GeoS4S Module Geospatial Support for Arid Ecosystem Management

Abstract

Various arid ecosystems formed in arid and semi-arid environment which almost cover 40percent of continental land in the earth. It is fragile to any disturbance by both natural and anthropological factors. Management of arid ecosystem sustainability requires various geospatial data and methods for systematic monitoring, modelling, simulating and predicting of its processes and trends of changes in space and time. This teaching module employs case studies and interactive exercises to introduce the basic concepts of arid ecosystem and geospatial support for arid ecosystem management. Its high-level goal is to prepare the students for designing arid ecosystem monitoring, modelling and predicting system using existed geospatial data and methods online. The current paper summarizes the learning objectives, lesson content, learning activities and evaluation scheme for this module.