GIS for Planners - Beginners Course
Geographic information systems (GIS) is today a common term amongst government and private planners in areas such as transport, land use and environmental assessment. In addition to developing maps for location purposes, GIS for planning allows simple and advanced geographic analyses such as:
- proximity analysis between the location of activity centres and transport nodes with a new development under assessment
- forecasting changes in economic activities based on different development schemes
- visualizing heights and shadows of a proposed structure plan.
GIS is no longer an area where planners require specialised support. The availability of free tools and data over the internet has facilitated the development analysis in many situations in the urban environment. This course aims to help planners access these tools and optimize others existing in their own environment.
Course Outline
The workshop will be very practical and provide participants with an understanding of the core GIS concepts so they are able to actively produce digital maps in their daily work. The aim of this course is to provide information and experience to participants in using whatever resources they have available in their work environment, such as the internet, eview and free applications (ie Google Earth or Mapwindow). Through accessing the leading edge learning facilities for Geomatics at the University of Melbourne, a significant amount of the workshop will be devoted to hands-on application of the concepts learned in the computer lab using real information and examples from planning cases.
Course Structure
The course is primarily practical and will distributed as a follows:
Morning
- Introduction to GIS
- GIS data, coordinates and systems
Afternoon
- Cartographic features of GIS
- GIS analysis
- Further opportunities for GIS in planning
Who should attend?
The workshop is suitable for professionals that have a need to conduct or supervise planning analysis in the urban environment such as structure planning, policy development, transport and traffic assessments, retail and commercial assessments, urban growth frameworks and in general most strategic planning and economic development exercises.
It will be particularly useful for statutory planners in the private and public sector that participate in the assessment of significant residential and commercial planning applications or that are required to serve as expert witnesses in contentious cases.
Urban and landscape designers will also benefit from the workshop by learning and familiarising themselves with tools to better assess the urban context and people environment of their designs.
Course Presenters
Dr Daniel Paez
Daniel Paez is a civil engineer with a PhD in Geomatics. He has experience in planning across Australia.
Daniel Paez has published and presented extensively on topics including Geographic information systems, strategic transport planning and land-use assessments. He worked for the Victorian Government in policy development and currently Daniel works for the Department of Transport in Colombia as National Director for Transport and Transit. He is an honorary fellow of the University of Melbourne.