Balanced training for GIS users

Abstract

The proliferation of Geographic Information Systems of varying capacity and capabilities combined with the ever increasing need for fast and flexible land planning and management is creating a great demand for GIS training courses. Proper education should equip those working as urban and regional planners and in land administration with the ability to assess their own requirements and enable them to choose wisely from an expanding field of expensive systems.

The necessary element in GIS education should be a balance between the technical capabilities and characteristics of various systems and their applicability to given land planning problems.

An example of an approach which would be suitable as an introduction to GIS techniques for in-experienced users, in the USEMAP Workshop. This Workshop serves as a good example to illustrate the way in which GIS training courses can be designed to incorporate both technical and applications training. A series of exercises is executed by groups of post-graduate students providing an introduction to the software’s basic structure and tools and through two case studies, shows the applicability of GIS to various planning problems. The basic approach followed by the Workshop has served as a model for other training modules in the GIS field at the ITC and is suggested as an example of balanced GIS training which will help to further encourage and stimulate the introduction of GIS into urban and regional planning offices.