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Mapping Ecosystem Services with open source data in QGIS
279 students
What you'll learn
- Acquire and preprocess land cover datasets (CORINE, Copernicus, GEE) and convert them into ready-to-use GIS layers
- Classify land-use types into ecosystem service capacities for flood, drought, heatwave, wildfire, and erosion mitigation
- Integrate topographic and climatic variables to adjust ecosystem service scores using slope, elevation, and hazard modifiers.
- Develop multi-hazard mitigation indices and ecosystem service maps suitable for planning, reporting, and decision support.
- Build a complete, reusable GIS workflow for ecosystem service assessment and climate risk analysis, applicable to any region
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Course content
6 sections • 20 lectures • 2h 12m total length
Requirements
- No advanced GIS experience is required. A basic familiarity with maps and geographic concepts is helpful, but all essential skills will be introduced step-by-step. Learners should have access to a computer capable of running QGIS and an internet connection for downloading open-source datasets and accessing Google Earth Engine. Everything else—from installing the tools to understanding ecosystem services, land-cover data, and multi-hazard mapping will be taught throughout the course.
Description
Understanding how landscapes provide ecosystem services and how they mitigate climate-related hazards is becoming essential for planners, researchers, and sustainability professionals. This course provides a practical, end-to-end workflow for mapping ecosystem-service capacity and multi-hazard mitigation using QGIS, and open-source data.
You will learn how to download, prepare, and structure land-use/land-cover data; convert it into meaningful ecosystem-service indicators; and build mitigation scores for hazards such as floods, droughts, fire, heatwaves, and erosion. You will also learn how to group ecosystem services into broader categories. With some examples and hands-on demonstrations, you will create a reproducible workflow that transforms raw spatial data into actionable insights.
The course guides you step-by-step through classification logic, assigning capacity values, integrating terrain modifiers, and generating a Multi-Hazard Mitigation Index (MHMI). You will practice visualizing results using effective symbology techniques and learn how to interpret patterns that support climate adaptation and environmental decision-making.
By the end of the course, you will be able to produce professional, publication-ready maps and export your results for use in research, consultancy, or policy contexts. Whether you are a beginner in QGIS or not, an ecologist, or an intermediate GIS user, this course provides a complete, practical foundation for mapping nature’s contributions to risk reduction.
Who this course is for:
- This course is designed for anyone interested in understanding and mapping ecosystem services and climate risks using accessible geospatial tools. It is ideal for environmental professionals, urban planners, GIS practitioners, sustainability analysts, students, and researchers who want to apply spatial data to real-world climate adaptation and nature-based solutions. It is also well-suited for beginners in GIS who want step-by-step guidance, as well as intermediate users looking to deepen their skills in land-use analysis, open-source data workflows, and multi-hazard assessment.