Course overview
The emphasis is well aligned with current development practice: the World Bank uses geospatial data, satellite imagery, drones and GeoAI for project preparation, supervision and evaluation, while its GEMS initiative applies geospatial methods to project monitoring and supervision. FAO similarly uses geospatial and remote-sensing approaches for agriculture, natural-resource monitoring, climate and development interventions.
GIS and Remote Sensing for Development Projects Training equips development professionals with practical skills to use GIS, satellite imagery, remote sensing and geospatial data for project planning, monitoring, evaluation, impact assessment and evidence-based decision-making. The course covers spatial data management, mapping, satellite-image analysis, field data collection, infrastructure and beneficiary mapping, agriculture, climate change, humanitarian response, environmental monitoring, geospatial dashboards and emerging GeoAI applications.
Course objectives
- Apply GIS and remote-sensing technologies to development-project planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment.
- Acquire, prepare, manage and analyse spatial, satellite and field-collected data for evidence-based development decision-making.
- Use satellite imagery, spatial analysis and GIS techniques to monitor land use, infrastructure, agriculture, environmental conditions, climate risks and project interventions.
- Develop professional maps, spatial indicators, dashboards and geospatial reports that communicate project progress, risks, outputs and outcomes to stakeholders.
- Apply advanced geospatial analytics, mobile GIS, drone data and GeoAI techniques to improve project monitoring, targeting, supervision and decision-making.
Who should attend
NGO GIS Officers, GIS Analysts, Remote Sensing Specialists, M&E Officers, MEAL Officers, Monitoring and Evaluation Managers, Project Managers, Programme Managers, Development Practitioners, Project Coordinators, Data Analysts, Development Planners, Urban Planners, Environmental Officers, Natural Resource Management Officers, Agriculture Project Officers, Food Security Specialists, Climate Change Officers, Disaster Risk Management Professionals, Humanitarian Programme Staff, Government Planning Officers, County Government Officers, Infrastructure Planning Officers, Community Development Officers, Research Officers, Geospatial Professionals, Surveyors, Land Management Professionals, Development Consultants, NGO Programme Officers, World Bank and Donor-Funded Project Staff, UN and International Development Organisation Staff
Course content
- Module 1: Introduction to GIS, Remote Sensing and Geospatial Data for Development GIS concepts and applications, remote sensing concepts, geospatial data in development planning, spatial and non-spatial data, vector and raster data, geographic coordinate
- Module 2: GIS Data Acquisition, Management and Quality Spatial data sources, field data collection, GPS and mobile data collection, administrative boundaries, OpenStreetMap data, satellite-derived datasets, development-project databases, attribute data,
- Module 3: Spatial Data Preparation and GIS Database Development Data importing, data cleaning, attribute-table management, geocoding, coordinate transformation, digitisation, georeferencing, spatial data integration, joining tabular and spatial data, spa
- Module 4: Remote Sensing and Earth Observation for Development Principles of remote sensing, electromagnetic spectrum, satellite sensors, spatial resolution, temporal resolution, spectral resolution, satellite imagery selection, optical imagery, radar im
- Module 5: Satellite Image Processing and Analysis Satellite-image preprocessing, image enhancement, image compositing, cloud masking, image classification, supervised classification, unsupervised classification, land-use and land-cover mapping, spectral
- Module 6: GIS for Development Project Planning and Site Selection Project-site analysis, suitability analysis, spatial criteria, multi-criteria decision analysis, proximity analysis, buffer analysis, overlay analysis, accessibility analysis, service-area
- Module 7: GIS and Remote Sensing for Project Monitoring and Evaluation Geospatial monitoring frameworks, baseline mapping, project-location mapping, monitoring project activities, spatial indicators, georeferenced project data, satellite-based monitoring
- Module 8: GIS for Monitoring Infrastructure and Service Delivery Infrastructure mapping, roads and transport networks, schools and education facilities, health facilities, water infrastructure, sanitation facilities, electricity and energy infrastructure
- Module 9: GIS and Remote Sensing for Agriculture, Food Security and Livelihoods Agricultural land mapping, crop monitoring, land-use mapping, vegetation monitoring, NDVI analysis, agricultural productivity, water productivity, drought monitoring, food-se
- Module 10: GIS for Climate Change, Environment and Natural Resource Management Climate-risk mapping, environmental baseline mapping, land degradation, deforestation monitoring, ecosystem mapping, water-resource mapping, flood-risk mapping, drought assess
- Module 11: GIS for Humanitarian Response, Disaster Risk and Vulnerability Humanitarian mapping, disaster-risk mapping, vulnerability assessment, population exposure, flood mapping, drought mapping, displacement mapping, refugee and IDP settlement mapping
- Module 12: GIS for Urban Development, Infrastructure and Community Planning Urban land-use mapping, settlement mapping, urban growth analysis, informal-settlement mapping, infrastructure-gap assessment, population-density mapping, accessibility analysis,
- Module 13: GIS, Mobile Data Collection and Field-Based Project Monitoring Mobile GIS concepts, GPS-enabled field data collection, georeferenced surveys, KoboToolbox/ODK concepts, field data validation, photographs and geolocation, beneficiary mapping, pr
- Module 14: Geospatial Dashboards, Maps and Development Project Reporting Thematic mapping, choropleth maps, point maps, heat maps, project-location maps, monitoring dashboards, spatial indicators, map layouts, map symbology, development-project dashboard
- Module 15: Advanced Geospatial Analytics, GeoAI and Project Decision Support Spatial modelling, geospatial machine learning, satellite-image classification using AI, object detection, automated feature extraction, change detection, predictive spatial mod
Schedule & fees
| Dates | Location | Duration | Fee (USD) |
|---|
| 31/05/2027 - 11/06/2027 |
Nairobi,kenya or Virtual |
10 Days |
$2,000 |
| 02/08/2027 - 13/08/2027 |
Naivasha,Kenya |
10 Days |
$2,000 |