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Geographical Information Systems (GIS) represents
one of the most rapidly expanding areas in Information Technology. GIS is seen increasingly
as an essential tool in many areas of government and business.
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Before you you have the electronic UNIGIS Newsletter, edition June 2010.
For now, you will have to do with this virtual communication, but next month we hope to see each other in person at the UNIGIS Conference 2010 in two weeks time. If you have not registerd for the conference yet, please do so quickly!.
Enjoy reading your UNIGIS news!
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Unigis Amsterdam General News
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World Events
by Henk Scholten
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It is clear that we see our yearly UNIGIS Workshop as a World Event, having people from all over the world with us. However, there are also other events claiming that they are having the same objective. Sometimes we are even in competition like the World Soccer Championship, which has an overlap with our event. But I am sure we can manage that. Last week we had another World Event, the World Conference on ICT in Amsterdam.
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It is clear that on such an event you will meet UNIGIS family members. And in this case I was active together with Patrick Brooijmans (you can still download his Msc thesis, and it is really worth to read it, Netcentric Working) and Eduardo Dias, and also his Phd is still available.
We got many people interested in the new developments of Geo-ICT, and we have to be honest, we also had to offer a lot. It is clear that our investments in mobile technology, user interfaces, and in this case disaster management, is now on a mature level. But still, it is always nice that also the Crown Prince of the Netherlands comes to the same conclusion, he even has sent his nephew for some extra questions.
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The good news, we will have the new interfaces, like the Surface and the Ipad available during our annual conference in two weeks, and what is more important, we have organized the lectures to demonstrate and explain the use of it.
I am really excited of being together, even only for watching the World Soccer Championship together on the campus.
Henk
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New Intakes
The February Intake 2010 has started with 14 enthusiastic students. Most of them you will be able to meet during the UNIGIS conference in June.
For the September intake we have a steady flow of applications with which we are very happy. There are still about 10 spots available for this intake, so should you know someone who is interested in pursuing a distance-learning course in GIS, notify him/her of this opportunity!
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New university guidelines for master programmes - Transfer of module material to Blackboard
by Jasper Dekkers
The university is a dynamic learning environment. Not only is science continuously progressing, also regulations with regard to education, quality guidelines and procedures are changing.
A new development for UNIGIS is, as far as this is possible for a distance-learning programme, the requirement to adhere to the standard curriculum requirements for master programmes.
Therefore, the UNIGIS Course Team has decided to enlist all UNIGIS courses in the VU's Exam Information System (in Dutch: Tentamen Informatie Systeem, or TIS).
This step is necessary so that it will become easier for the VU to monitor the results for all courses in all master programmes. For us, it means that the faculty will track the study records of our students and can easily provide overviews of results. Also, the archiving results of alumni will be according to university standards in this new approach.
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Another consequence of becoming more similar to regular master programmes is that UNIGIS will start transfering all her course material to the Blackboard environment, the default Digital Learning Environment (DLO) of the university.
Students will be able to access their modules in this environment using their vu-net-id.
This transfer also is a necessity in order to pass the re-evaluation of the master programme by the Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Organisation (NVAO) which is due in about three years time.
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We are currently sorting out the best way of transferring a module to Blackboard. The planning is to have the entire first year of the programme moved to Blackboard before the start of the September intake.
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Reports from the Programme Committee
by Jasper Dekkers
Feedback forms
The Programme Committee has advised management to regularly ask students for their opinion on modules. An advantage of the Blackboard environment is that we can send students feedback forms after they have completed a module. Technical issues currently prevent us from implementing these forms in the webenvironment we use, but with Blackboard this will also finally be solved.
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More practical exercises with GIS software demanded
Student comments on the UNIGIS Programme included questions for more practical exercises to be included in the programme. The UNIGIS programme, however, is a GIS-programme at Master-level. The emphasis lies on the underlying concepts of GIScience and -Systems. Therefore, we do not include too much practical exercises. We do want to offer student the opportunity to take more prwctical exercises, not as a part of the programme but as an addition to programme. We are now able to offer students free access to ESRI's Virtual Campus. See the item below for more information.
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Notifying UNIGIS in case of study delay
On request by the Programme Committee, we would like to strees once again the importance of notyfing the UNIGIS secretary timely when you are confronted with a delay in your studies. If you have a legitimate reason for the delay, we can in most cases extend your student subscription at the VU by granting some months of study absence. Furthermore, we are able to give you more guidance and support with the modules when the delay is caused by content-related issues. So please keep in contact when you experience any difficulties!
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ArcEditor and ESRI Virtual Campus courses freely available for UNIGIS students
by Jasper Dekkers
We announced in our last Newsletter of January that all UNIGIS students stafmembers from February 2010 onwards have free access to ESRI software. We have noticed that not all students seem to be aware of this fact. Therefore we repeat this message here.
You can download the software application form here, print it, fill it out and send it to the UNIGIS secretary. We will then make sure that a DVD with ArcGIS (ArcEditor-version) is send to your address. It is an annual educational license with extensions like Spatial ANalyst, 3D Analyst, Network Analyst and much more. Please note that we can proviude only one free copy per student.
Next to the ArcEditor software, we can also offer all students free access to ESRI GIS-software courses through their Virtual Campus. You can email the course coordinator Jasper Dekkers to ask for an access code for a course you want to take.
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Master student graduates Cum Laude
by Jasper Dekkers
On 23 April 2010, UNIGIS Master student Sandra MacFadyen, defended her thesis at the VU. The Examination Committee was impressed with her work and decided to grade her thesis with a 9!
The weighted average of her study results were high enough for Sandra to deserve the Cum Laude distinction! The UNIGIS course team is very pleased with this result and congratulates Sandra with this fine result.
This is the first time in the history of UNIGIS Amsterdam for a Nuffic scholarship student to receive such a high distinction. We hope many more may follow!
We now hope that Sandra will write a good PhD proposal based on her thesis work, and we have high expectations of her future research work! A short story on the thesis is included below.
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Identifying Priority Protection Zones within Protected Areas. A Biodiversity Sensitivity-Value Analysis of the Kruger National Park, South Africa.
by Sandra MacFadyen
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Sandra MacFadyen MSc.
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My name is Sandra MacFadyen, a South African conservation ecologist working as a Geographic Information Science (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) Analyst for South African National Parks in the Kruger National Park (KNP).
The topic of my thesis, Identifying Priority Protection Zones within Protected Areas: A Biodiversity Sensitivity-Value Analysis (BIOSEVA) of the Kruger National Park, South Africa, was formed in response to rapidly maturing approaches to conservation and natural resource management as a result of changing perceptions of biodiversity and ecological systems.
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| I aimed to use traditional spatial planning techniques, previously restricted to the initial identification of new protected areas, as a decision-support tool for co-ordinating activity zoning and management planning. Areas of higher priority protection status are identified by zoning graduated levels of biodiversity sensitivity-value and classifying them according to the influence of different land use practices and varying levels of elephant impact.
Read more...
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Alumni Invitations for 2010
UNIGIS Alumni day - Friday 18th of June 2010
UNIGIS Alumni - please note in your agenda's: June 18 2010, Amsterdam: UNIGIS Annual Conference 2010. We will organise
a special session for the alumni on this day to discuss Alumni access to new study material and other interesting issues.
Alumni, be realistic: you simply can't afford to miss this event!
See the preliminary programme for more information...
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UNIGIS Alumni field trip to Kadaster Geo-Informatie- Zwolle, Fall 2010
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We are very happy to invite our alumni for an interesting field trip this fall to Kadaster Geo-Informatie in Zwolle (previously know as Topografische DIenst Nederland, TDN).
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The last event, a trip to Rijkswaterstaat including a boat ride onto the North Sea (see the October 2006 Newsletter), was a big success. Registration for the event will be opened somewhere in September. Alumni will be notified through the UNIGIS Alumni Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam LinkedIn Group.
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Join the UNIGIS Alumni Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam LinkedIn Group
Our alumni who have not yet done so are hereby cordially invited to join the UNIGIS Alumni Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam LinkedIn Group. As a member of this group, you will be able to receive notifications about upcoming UNIGIS events, excursions and more. DO not hesitate and register today!
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New secretary and module tutor changes
by Jasper Dekkers
A very important position in the UNIGIS MSc is the position of secretary. The secretary often is the first contact interested professionals have with UNIGIS. And also student regularly email or phone the office with questions. Further, all reviewed assignments are processed by the secretary, team meetings have to be documented, workshops organized, et cetera. It is clear that the UNIGIS secretary is a true spider in the web.
Unfortunately, our secretary Miss. Anne Rooseboom has accepted another job as secretary to the rector of a high school in The Hague, so she has left us. We have enjoyed her positive spirit, openness and willingness of arranging extensive lunches and dinners at the annual conference (quite some students will remember these feasts!).
Luckily, we have already found a new secretary who is ready and willing to take up the challenge of becoming the new central node in the UNIGIS Amsterdam network. We therefore wish our new colleague Jessica Endendijk all the best in her new job as UNIGIS secretary!
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Further news with regard to staff changes: Some years ago, Eric Koomen was involved in the development of the European Aspects of GIS-module. This module has now been completely revised by UNIGIS Salzburg.
Such new developments are good moments to simultaneously introduce a new tutor in the UNIGIS family. Therefore, from May onwards, our new SPINlab-colleague Maurice de Kleijn will take over Eric's position as tutor of the EuroGIS-module.
We are very happy that Maurice has been found willing to take over these duties from Eric and we wish him all the best with his new task.
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New UNIGIS secretary: Jessica Endendijk
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Since the beginning of May I have started as the new secretary of UNIGIS, for one day per week. I combine this job with a job as secretary for the Master Environment and Resource Management, at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) at VU University Amsterdam. Before working for Unigis and IVM I have worked for the department of Health Sciences at the VU.
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In my spare time I like to read, do hiking, enjoy the woods and the nature. But my main passion is dance, especially African dance. I have been doing this for about 15 years now, I went to several countries in West Africa to take lessons there. Since 5 years I am also a dance teacher of African dance.
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If you have any questions about the UNIGIS program you can e-mail me at info@unigis.nl. I hope to meet many of you at the UNIGIS conference in June!
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New face at SPINlab-UNIGIS: Maurice de Kleijn
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My name is Maurice de Kleijn. I'm a new member of the SPINlab and I think that I'm the first archaeologist who is now member of the faculty of economics. At the SPINlab I'm going to be a member of the UNIGIS crew and I'm going to work on two big projects. The first pro-ject is the Integrating Heritage Program. This project aims to create a National Spatial Data Infrastructure for interdisciplinary research of the heritage and history of the Dutch landscape.
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The second project is part of the Knowledge for Climate project. For this project I'm going to confront different experts with several scenarios of future land use. These confrontations aims to sharpen the models on which the scenarios are based on.
I'm also going to work on a relatively small project. For the archaeological centre of the Vrije Universiteit (ACVU) I created a GIS system and helped developing a mobile GIS application, which we use for archaeological field surveys. In July I will be in the South of Italy (Puglia) walking through the landscape, discovering new archaeological sites and maintaining the GIS sys-tem.
I'm really happy to be your new colleague and I'm loo-king forward to the new challenges.
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Besides working with heritage I also like to study it in my own time. I live in the heart of Amsterdam together with my girlfriend near to the Zeedijk in a monument. For this monument I'm doing my own small research. I already found out that in 1722 a trader of tobacco used this property to store his wear, but my research is still in progress. Other things I do are visiting AFC Ajax with my family (already for 15 years), cook Italian (you should try my Tiramisu…), cycle and like all archaeologists: always talk about archaeology...
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Land use modelling : Implementation - Preserving and enhancing the environmental benefits of land use services (2010)
May 2010
The SPINlab is participation in a European land use project. Recently, the first results were published.
A new open source land allocation model - the EU-ClueScanner – has been developed in order to assess the environmental impacts of land use change in Europe at a 1 km2 scale, with a time horizon of 2030. The report describes the methodology used in order to develop this model and the related set of environmental, economic and social indicators. In addition to the reference scenario (IPCC B1), the report describes eight policy alternatives that were used as examples for testing the model. These policy alternatives relate to biofuel production, increased biodiversity protection and climate change adaptation and mitigation measures related to water management and soil protection. The implementation of the modeling framework shows that it is successful in simulating different spatial land use policy options, in identifying hotspots of change and in providing results in terms of specific indicators. The annex to the report explains how scenarios, indicators and data can be changed in order to study different policies.
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Reports of a Succesful Geomarketing Conference
March 2010
The SPINlab is involved as a founding partner in the Geomarketing Knowledge Center (GKC). Last March, together with Geodan we hosted a conference on this topic with excellent speakers. For those of you who have missed this conference, the presentations (video and pdf) can be seen at the GKC-website.
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Calendar &
Activities
June 2010
UNIGIS Conference
Monday 14 through Friday 18th of June 2010, the Annual UNIGIS Conference will be held at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.
Workshops 2 and 3, plenary sessions and an Alumni event will be all part of the Conference.
See the website for the preliminary programme.
Alumni event 2010
Friday 18th of June 2010, an Alumni day will be organised at the UNIGIS Conference. Special guest speakers will be invited.
See the preliminary programme for more information...
September 2010
Start Intake September 2010
The new intake will start at Friday 10 September 2010 at the campus of the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam with Workshop 1.
Information will be made available during the summer recess.
And of course you can always contact us, through our website or by phone should you not be able to visit us.
Fall 2010
UNIGIS Alumni Excursion
Registration for the event will be opened in September. Watch your UNIGIS Alumni LinkedIn notification carefully!
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