Programmes

This course discusses the principles, structures and applications of geographic information systems. It emphasizes on the use of GIS in organizing and managing spatial data, and how to perform spatial analysis with GIS. Topics include hardware/software components, raster and vector data structures, spatial database, spatial analysis and application issues.

This course provides an overview and hands-on experience in the surveying, mapping, use, and interpretation of geo-survey for supporting the public management, which greatly depend on public policy analysis. Although the study of public management and public policy addresses two subjects that are often treated separately academically, but which in practice are closely inter-related. The course topics covered the both sides: the principles, techniques and methodologies of geo-survey, as well as the foundations of public management which has crucial relationship with policy-making. At the end of the course, students will have a comprehensive knowledge of national geo-survey for supporting the public policy analysis and evaluation, hence the rational and efficient public management.

This course provides an introduction to a wide selection of spatial analytics and their applications in different aspects of public management. The course has two major aims. On the technical front, this course aims to teach students fundamental concepts and recent progress of spatial analysis. On the substantive front, this course integrate the introduction to spatial analytics with their applications in public policies and management, ranging from mapping the inequality among economic and health outcomes, to land use choices, and innovative census from remote sensing and locational based service.

This course introduces the applications of network analysis in understanding social affairs. Facilitated the development of telecommunication and transportation technologies, a city is increasingly organized as connections between and within it. Such connections can take various forms – social, economic, political, and environmental. Therefore this course look at how network analysis can be used to address a number of urban issues, such as how could we define community in an era of human mobility? How do streets layout affect local economy? And what mechanism gives rise to the megacity region such as the Pearl River Delta?

This course is to inform, explain, analyze, interpret and communicate the role of Geoinformation technologies in EW and CM situations (tsunamis, earthquakes, fires, landslides, anthropogenic disasters) and improvement of their use in adequate operations with aim to show their till now under-evaluated potentials and way how to integrate knowledge of cartographic, geographic, and ITC community to EW and CM into wide decision making process.

The course helps students to understand remote sensing principles and basic skills in remote sensing image processing and analysis. The students will develop the capability to solve practical problems in the Earth System Science by using remote sensing methods. The theory, methods, and applications of environmental remote sensing are taught in the course. The lectures cover the principles of electromagnetic radiation, satellite observation sensors, digital image processing, Earth target classifications, and the remote sensing applications in land and ocean. ERDAS Imagine software will be used for lab practices.

Each student is required to carry out an independent research project under the supervision of a teacher.

This course introduces the concept of the Earth System Science - the study of the Earth as a system consisting of many inter-related and interacting components. The topics of lectures include individual components of the Earth System and their respective roles in the changing system. The emphasis is on interactions among different components of the system-atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, biosphere, and anthrosphere.

This course provides an overview and hands-on experience in the design, use, and interpretation of Geographic Information Systems for Transportation. Topics covered include transportation layers, transportation related referencing systems, data structures, network structures, urban transportation planning models and other spatial models. At the end of the course, students will have a sound working knowledge of transportation GIS and an ability to work directly with real-life problems.

The course introduces the basic knowledge of earth environmental model simulations. Numerical models serve as important tools for earth environmental research and operations. While the topic of earth environmental modelling is broad, this course will focus on the fundamental concepts of numerical modelling, such as temporal and spatial discretizations, parameterizations, model uncertainty and evaluation. Various components of coupled climate and earth system model will be introduced, including atmospheric general circulation model, regional climate model, weather prediction and land surface model, oceanic general circulation model, air quality model, and integrated assessment model. In addition, this course will discuss numerical model design, application and testing. Practical exercises are also provided for students to gain technical skills in modelling.

This seminar course is an open forum which aims at making students acquire up-to-date knowledge and techniques of the Earth system and Geoscience. Well-known scholars, professional, researchers and officials from local institutions and from overseas will be invited to present their latest research and timely topics relevant to Earth System Science.