GIS Training Course 2006
GIS Training Course in Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology, Halle (Germany) – August 1-31, 2006
The EU Tempus project for the establishment of a new MSc. Programme compatible to EU standards in “Applied Environmental Geosciences and Water Resources Management” at Geology Department, Assiut University has started with a “GIS Training Course in Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology” in August 2006.
Four disseminators of Assiut University and the cooperation partner REGWA, Prof. Dr. Elsayed M. Abu El Ella (Hydrochemistry, Assiut University), Dr. Gamal Zidan Abdel Aal (Geophysics, AssiutUniversity), Hassan Shebl Hassan Abou Arab (REGWA) and Ahmed Abdel Halim Mohamed (Demonstrator Geochemistry, Assiut University) learned in a one month intensive course, held by Dr. Wolfgang Gossel and MSc. Ahmed Sefelnasr from the Dept. Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology of Martin Luther University Halle about GIS application in Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology.
Beneath standard GIS tools also Open Source GIS tools were used in the first week to facilitate the application of these new technologies also to students in Assiut. Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology were introduced additionally with examples and labs in the course. In the second week the new technologies were applied by the trainees to their own research projects. Advanced GIS methods and database management were the topics of the third week. The interoperability of GIS and other modelling systems in Geology, Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology was explained and demonstrated in exercises. In the fourth week concepts for the application of the new technologies in course schedules and curricula of the existing student programs and the new MSc programme were elaborated. The results were presented in an intensive discussion at the end of the course.
Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology are not only introduced in computer labs and lecture rooms so an important input were three excursions: In the southern Harz area the karstified gypsum and its exploitation were the main topic, in the Bitterfeld area, a megasite of groundwater contamination, a pilot plant for remediation research and some of the most important former open pit mining areas, partly filled with waste disposals were visited and in Berlin the urban water system was explained. The development project of the International Hydrogeological Map of Europe (IHME) was the topic of the visit to the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Berlin branch. The excursions were supported by the Environmental Research Centre Halle-Leipzig (SAFIRA pilot plant for remediation of groundwater in Bitterfeld), the Senate Department for Urban Development of Berlin (Environmental Atlas of Berlin), the Berlin Waterworks (surface water treatment and artificial infiltration at the waterworks Spandau) and the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Berlin branch.
The trip to Bitterfeld was accompanied by another group of the Tempus exchange program: The Leichtweiss-Institute of the University of Brunswick (Prof. Dr. U. Maniak) works since three years in a similar cooperation with the Enchamps University in Cairo and group of about 20 students visited Brunswick in this month. This group with its head Dipl. Ing. S. Brinck visited Halle again for two lectures of Prof. Dr. A. M. Ebraheem and MSc. A. Sefelnasr with the topic “Groundwater management of the Nubian Aquifer System”.
Teachers also learn sometimes: The Martin Luther University carries out an advanced training course in university didactics and in this context a colleague of the Geobotanic Department supervision two hours of the lectures.
The next step in the Tempus program will probably be a visit next year to the Assiut University by staff members of the Dept. Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology of Martin Luther University.
The GIS Training Course DVD contains the following topics:
- Slides/Presentations of the Lectures
- Data for Labs and Exercises
- Lecture Scripts
- Software (Freeware and Open Source)
- Excursion Scripts
- Pictures from Excursions and Special Lectures