KGLM 2060 - Introduction to GIS

Thanks to its spatial and visual approach and its reliable analysis capacity, Geographic Information System (GIS) can be very helpful in many fields, as urban planning, city management or decision making. Thanks to the recent explosion in the development of Open Data, geographic information availability significantly increases, enabling data acquisition all over the world, even at a large scale (small area). Simultaneously, free and open source cartography and GIS software, e.g. QGIS and Magrit, enable to make spatial analysis and maps from anywhere, in a short time and at very low cost. Despite that consideration, GIS should not be considered as a technology. GIS practice has to be managed as a project issue, and you (GLM student) are the project manager. Thus, each result (map or computation) obtained has to be approved at each step of the process. In this course, you will learn to follow, step by step, a GIS process, in one specific large metropolis. At the end of the course, you may get the following skills: Basic concepts of GIS Identification of an issue Specification of the data Data organization and metadata Data importation Basic concepts of semiology Data representation Map making Assessment and interpretation

Cécile HUET

Atelier

English, French

None.

Autumn 2025-2026

Apply the same process to another city to choose, or to another issue in the same city. All the steps and results we followed during the course have to be present. Expected deliverables: 1 report (3000 words at least) 1 map at least NB: the document should show that each skill previously described has been acquired.