UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Course and Code: Global Positioning Systems– HGGIS206 (24 course credits)
Instructor: Mrs. F. Zengeya
Office: B6, Department of Geography & Environmental Science Building
Venue: A4, Geography Lecture Theatre
Email: zengeyaf@gis.uz.ac.zw
Mobile: 0773401261

Course Description
This course aims to provide an understanding of graphical and spatial concepts and skills of
plane surveying for students of the built environment, who are not intending to study higher
courses in surveying. The course develops problem solving skills in relation to practical
surveying problems and group work and technical report writing skills. The course includes
the Zimbabwe coordinate system, introduction to reduction of observations to a reference
surface and projection to a mapping surface. Joins, polars, understanding error, traversing,
theodolite and level instruments and their calibration, height determination by levelling and
trigonometric heighting, distance measurement, tacheometry and map creation and
interpretation, GIS as a tool for representation and analysis of spatial data, construction
surveying: setting out of horizontal works and vertical alignment, calculation of volumes
from plan, introduction to GPS as a data collection tool.

Methods of Instruction

The course is a combination of lectures, laboratory exercises, field trips and assignments.
Formal presentation of theoretical material will be presented via lectures. The written
assignments and computer-based laboratory exercises will use different spatial data sets.
After completing this course, students will be able to apply their understanding of global
environmental change to different fields of earth systems science.

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Course Outline

 Introduction

 Types of satellites and their platforms
o Geostationary satellites
o Polar orbiting satellites
o Satellite orbit and Swath
 Global Positioning System (GNSS)
 Survey theory and electro-optical methods
 Land law

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 12
Individual assignment 4
Supervised Fieldwork 8
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. 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. Geonetcast Handbook
6. EUM TD 15 (2010): TD15 - EUMETCast, EUMETSAT’s Broadcast System for Environmental Data.
Technical description, Issue 5b, 8 February, 2010. EUMETSAT, Darmstadt, Germany.
http://www.eumetsat.int/website/home/Data/DataDelivery/ EUMETCast/ReceptionStationSetup/index.html
7. Group on Earth Observation (GEO):
http://www.earthobservations.org
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 http://www.earthobservations.org/geoss.php?smid=500
8. EUMETSAT: http://www.eumetsat.int
http://www.eumetsat.int/website/home/Data/DataDelivery/EUMETCast/index.html
9. GEONETCast Product Navigator: http://navigator.eumetsat.int/
10. Earth Observation Portal: https://eoportal.eumetsat.int