Where do how many diseases occur? Where can new infections be expected in the further course of the disease? How must medical resources be distributed? How can supply chains of important goods, for example food, be influenced by corona-related restrictions?
Who would have thought that a virus would keep us busy, frightened and sometimes even paralysed throughout Germany, Europe and the world? Fortunately, many people and experts are working to combat this pandemic. They also get help from geoinformation systems (GIS), which inform about the current spread of the corona virus by means of a map display. Many of themhave certainly used this during the current corona crisis period, and many of them "unconsciously" used it in their private lives.
In addition to informing the population about the extent of the epidemic, these digital maps are used above all to make important decisions on how to cope with the crisis and to answer questions relevant to the crisis: Where do how many diseases occur? Where can new infections be expected in the further course of the epidemic? How must medical resources be distributed? How can supply chains of important goods, for example food, be influenced by corona-related restrictions?
The digital maps help to display and evaluate the course of the pandemic to date in terms of time and geographical spread. They also enable predictions about the future development of the situation and preventive action to be taken.
By training geoinformatics specialists in our courses of study in the Geomatics Department at the HFT Stuttgart, we hope to contribute to the better management of such crises through technical support and scientific know-how.
The pure geoinformatics part of the course content is highest in the Bachelor of Surveying and Geoinformatics and the Master of Photogrammetry and Geoinformatics. However, the Master's programme in Surveying and the Bachelor's programme in Information Logistics also contains content from the field of geoinformation, such as "Analysis of spatial data" or "Fundamentals of Geographical Information Systems (GIS)". Geoinformatics contents are mostly taught in practical exercises and project work. As a rule, real data sets are used. Current topics are, for example, energy system transformation/renewable energies, climate change and currently, of course, the corona pandemic, which are used as application examples. Students then create digital maps in project work using geoinformation systems.
