This beginner-intermediate course will provide you with the skills needed to work with spatial data, to view it, edit and map it. These skills are important in understanding where and when you can find key species and habitats, exploring how your data fits into the landscape and creating solutions that will help biodiversity thrive.
Geographic Information Systems are an increasingly important tool in ecology and nature conservation. Spatial data is vital in understanding the complexity of ecosystems and in our efforts to deliver nature’s recovery.
Tutor: Dan Carpenter
Dan Carpenter is an ecologist and environmental data scientist. I am interested in using environmental data to support evidence-based decision making. I think good data are the foundations of good decisions and much of my work is about turning good data into evidence to support those decisions. I have a general interest in natural history, with specific interests in soil organisms, plant galls and habitats. I set up the Earthworm Society of Britain during my post-doc at the Natural History Museum, and I have run survey programmes for barn owls, amphibians and veteran trees. Dan uses GIS daily and has a wide range of experience in mapping and spatial data analysis. He has taught GIS courses to biological recorders in his previous role at the Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre.
