Risk
This course aims at developing an understanding of the main types of natural hazards and of the disaster risk concept. This includes attention for geo-information and geomatics tools, in particular remote sensing, to study, monitor and quantify aspects of hazard risk and disasters. The course is designed to provide participants with a knowledge base as input for further focus on predictive hazard modelling and disaster risk management.
More information about the course can be found in our current Study guide.
Natural Hazard Modelling
This course focuses on the data-driven modelling of hydro-meteorological hazards, with particular emphasis on statistical models of multivariate nature, that combine the spatial and temporal aspects of hazardous processes. The course includes attention for the inventory and monitoring of hazard occurrences using cloud-based solutions.
More information about the course can be found in our current Study guide.
Water Resources and Environmental Management This topic consists of two 7 EC courses
Earth Observation of Water Resources
Space agencies use earth observations to provide a wealth of spatial information on the present-day water resources, in terms of quantity as well as quality. In this course, students will learn the physical principles of how water affects electromagnetic signals recorded by Earth observing sensors.
You will learn tools and methods to collect, process, and visualize Earth observation data that either includes or can be used to derive rainfall, soil moisture, evapotranspiration and water quality. In addition, students will be taught to deduce spatially distributed hydrological state variables from earth observation data and assess its reliability.
More information about the course can be found in our current Study guide.
Hydrological and Environmental Cycles
The purpose of this course is to have a physical process-based understanding of hydrological and environmental cycles. It deals with the occurrence, distribution, circulation, and properties of water, energy and carbon in the Earth system.
The hydrological and environmental processes include the physical (e.g. water & energy) and biogeochemical (e.g. carbon) processes through the atmosphere, to the Earth, over and beneath the land surface, to the ocean, and back to the atmosphere (e.g. known as the water cycle, energy cycle and carbon cycle). These three cycles play the central role in processes regulating the Earth system, where human activity is now inseparable from natural events.
The introduction to the concept of these cycles and their main components forms the framework of this course.
More information about the course can be found in our current Study guide.
Why choose this course?
By studying in an international and multicultural environment, you will become acquainted with ready-to-use GIS and earth observation tools and methods. Through the application of this knowledge and skills, you will be able to leverage informed decision-making within many organizations.
About your diploma
The short course Applications of Geographic Information Systems and Earth Observation is part of the accredited Master's in Geo-information Science and Earth Observation. If you decide to take the full Master’s at ITC, this course counts as part of a full programme; therefore, upon successful completion, you will be granted an exemption for the second quartile of the two-year Master’s programme.
Upon successful completion of this course, you will receive a Certificate which will include the name of the course.
Along with your Certificate you will receive a Course Record providing the name, and if applicable, all the subjects studied as part of the course. It states: the course code, subject, EC credits, exam date, location and the mark awarded.
This certificate course is part of the accredited Master’s Geo-information Science and earth Observation at ITC. If you decide to take the full Master’s Geo-information Science and Earth Observation at ITC, the Examination Board will give you in principle exemption from the course you followed successfully as a certificate course.
Admission requirements
Academic level and background
Applicants for the Certificate programme should have a bachelor's 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.
Documentation
The faculty accepts transcripts, degrees and diplomas in the languages: Dutch, English, German, French and Spanish. It is at the discretion of the faculty to require additional English translations of all documents in other languages as well.
Language skills
Success in your studies requires a high level of English proficiency. Therefore, prospective students with an international (other than Dutch) degree must meet the English language requirement. As proof that you meet this requirement, you will be asked in the application procedure to upload one of the requested language certificates:
- IELTS (academic) with an overall band score of at least 6.0 (with a minimum sub-score of 6.0 for speaking and writing) and certificates not older than two years.
- TOEFL iBT (internet-based) with an overall score of 80 (with a minimum sub-score of 20 for speaking) and certificates not older than two years. Please note that the University of Twente does not accept the MyBest scores of the TOEFL test.
- Cambridge C1 Advanced Formerly known as; Cambridge English Advanced (CAE), obtained with an A, B or C grade.
- Cambridge C2 Proficiency Formerly known as; Cambridge English Proficiency (CPE) obtained with an A, B or C grade.
Only these internationally recognised test results are accepted. Without a valid certificate, we cannot process your application.
Other requirements
- Ensure you have obtained a valid English test result before the application deadline. If your application is accompanied by a language test score report with a test date after our application deadline, we will not process it. Therefore, make sure to do the test in advance, as it will take time for you to get the official certificate.
- When applying for a scholarship, the language requirements may be different because scholarship providers may have different requirements.
- If you have studied in a former British or American colony, you must take one of the internationally recognised English language tests.
Exemptions
You are exempted from the English language requirement if you hold:
- a relevant bachelor's degree from an accredited academic institution in the Netherlands
- if you are a national of one of the countries in this list (PDF)
- a three-year bachelor's degree in Australia, Canada (English-speaking part), Ireland, New Zealand, UK or USA. When your awarding institution is in one of these countries, but your teaching institution was not, you are not exempted. The same rule applies to distance (online) education.
Online English tests during COVID-19
We acknowledge the difficulties experienced worldwide in taking the compulsory language test, due to the Covid-19 situation. Alternative English tests can be:
Please note that other online English language tests (i.e. IELTS Indicator test, Cambridge online test, etc.) will not be accepted.
Computer skills
If you lack computer experience we strongly advise you to follow basic courses in your home country.
Key information
