GIS for Humanitarian Assistance Training Course

Participants can configure reliable spatial reference systems and data structures for humanitarian analysis.

• Geographic and projected coordinate reference systems for humanitarian area mapping
• Selecting suitable projections for distance, area, direction, and regional operations
• Datum transformations and positional errors in multi-source emergency datasets
• Geodatabase schemas for settlements, facilities, incidents, routes, and administrative boundaries
• Unique identifiers linking spatial features with assessment and programme records
• Feature classes, domains, subtypes, and controlled values for consistent data entry

Participants can source, assess and document humanitarian datasets before operational use.

• Authoritative sources for administrative boundaries, population estimates, and facility locations
• Humanitarian Data Exchange datasets assessed for source, currency, completeness, and licensing
• Attribute validation using range checks, mandatory fields, duplicate detection, and domains
• Positional accuracy checks against imagery, gazetteers, and trusted reference layers
• Completeness assessment through feature counts, null values, and geographic coverage
• Metadata records documenting lineage, update frequency, limitations, contacts, and usage conditions

Participants can prepare heterogeneous humanitarian data for consistent mapping and analysis.

• Tabular data cleaning with standardised place names, dates, identifiers, and categories
• Geocoding facilities and settlements using gazetteers, coordinates, and address fields
• Joining assessment tables to administrative units using verified geographic identifiers
• Converting CSV, GeoJSON, shapefile, GeoPackage, and KML without attribute loss
• Field type checks preventing numeric codes from becoming text classifications
• HXL hashtags for consistent exchange of humanitarian indicators and disaggregations

Participants can design field-data collection workflows that produce valid, usable geographic records.

• Assessment questionnaires translated into geographic features, attributes, and repeat groups
• KoboToolbox forms configured with constraints, skip logic, defaults, and required fields
• GPS accuracy settings, waypoint capture, and offline basemap preparation
• Enumerator guidance for location consent, privacy, and safe device handling
• Validation rules preventing impossible household sizes, dates, coordinates, and duplicate submissions
• Daily synchronisation, review, correction, and version control for field submissions

Participants can produce readable operational maps for humanitarian coordination and field use.

• Map purpose statements defining audience, decision, geographic extent, and update cycle
• Visual hierarchy through symbol size, colour value, labels, and layer ordering
• Humanitarian symbology for affected areas, facilities, routes, hazards, and boundaries
• Classification methods including quantile, natural breaks, equal interval, and manual thresholds
• Scale bars, north arrows, coordinate grids, source notes, and disclaimer statements
• Layout templates for situation reports, cluster meetings, field teams, and donors

Participants can select and interpret satellite imagery suitable for humanitarian information requirements.

• Optical, radar, and thermal imagery characteristics for humanitarian observation tasks
• Spatial, spectral, temporal, and radiometric resolution trade-offs for emergency mapping
• Cloud cover limitations and synthetic aperture radar alternatives during rainy seasons
• True-colour, false-colour, and band combinations for land cover interpretation
• Image acquisition dates matched to baseline, event, and post-event requirements
• Ground reference data used to validate imagery interpretation and classifications

Participants can identify visible damage and environmental change from pre-event and post-event imagery.

• Before-and-after image comparison for flood extent, building damage, and displacement indicators
• Visual interpretation keys using tone, texture, pattern, shape, shadow, and association
• Raster differencing and threshold selection for rapid change detection outputs
• Flood delineation using water indices, radar backscatter, and elevation context
• Damage classification limitations caused by cloud, shadows, debris, and image resolution
• Confidence categories distinguishing confirmed, probable, uncertain, and unobserved impacts

Participants can estimate exposed populations and identify geographic concentrations of vulnerability.

• Population datasets compared by source method, resolution, reference date, and uncertainty
• Intersecting hazard footprints with population grids and administrative boundaries
• Areal weighting assumptions when aggregating raster population estimates to service areas
• Disaggregation by age, sex, disability, and displacement status where available
• Vulnerability indicators combined through transparent scoring and documented weighting
• Exposure summaries prepared for prioritisation tables, maps, and coordination briefings

Participants can map assessed needs, existing services and priority geographic gaps.

• Needs indicators mapped at household, settlement, facility, and administrative levels
• Spatial joins linking assessment points with districts, catchments, and response zones
• Service availability layers for health, WASH, shelter, education, and protection
• Buffer analysis estimating populations within defined distances of operating facilities
• Coverage gaps identified by comparing needs severity, population, and service capacity
• Priority matrices combining severity, population scale, access, and response presence

Participants can analyse travel constraints and access options for humanitarian operations.

• Road network cleaning for direction, surface, condition, barriers, and seasonal restrictions
• Travel-time assumptions based on vehicle type, road class, terrain, and checkpoints
• Network analysis calculating shortest routes between hubs, warehouses, and delivery points
• Cost-distance surfaces combining slope, land cover, waterways, and security constraints
• Isochrones showing reachable populations within defined operational travel-time thresholds
• Route maps documenting assumptions, disruption points, alternatives, and confidence limits

Participants can combine hazard, exposure and vulnerability information into practical risk products.

• Hazard layers for floods, earthquakes, landslides, cyclones, drought, and conflict incidents
• Risk framing through hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and coping capacity variables
• Overlay analysis identifying settlements exposed to multiple hazards and access constraints
• Terrain derivatives including slope, aspect, hillshade, flow direction, and accumulation
• Risk classifications documented with thresholds, assumptions, uncertainty, and intended use
• Preparedness maps supporting contingency planning, pre-positioning, and evacuation planning

Participants can prepare GIS products that support coordination meetings and situation reports.

• Common operating picture components for incidents, needs, services, access, and response
• Situation maps designed around current decisions rather than available data layers
• Administrative boundary disputes and place-name variants managed through agreed reference datasets
• Update schedules aligned with assessment cycles, operational periods, and coordination meetings
• Map change logs recording revisions, new sources, corrected errors, and superseded products
• Briefing notes communicating findings, limitations, recommended actions, and data gaps

Participants can apply practical safeguards when publishing and sharing humanitarian geographic information.

• Sensitive data categories including protection incidents, shelters, ethnicity, and survivor locations
• Risk assessments considering who may access, infer, misuse, or combine data
• Spatial aggregation methods reducing disclosure risk in small population areas
• Generalisation, masking, suppression, and controlled access for sensitive map products
• Data-sharing agreements specifying purpose, retention, access controls, and onward transfer
• Publication review checklists covering consent, attribution, security, and protection concerns

Participants can document, review and reproduce humanitarian GIS products under operational pressure.

• Standard operating procedures for data intake, validation, analysis, review, and publication
• Naming conventions for datasets, projects, map exports, versions, and archived outputs
• Peer review checks for spatial accuracy, logic, symbology, sources, and interpretation
• Analysis models documenting inputs, parameters, transformations, outputs, and responsible analysts
• Version control practices preventing accidental overwrite and unsupported map revisions
• Quality assurance logs recording detected errors, corrective actions, and approval status

Participants can build, review and present a complete humanitarian GIS analysis package for an emergency response decision.

• Response scenario framed through decision questions, constraints, audiences, and available evidence
• Humanitarian geodatabase assembled from operational boundaries, population, needs, services, and access data
• Field collection design documented with validation rules, privacy controls, and synchronisation procedures
• Spatial analysis combining exposure, needs severity, service coverage, and travel-time constraints
• Operational map series produced with source notes, uncertainty statements, and update requirements
• Peer review applied using quality, protection, usability, and decision-relevance criteria