Landschaften und Lebensräume sind in einem jahrhundertelangen Prozess durch Menschen gestaltet worden. Sie sind somit Ausdruck der Interaktion von menschlichen Ansprüchen und Bedürfnissen und den natürlichen Ressourcen in einer spezifischen topographischen und räumlichen Situation. Diese Vorlesung fokussiert auf die historische Dimension der Landschaften und Ökosysteme mit einem Fokus auf die Entwicklungen in der Schweiz. Die für die Rekonstruktion der Landschaftsgeschichte wichtigsten Quellentypen und Methoden werden vorgestellt und mit internationalen Beispielen wird die Sicht auf die Schweiz ergänzt.

This course introduces the fundamentals of spatial database: the storage, management and querying of spatial data with both geometrical and attribute variables. The focus will be on the fundamental approaches enabling the efficient storage, management and querying of geometrical and raster data, intricacies of spatial indexing and the optimization of topological analysis.

This course introduces landscapes as socially perceived, spatially and temporally dynamic entities that are shaped by natural and societal factors. Concepts and qualitative and quantitative methods to study landscapes from an ecological, societal and historical perspective are presented. In a term paper students work on a landscape-related topic of their choice. 

Students are introduced to a typical data science workflow using various examples from environmental systems. They learn common methods and key aspects for each step through practical application. The course enables students to plan their own data science project in their specialization and to acquire more domain-specific methods independently or in further courses.

Introduction to the architecture and data processing capabilities of geographic information systems (GIS). Practical application of spatial data modeling and geoprocessing functions to a selected project from the earth sciences.

The course provides the student with the spatial tools to address societal challenges toward ensuring the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems and the conservation of biodiversity. Students learn theory, tools and models during a few introductory sessions and apply this knowledge to solve a practical problem in groups related to climate change, land use change and biodiversity conservation.

This course provides hands-on experience with models of vegetation dynamics across temporal and spatial scales. The underlying principles, assets and trade-offs of the different approaches are introduced, and students work in a number of small projects with these models to gain first-hand experience.

A platform for georeferencing and orthorectifying ordinary individual photographs - such as historical photos - with geographical data.

This course provides hands-on experience with models of vegetation

dynamics across temporal and spatial scales. The underlying principles,

assets and trade-offs of the different approaches are introduced, and

students work in a number of small projects with these models to gain

first-hand experience.

The Urban Sprawl Metrics (USM) Toolset allows to intuitively apply intuitvely possible to apply the method of Weighted Urban Proliferation.

Dieser Kurs vertieft das ökologische Systemwissen, das nötig ist, um angewandte Lösungen für aktuelle Umweltprobleme zu hinterfragen. Unser zentrales Anliegen ist es, den Respekt der Teilnehmer vor Komplexität mit einem Sinn für Möglichkeiten zu balancieren, indem wir Beispiele aus dem weiten Lösungsraum ökologischer Systeme darstellen, wie z.B. grüne Infrastruktur im Wassermanagement.