After successful completion of the course, students are able to

• Apply the understanding of cartographic principles in theory and practice
• Create simple map projects in a GIS and make use of data of diverse sources and formats in those projects
• Understand the geodetic and technological foundations of geodata
• Engage analytically and critically with maps and cartographic depictions

Contents of the lecture:

• Introduction, relation to the overall curriculum, prerequisites and goals
• Cartographic communication model & paradigms of cartography
• Perceptual and psychological foundations of cartographic communication
• Coordinate systems, projections, projection parameters, EPSG-codes
• Coordinate systems and spatial reference systems of particular relevanve for Austria / EU / World
• Technological foundations of cartographic models, geodata models and -formats
• Scale and cartographic generalisation
• Overview of geodetic methods and methods for data collection
• Semantics and semiotics of cartographic models and visualisations
• Media-specific Cartography
• Cartographic products of particular relevance for Austria / EU / World
• Map layout
• Critical positions in and towards cartography
• Outlook, current cartographic research

Contents of the lab:

• Installation and configuration of the open-source GIS program QGIS
• Setup of a GIS map project
• Incorporation of data of diverse formats, spatial reference systems and character encodings
• Cartographic symbolization
• Attributes, computing attributes, attribute-dependent symbolization
• Automatic and manual generalisation
• Map Layout

• Lectures
• Participatory elements during lectures
• Lab tutorials (video)
• Lab assignments for practical application of the learned knowledge

• 4 lab assignments
• Multiple-choice test

• Basic familiarity of working with files (creating folders, renaming files etc.)
• Availability of a computer on which QGIS can be installed (Windows, Mac, Linux) is advantageous - If required, individual lab places can be made available.