GISC405-25S2 (C) Semester Two 2025

Environmental and Climate Data Analytics

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 14 July 2025
End Date: Sunday, 9 November 2025
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 27 July 2025
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 28 September 2025

Description

This course will develop students' ability to use open-source programming methods for problem-based geospatial analytics. The knowledge and skills learned in this course will support applications including energy, water, climate change, and hazards by interacting with meteorological and climate model outputs and transforming data into impact-based research applications.

This course builds on student experience with geospatial analysis and extends it with advanced geospatial skills using opensource and self-developed code in the area of climate and weather analytics and its applications.  In this course, students will be able to apply their skills to real-world problems such as wildfires, energy, water, climate change, and hazards by interacting with meteorological and climate model outputs and transforming data into impact-based research applications. This course will provide students a flexible and multidisciplinary knowledge and skill base for tackling other contemporary environmental problems.

Learning Outcomes

1. To become familiar with developing analytical code to access national climate and meteorological databases
2. To get hands-on experience with manipulating and developing Python notebooks
3. To be able to interrogate big data for achieving research objectives
4. To become familiar with opensource coding platforms and geospatial programming libraries
5. To understand how complex spatiotemporal weather modelling datasets can be useful to solve real-world environmental problems
6. To gain understanding on how data and analytics can be used to protect the New Zealand community from extreme weather events
7. To build and develop practical coding and data science skills needed for competitive employability in the research and commercial domains

University Graduate Attributes

This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attributes specified below:

Critically competent in a core academic discipline of their award

Students know and can critically evaluate and, where applicable, apply this knowledge to topics/issues within their majoring subject.

Employable, innovative and enterprising

Students will develop key skills and attributes sought by employers that can be used in a range of applications.

Engaged with the community

Students will have observed and understood a culture within a community by reflecting on their own performance and experiences within that community.

Globally aware

Students will comprehend the influence of global conditions on their discipline and will be competent in engaging with global and multi-cultural contexts.

Prerequisites

GISC101 or GISC401 or equivalent.

Timetable 2025

Students must attend one activity from each section.

Computer Lab A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 11:00 - 14:00 Ernest Rutherford 211 GIS Comp Lab
14 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct

Timetable Note

One 3-hour contact period per week

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

Marwan Katurji

Textbooks / Resources

Recommended online resources:
https://www.earthdatascience.org
https://www.earthdatascience.org/courses/use-data-open-source-python/

Notes

Prerequisites: GISC101 or GISC401 or equivalent.

Recommended preparation:
Prior Python experience will be helpful
COSC121 or other equivalent introductory courses for programming
GEOG201

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,213.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see School of Earth and Environment .

All GISC405 Occurrences

  • GISC405-25S2 (C) Semester Two 2025