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, 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.

The “University of the Aegean Summer Schools” are supported by the project «The University of the Aegean, the prominent and driving factor for the economic and social growth of the wide Aegean area» of the Operational Programme “Education and Lifelong Learning”, which is co-funded by European Union (European Social Fund) and National Resources.