UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Course and Code: Business Management for Scientist– HBS201(24course credits)

Instructor: Professor A. Murwira

Office: A7, Department of Geography & Environmental Science Building
Venue: Department of Geography & Environmental Science Building

Course Description
The objective of this course is to ready students for professional roles in both the private and
public sectors. It aims to impart knowledge regarding the intricate interplay among business
methodologies, land policies, and the Geomatics profession. The course encompasses a wide
array of topics, including managerial functions (such as planning, controlling, organizing, and
decision-making), human resource management, labour legislation, financial management,
management accounting, taxation, capital financing, estimating, depreciation, risk
management, project planning, costing, resource allocation, project control and reporting,
business communication, report writing, contract law, marketing and client relations, health
and safety, professionalism, professional ethics, professional bodies, including legislation and
rules, various professional practices, partnerships and partnership law, practice structuring,
civil service, government structures, parastatals, The Access to Information Act, copyright,
SDI, ISO, the role of international associations/societies in Geomatics, and social
responsibility.

Assumed knowledge
A working knowledge of GIS is desirable to follow the examples and complete practical
exercises.

Allocated time per teaching and learning method

The course runs throughout the semester and comprises staff-led lectures, and individual
assignments, fieldwork and supervised practical exercises. The proposed time to be spent on
each teaching and learning method is shown in the Table below.

Teaching/learning method hours

Lecture 24
Supervised practicals 20
Individual assignment 4
Examination 2

Course materials
Course materials including handouts will be provided to registered students. Scientific
reading material relevant to topics outlined in the course outline will be provided during
lectures.
Software
ILWIS GIS and R software. R is distributed as free software, and it can be downloaded from
http://cran.r-project.org. ILWIS-GIS is also distributed free of charge and can be downloaded
from the 52o N website.
Recommended reading materials
1
1. E-library materials http://www.uz.ac.zw/index.php/library/
2. Rolf De By (2001), Principles of Remote sensing, ITC, Enschede
3. Lillesand, T.M. & Kiefer, R.W. (2001) Remote sensing and image interpretation, 2nd
edn. John Wiley and sons, New York.
4. Schowengerdt, R. A. (1997) Remote sensing: Models and Methods for Image
Processing, Academic Press, London
5. Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E. Woods (2008) Digital Image Processing. Prentice
Hall.