GIS, Remote Sensing and Earth Observation for Environmental Management Training Workshop
10 Days2 sessions available Certificate on completion
The GIS, Remote Sensing and Earth Observation for Environmental Management Training Workshop equips professionals with practical geospatial skills to monitor environmental change, map natural resources, assess ecosystem conditions, and support evidence-based environmental planning and compliance. Participants learn to integrate satellite imagery, spatial datasets, GPS field observations, and GIS analysis to monitor deforestation, land degradation, water resources, pollution risks, biodiversity, climate impacts, and land-use change. The workshop emphasises hands-on applications using QGIS, Google Earth Engine, satellite imagery, and environmental mapping techniques relevant to government agencies, environmental consultancies, NGOs, conservation organisations, and development projects across Africa.
Course objectives
Apply GIS, remote sensing and Earth observation techniques to environmental monitoring and natural resource management.
Design a practical GIS and Earth observation workflow for environmental assessment, climate resilience, conservation, or restoration projects.
Develop environmental maps, monitoring indicators, and geospatial dashboards to support planning, compliance, and reporting.
Conduct spatial analysis of land-cover change, vegetation conditions, water resources, and environmentally sensitive areas.
Acquire, process and interpret satellite imagery to identify environmental changes and emerging risks.
Who should attend
Environmental officers and managers, GIS analysts, remote sensing specialists, environmental impact assessment practitioners, climate change professionals, conservation officers, natural resource managers, forestry and wildlife officers, water resource specialists, agricultural and land management professionals, county and national government officials, environmental regulators, NGO and donor-funded project staff, development practitioners, researchers, university lecturers, sustainability and ESG officers, and consultants involved in environmental monitoring and compliance.
Course content
Module 1: Fundamentals of GIS, Remote Sensing and Earth Observation Introduction to geographic information systems, principles of remote sensing, Earth observation data sources, raster and vector data, spatial reference systems and coordinate systems, spa
Module 2: Environmental Data Sources and Satellite Imagery Acquisition Satellite data sources and open geospatial datasets, Sentinel-1 radar imagery, Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery, Landsat satellite archives, MODIS and vegetation products, digital elev
Module 3: GIS Software, Spatial Data Management and Mapping QGIS interface and project management, importing raster and vector datasets, attribute tables and data queries, coordinate reference systems and reprojection, georeferencing environmental maps, d
Module 4: Satellite Image Preprocessing and Interpretation Satellite image bands and spectral signatures, image selection and quality assessment, atmospheric correction concepts, cloud masking and cloud contamination, image compositing and mosaicking, ima
Module 5: Land Use and Land Cover Mapping Land-use and land-cover classification principles, supervised and unsupervised classification, training sample selection, classification of forests and agricultural land, built-up area and settlement mapping, wetl
Module 6: Vegetation Monitoring and Forest Management Vegetation indices including NDVI and EVI, forest-cover mapping, deforestation and forest degradation detection, vegetation health assessment, drought stress monitoring, forest restoration tracking, ma
Module 7: Water Resources, Wetlands and Catchment Management Surface-water mapping using satellite imagery, water-body extraction, wetland delineation, watershed and catchment analysis, digital elevation model applications, drainage network mapping, catch
Module 8: Environmental Change Detection and Land Degradation Multi-temporal satellite image analysis, land-cover transition matrices, land degradation mapping, soil erosion susceptibility assessment, desertification indicators, mining and quarrying impac
Module 9: Google Earth Engine for Environmental Monitoring Introduction to cloud-based geospatial analysis, accessing satellite image collections, filtering imagery by location and date, cloud masking, generating image composites, calculating vegetation a
Module 10: Climate Change, Drought and Disaster Risk Mapping Climate-related environmental indicators, drought monitoring using vegetation and rainfall datasets, land-surface temperature analysis, flood susceptibility mapping, wildfire risk indicators, er
Module 11: Biodiversity, Habitat and Ecosystem Monitoring Mapping protected areas and ecological corridors, habitat classification, vegetation fragmentation analysis, ecological buffer zones, biodiversity survey integration, wildlife habitat suitability c
Module 12: Environmental Pollution and Compliance Monitoring Mapping potential pollution sources, industrial facility and waste-site mapping, spatial analysis of environmental complaints, proximity analysis around sensitive ecosystems, monitoring land-use
Module 13: Field Data Collection, GPS and Geospatial Validation GPS fundamentals and coordinate capture, designing environmental field surveys, mobile data collection concepts, geotagged photographs, sampling design for environmental studies, field verifi
Module 14: Environmental Spatial Analysis, Automation and Visualisation Buffer and proximity analysis, overlay and intersection operations, raster calculations and map algebra, terrain and slope analysis, spatial interpolation concepts, zonal statistics,
Module 15: Integrated Environmental Monitoring Project and Reporting Selection of an environmental monitoring problem, study-area definition and geospatial data inventory, satellite imagery preparation, GIS analysis and change detection, interpretation of
General notes
Practical Activities and Expected Outputs Participants will complete hands-on exercises using real or sample satellite imagery and environmental datasets. Practical work includes producing a land-use and land-cover map, calculating NDVI to assess vegetation conditions, mapping changes in forest cover or wetlands, analysing surface-water changes, identifying environmentally sensitive areas around development sites, and creating a basic environmental risk map. By the end of the workshop, participants should have produced a GIS project, satellite-derived environmental maps, a land-cover change analysis, a set of environmental monitoring indicators, and a technical report presenting spatial findings and management recommendations.
Training Tools and Software The workshop will primarily use QGIS for GIS mapping, spatial analysis and cartographic production, Google Earth Engine for cloud-based satellite image processing and time-series analysis, and Google Earth for visual site assessment and contextual interpretation. Participants may also use Sentinel-2, Sentinel-1, Landsat, MODIS and digital elevation datasets, alongside Excel or CSV files for field observations and monitoring indicators. Where appropriate, the course can introduce GPS-enabled mobile data collection, raster analysis, environmental dashboards and Python-based geospatial automation.
Upon completion, participants will be able to: 1. Produce professional environmental maps from satellite imagery and GIS datasets. 2. Monitor land-cover change, deforestation, vegetation conditions and water resources using Earth observation data. 3. Conduct spatial analysis to identify environmental risk zones and sensitive ecosystems. 4. Integrate satellite data and field observations for environmental assessments and compliance monitoring. 5. Prepare evidence-based geospatial reports to support environmental planning, conservation, climate adaptation and sustainable development.
Frequently asked questions
The course is designed for environmental professionals, GIS practitioners, researchers, regulators, conservation specialists, climate change officers, consultants, NGOs and government staff who use spatial evidence for environmental decision-making.
Basic computer skills are sufficient for the introductory pathway. The course progresses from fundamental GIS concepts to satellite image processing and applied environmental analysis.
The core tools are QGIS and Google Earth Engine, supported by Google Earth and publicly available satellite datasets. The exact software workflow can be adapted to participants' existing systems.
Yes. GIS and Earth observation can support baseline environmental studies, sensitive-area mapping, monitoring of land-use changes, assessment of impacts around project sites, and verification of environmental management commitments. Satellite analysis complements, rather than automatically replaces, field inspections and regulatory evidence.
Examples include forest-cover change monitoring, wetland mapping, drought assessment, urban expansion analysis, catchment degradation mapping, flood-risk screening, and geospatial monitoring of environmental compliance.