Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are becoming a standard tool for any application dealing with spatial data, whether used for planning purposes by administrations or the private sector, or for research purposes. In particular, GIS support a large range of environmental applications, involving vegetation, soil and water.

This summer school offers an introduction to the concepts behind GIS, the types of data used, the manner in which they are structured and analysed, projection and geographic coordinate systems and data representation, as well as basic data analysis. These theoretical concepts are followed by specific applications focusing on topics such as agriculture, forestry, water and coastal zone management. In addition to the theoretical background, the course focuses strongly on hands-on practical applications, employing open source software. We start this initiative focusing on the advantages of using Free and Open Source Software for GIS.

The Summer School is opening with one day symposium on Open Source software (Monday, July 20, 2015), Open Data and coastal environment-driven Open innovation research. Key issues will be discussed on Open research-data-software applications to ecosystems resilience in relation to water resources, climate change, management and protection of coastal zones. Significant key – note speakers are expected in the oral presentation session and “OPENGIS” participants are encouraged to contribute in the special organized for them poster session and in the abstract proceedings e-book of the symposium.

A number of participants will receive scholarship by MEDFRIEND programm (UNESCO-IHP) for attending the program.