GIS Training for Animal Health in Aquaculture: A Structured Methodology

Abstract

The expansion of the aquaculture sector offers important economic opportunities but also presents significant challenges, particularly in disease management and prevention. Geographic Information Systems (GISs) have become essential tools for supporting aquatic animal health activities. However, despite their benefits, GISs are still underutilized, particularly in developing countries. To promote the adoption of GISs among aquaculture professionals, a specialized GIS course was developed to improve the prowess of users, equipping them with geospatial analysis skills aimed at epidemiological surveillance and disease response in aquaculture. This study describes a GIS capacity-building initiative developed under the Aquae Strength project. The training approach focuses on the context-specific use of geospatial data and practical applications, and provides a learning environment that fosters autonomy through hands-on, problem-based learning. The program utilizes the open-source QGIS software version 3.28 and incorporates customized materials and exercises based on real-world aquaculture scenarios. The authors hypothesized that the course, due to its cost-effectiveness and use of open-source software, would be particularly beneficial in low- and middle-income settings. The methodological framework described is explicitly designed for easy replication, allowing aquaculture professionals worldwide to download all the course materials and implement similar GIS capacity-building initiatives. The project was funded by the Italian Ministry of Health and supported by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). It runs from February 2022 to February 2025, with a one-year extension.

1. Introduction

The global development of aquaculture is creating employment opportunities and generating profits [1]. However, diseases continue to have a significant economic impact on the sector each year, and reducing costs caused by disease outbreaks remains a major challenge [2]. In this context, effective epidemiological control is essential to ensure the sector’s long-term success. To mitigate the spread of pathogens, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) has identified and maintains a list of notifiable diseases that require mandatory global reporting, as they pose a significant threat to aquatic animals’ health [3,4]. This regulatory framework oversees aquaculture activities worldwide, with a strong emphasis on disease prevention, food safety, and economic sustainability. Addressing these challenges requires interdisciplinary collaboration and the adoption of innovative tools and strategies. In response, aquaculture operations have increasingly explored and implemented solutions tailored to the specific needs of their facilities. In recent years, the use of GISs in Aquatic Animal Health (AAH) has grown significantly, with major organizations, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, recognizing GIS crucial role in the sector [5]. GISs in aquaculture are a versatile tool, supporting a wide range of applications, such as epidemiological investigations [6], early detection, prevention, and prediction of disease spread [7], as well as the development of thematic maps and tools for efficient disease outbreak reporting [8,9]. Moreover, GISs support the planning and management of aquaculture by defining management areas and contributing to the development of sustainable fishing programs [10]. Despite these advantages, GISs remain underutilized, and the wide range of their potential applications is not fully exploited [11,12]. In particular, introducing GIS tools in developing countries engaged in aquaculture presents a significant challenge, due to limited data infrastructure and constrained resources [8]. For example, data collection in aquaculture is complicated by the lack of automated tools, the time-consuming nature of the process, the vast areas that need monitoring, and the frequent changes in infrastructure and farm licenses that can occur [13]. Furthermore, many developing nations do not have the necessary platforms to maintain available databases for aquatic production [14].

To address this challenge, various capacity-building initiatives have been implemented [8]. Capacity building typically involves structured activities designed to improve individuals’ abilities to achieve specific goals, often through a learning path that prioritizes autonomy. Empowering individuals, groups, and organizations as cohesive systems is critical to enabling sustainable capacity development [15]. In this context, it is essential to highlight the significance of the trainer, who aids participants to attain autonomy in GIS skills by utilizing the scaffolding tools. Scaffolding entails the provision of temporary assistance or support to participants to enhance their capacity to acquire new knowledge or skills. In the context of capacity building, Bruner’s scaffolding approach emphasizes the crucial role of an expert trainer or a more skilled peer in assisting and supporting participants as they progress through a learning task [16]. In 2022, the Aquae Strength project was funded by the Italian Ministry of Health and supported by the WOAH to strengthen AAH management systems in four beneficiary countries through targeted technical assistance. The project’s operational plan placed a strong emphasis on building GIS capacity among participants from beneficiary countries by offering training that equips them with the skills needed to define, design, implement, and manage GIS projects that support effective AAH activities. The training was required to be particularly focused on promoting GISs as a tool for AAH surveillance and response. Consequently, a dedicated GIS course was developed and optimized for users with limited or no prior experience in GISs, both in general and within the specific context of the AAH sector. This paper aims to describe how this activity was organized and developed, with the goal of contributing to scientific knowledge regarding GIS training, and offers a replicable model to promote geospatial competencies within the AAH sector.

2. Materials and Methods

The course utilizes the open-source software QGIS, specifically version 3.28 Long-Term Release (LTR), which can be downloaded from the QGIS official webpage https://qgis.org/ (accessed on 25 March 2025). The term “LTR version” denotes a software version that receives support with bug fixes for at least one year until a new LTR version is released. The teaching material is specifically tailored to the aquatic context. Consequently, the practical component of the course has been carefully crafted with a strong focus on GIS applications in the aquaculture sector, covering both freshwater and marine environments. This was developed under the guidance of an experienced AAH veterinarian team. The training program follows a structure combining theoretical presentations with practical exercises to engage participants in learning through problem solving. Trainers are available throughout the course to support participants and help them overcome any difficulties. All theoretical and practical course materials, exercises, and datasets utilized during the training are freely accessible from a dedicated website of the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie http://gis.izsvenezie.it/gis-courses/aquaegiscourse/ (accessed on 2 April 2025). The website was developed in HTML, PHP, and JavaScript languages. The site, designed with a simple and intuitive interface, allows users to download content without requiring registration or the provision of personal data. It is organized into three main sections: “Home”, “Programme”, and “Lecturers”. In the first section, there is an overview of the course, along with an intuitive button for downloading the full course folder as a zip file for free. The second section describes the conceptual days of the course, while the third section presents all the staff involved in the course production. Downloaded materials are organized by day, and theoretical content is clearly distinguished from practical content. Presentations are provided as PDFs converted from PowerPoint slides. Practical exercises can be easily followed using the provided QGIS projects, shapefiles, and raster datasets.

The course is structured to cover 5 days of in-person lessons, totaling 35 h. It begins with a roundtable session where participants introduce themselves to create an open and collaborative environment. Moreover, this initial meeting sets a positive tone for the training week and is followed by the start of theoretical modules.

2.1. In-Person GIS Course Summary

• Day 1—GISs in Aquaculture and Introduction to QGIS

This segment encompasses the fundamental GIS concepts, providing participants with definitions and applications within the context of aquaculture. The focus is on elucidating how GISs can be beneficial in this sector. Additionally, the lesson introduces the use of GISs in aquaculture and presents the open-source QGIS software. The lesson content covers an exploration of the QGIS interface and imparts to participants an understanding a GIS’s key features and map symbology, along with instruction on handling the feature-attribute relationship.

• Day 2—Understanding Coordinate Reference Systems and Using Raster and Vector Data

The second day of the course is dedicated to participants’ understanding of Coordinate Reference Systems (CRSs), a crucial aspect of GIS project development. This session deepens participants’ understanding of cartographic and geodetic projections by introducing various types of map projections. Two fundamental data models used in GIS software are presented: the raster and vector data models. In the theoretical part, participants are introduced into the critical differences between raster and vector data by using the classical approach presented by Tomlinson [17] and developed by Goodchild [18] and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara, United States [19]. In the context of GIS projects for AAH, vector data are used to represent discrete features, i.e., objects with clear boundaries and defined shapes. These include elements such as rivers (lines), lakes and basins (polygons), marine regions, and marine protected areas. Vector data also include veterinary-related entities like fish farms (points) and areas affected by aquatic animal disease outbreaks (polygons). On the other hand, raster data are employed for continuous phenomena, where values change gradually over space. Examples include temperature variations or an orthophoto of a river. Raster data are organized into a grid of cells, each with an assigned value representing the measured attribute (e.g., temperature, depth). This format is ideal for modeling remotely sensed information. The theoretical part of Day 2 is followed by a series of practical exercises focused on the participants using the two data models. The session concludes with the development of thematic maps that combine vector and raster data, leveraging QGIS tools and layout functions to produce clear and informative map layouts. This approach ensures that participants not only understand the concepts but also acquire the skills needed to effectively communicate spatial information through maps.

• Day 3—Querying and Editing Geospatial Data

On Day 3 of the course, participants delve into selecting and querying data based on specific attributes and locations. The session also trains participants, through practical exercises, to modify geographic data using various geometry types. Set in the context of a fish farm, these exercises provide participants with hands-on experience in data manipulation through activities aimed at creating, editing, and deleting spatial geometry, such as points, lines, and polygons.

• Day 4—Joining and Global Positioning System

This lesson covers various QGIS-related topics where participants explore the joining process, and they learn to create buffers and use the global positioning system (GPS). Participants grasp how to join attributes tables, merge data from another layer based on location, and work with sampled data imported by GPS. Outdoor practical exercises are included, giving participants the opportunity to collect data using a GPS-enabled smartphone, transfer it to a computer after installing a specific free app, and work with it in QGIS.

• Day 5—GIS Project and Self-Assessment

Towards the end of the course, participants are tasked with completing a comprehensive GIS project that requires the practical application of their acquired knowledge. The project involves working with the primary administrative data levels in their respective countries and collecting new data related to disease outbreaks for proximity analysis. Upon completion, participants present their findings, typically in the form of maps, and complete a post-course evaluation questionnaire.

A distinctive element of the GIS training was testing the Salmonopoly GIS prototype during in-person pilot courses with participants from three of the beneficiary countries. The aim of Salmonopoly is to reinforce participants’ understanding through interactive exercises based on a cartoon scenario (Figure 1).

This scenario adapts real-world situations from the in-person courses for the online environment, enabling participants to apply key GIS techniques in AAH.

2.2. Pilot Courses and Questionnaire

The course was piloted twice, first in November 2023 with two participants and again in March 2024 with five participants, for a pooled sample of seven project participants (n = 7). For confidentiality reasons, neither the countries of origin nor the number of participants from each country in each session are disclosed.

Both pilots followed the standard five-day program and concluded with an anonymous 16-item questionnaire designed to (i) verify whether the stated learning objectives were achieved and (ii) collect informative feedback for refining content and logistics. The structure of the post-course evaluation questionnaire is demonstrated in

Table 1. Structure of the post-course evaluation questionnaire administered at the two pilot deliveries.

Category	Closed-Ended Items	Open-Ended Items	Scale	Purpose
Technical performance	8	2	* 7-point Likert	Lectures, hands-on practice, timing
Organisation	4	2	* 7-point Likert	Venue, travel, accommodation, catering

Notes(s): * (1 = Unacceptable … 7 = Excellent).

. Ratings were based on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = unacceptable, 7 = excellent).

These pilot courses were designed to provide the authors with information regarding how well the course worked in practice; for this purpose, a small number of participants and the use of a questionnaire were considered acceptable. The primary aims were to identify usability issues, ensure the full content could be delivered effectively within the 5-day format, and assess the feasibility of delivering the course to an international target audience.

3. Results

The GIS course followed the well-structured sequence of thematic days (described above), each designed to progressively build participants’ knowledge and practical skills. The first two days were dedicated to the foundations: organizing GIS projects and working with spatial data. On the third day, participants actively engaged in generating new data, while the fourth day emphasized the integration of external datasets into their projects. The final day offered a practical application opportunity, as each participant was assigned an individual project tailored to consolidate the skills they had acquired throughout the course. This pedagogical approach, which blended theory with problem solving and practice, enabled participants to build a solid understanding of essential GIS concepts and apply them immediately through thematic exercises aligned with each day’s focus. By reinforcing the material through hands-on practice, participants reported to us that they had increased confidence in their ability to use GIS tools effectively. The course structure not only enhanced participants’ technical capabilities but also encouraged critical thinking on how geospatial information supports decision-making processes in AAH. The built-in cartoon-style graphical format learning tool, Salmonopoly, provided an intuitive and engaging way for participants to visualize aquaculture scenarios. The Salmonopoly environment includes clearly depicted, interactive geographic objects—such as fish farms, water bodies, sampling sites, and disease control zones—that represent real-world entities in a simplified but functionally accurate manner. These objects are not only selectable but also trigger context-specific events or scenarios, helping participants to explore and understand spatial relationships and dynamic interactions between components of the aquatic production system.

Building on the success of the materials and exercises developed for the in-person course, a complementary, advanced e-learning course has been designed and is nearing completion; the authors expect it to be available by the end of 2025. Once finalized, it will be hosted on the WOAH learning platform. This online course employs the same modular and thematic framework as the in-person course, ensuring content consistency, while enhancing accessibility and offering a flexible, continuous learning pathway. The objective of the online course is to offer a blended learning experience that allows participants to deepen their GIS skills at their own pace, while reinforcing key concepts through targeted exercises and interactive examples. However, the online course will also leverage the Salmonopoly environment, adapting it specifically to the context of GIS training. Another key feature of the overall GIS training strategy offered in this study is the important hybrid delivery model, combining in-person learning with freely available online materials. The full suite of course content, including all lecture slides, tutorials, and exercises, is accessible online, ensuring flexibility and continuity in a participant’s learning journey. This dual-mode delivery creates a synergistic experience: the classroom sessions have been specifically designed to frequently reference online materials, encouraging participants to revisit and explore topics independently. Furthermore, this approach facilitates follow-up and peer interaction beyond the course itself, nurturing an ongoing learning community focused on GISs in aquaculture.

3.1. Descriptive Analysis of the Post-Course Evaluation Questionnaire

All seven pilot course participants returned fully completed forms (response rate = 100%).

Table 2. Descriptive statistics for participants’ responses to the pilot course evaluation questionnaire: mean and standard deviation (SD).

Domain/Item	MEAN (SD) (1 = Unacceptable 7 = Excellent)
TECHNICAL PERFORMANCE
Overall standard of the training	6.57 (0.53)
Training met expectations	6.14 (1.07)
Aims and objectives met	6.29 (0.76)
Lectures well-structured	6.29 (0.49)
Exercises coherent with theory	6.29 (0.76)
Enough time for presentations	6.29 (1.11)
Enough time for questions and answers	6.43 (0.79)
Enough time for hands-on work	6.29 (0.95)
Mean:	6.32 (0.63)
ORGANISATION
Accommodation	6.29 (1.11)
Travel arrangements	6.43 (1.13)
Course venue	6.71 (0.49)
Catering	6.29 (1.11)
Mean:	6.46 (0.83)

presents descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) for each item rated, grouped under two categories: technical performance and organization.

Scores clustered in the upper end of the 7-point scale, indicating a uniformly positive reaction to both the technical content and the course logistics. Open-ended answers (n = 4 questions) revealed the following themes: (i) requests for the course to be of longer duration and to deliver more advanced GIS content, and; (ii) overall satisfaction with organization. Preliminary empirical findings from the pilot course questionnaire evaluation are presented in Table 2, which reports descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) for each questionnaire item, alongside composite scores for technical performance (mean = 6.32, SD = 0.63) and organization (mean = 6.46, SD = 0.83). These findings confirmed that the pilot course met its learning objectives, and moreover, the questionnaire provided the authors with clear guidance for minor refinements before this GIS training course is offered to a larger audience.

3.2. Capacity-Building Model of the GISs in Aquaculture QGIS Training Course

The course was designed with a focus on practical application and accessibility, particularly for professionals working in resource-limited environments. This course framework is guided by the key principles outlined by the Kellogg Foundation [20]; see

Table 3. Illustrative logic model of the GISs in aquaculture QGIS training course.

Element	Key Components
Inputs	Funding—Italian Ministry of Health Support—WOAH Open-source QGIS 3.28 LTR Curated aquaculture datasets GIS trainers
Activities	5-day (35 h) in-person course Thematic, hands-on exercises (Days 1–5) Interactive sessions Hybrid delivery with freely available online materials
Outputs	Solid grasp of core GIS concepts Individual GIS project completed by each participant Lecture slides, tutorials and datasets available online for open access
Outcomes	Participants apply GIS immediately in AAH tasks Ongoing peer interaction
Impact	Strong GIS capacity in the AAH sphere world-wide Well-informed disease-management decisions Foundation for sustainable, replicable capacity-building in low- and middle-income settings

.

This logic model offers a structured overview of the GISs in aquaculture QGIS training course, connecting essential inputs, activities, and expected outcomes. It provides a clear framework for understanding, adapting, and implementing the course in AAH contexts. The open-access format allows institutions to reuse the materials and conduct training in their own operational environments.

4. Discussion

The adoption of QGIS as the primary software for the GIS training course was driven by the free availability of this software. This choice is particularly important for individuals and institutions initiating GIS activities, as commercial alternatives can be prohibitively expensive. The high cost of proprietary software often is a major barrier to capacity-building efforts and long-term sustainability in resource-limited settings. QGIS, on the other hand, offers a comprehensive suite of functionalities comparable to commercial platforms, is accessible through its core application, and provides an extensive range of user-contributed plugins. Moreover, the strong and active global QGIS community ensures that users benefit from a wealth of documentation, tutorials, training resources, and ongoing plugin development. This dynamic support ecosystem significantly enhances the platform’s usability and flexibility, making it suitable for a wide range of users, from beginners to advanced professionals [21]. To the best of our knowledge, the GIS training course described by us is the first to leverage the open-source software, QGIS, for this purpose and to incorporate hands-on modules specifically tailored to AAH. While we acknowledge the limitations posed for our analysis by the scarcity of comparable courses, we remain confident in the potential positive impact of our approach. By aligning course materials with real-world aquaculture datasets and workflows, and ensuring full accessibility, we provide a replicable model aimed at fostering sustainable GIS capacity development within the AAH sector. To enrich the learning experience and properly equip aquaculture professionals, course exercises were tailored using datasets from participants’ home countries. This localized approach not only increased great practical relevance of the content, but also encouraged peer-to-peer exchanges, fostering collaborative problem-solving and deeper engagement with the material. The result was a training environment that felt, as our participants reported, immediately applicable to real-world contexts, reinforcing the core principles of geospatial analysis.

However, the GIS training course described herein is only the initial step in integrating geospatial tools into the AAH sector. The Aquae Strength project has emphasized the need for complementary tools and guidance to ensure long-term adoption and user independence. As part of this broader vision, several key support components have been identified: (i) an operational framework for designing and managing GIS projects in the AAH sector; (ii) a feature concept catalog that defines and describes the most relevant spatial entities used in GIS applications for AAH; (iii) a protocol for accessing and leveraging major geospatial data repositories to provide essential background information for spatial analyses (authors’ own data).

The GIS in-person training was conducted during capacity-building activities and received highly positive feedback from participants. They particularly appreciated the practical relevance of the content and the explicit connection between GIS techniques and the real-world challenges they face in aquaculture management. Several attendees expressed a desire to replicate the training within their institutions, recognizing the course’s dual value: immediate capacity-building and long-term knowledge transfer potential. A particularly innovative element supporting this ecosystem was the development of Salmonopoly, a modular virtual environment designed to enhance communication and interaction with learners during GIS training. Salmonopoly addresses one of the core challenges in teaching GISs in aquaculture: the inherent complexity and variability of aquatic environments, which are often difficult to generalize through static photographs or textual descriptions. Inspired by the Aquae Strength team, which is responsible for capacity-building in aquaculture surveillance, this simplified, cartoon-style environment illustrates aquaculture settings—from farms to outbreak points—and provides an interactive way to visualize and experiment with spatial relationships. The user-friendly and accessible nature of Salmonopoly helped deepen participants’ conceptual understanding while contextualizing the use of geospatial data within broader AAH frameworks. Salmonopoly was designed to provide a shared, integrated environment usable across multiple courses, both GIS-focused and surveillance-related. Thanks to its modular architecture, Salmonopoly can be continuously expanded with new layers, objects, and simulated events. This flexibility allows trainers to build custom training scenarios (e.g., disease outbreak response, surveillance planning, spatial risk assessment), making it a powerful tool for illustrating complex workflows and engaging learners in problem-solving exercises. What made Salmonopoly particularly valuable as a teaching tool was its interactivity. All geographic elements were selectable and dynamic: clicking on objects triggered scenarios and events designed to explain how they interacted with each other and with their surrounding environment. For example, selecting a farm might reveal simulated disease events, water quality parameters, or connectivity to other farms. These interactive elements allowed participants to explore complex relationships in a risk-free, exploratory manner, which the authors believe should pedagogically result in participants acquiring deep conceptual understanding. In summary, the adoption of QGIS, the contextualization of exercises, and the integration of the innovative tool, Salmonopoly, combined to fulfill a strategic approach to GIS training that balanced accessibility, technical rigor, and learner engagement. Together with the complementary tools developed through Aquae Strength (not discussed herein), this training course provides a robust foundation for sustainable GIS adoption in the AAH sector; the authors anticipate it will empower professionals to navigate the challenges of aquaculture health management with data-driven spatial insights. This training course, both in-person and online, will address a critical gap in the availability of resources tailored specifically to geospatial applications in the AAH sector. The GIS training course introduces not only tools and techniques but also fosters a geospatial mindset among professionals working in AAH. By combining pedagogical innovation with technical relevance, the course empowers participants to integrate GISs into their daily work, promotes institutional capacity development for GISs, and lays the foundation for sustainable knowledge transfer within the sector. In conclusion, the GIS training, supported by Salmonopoly and soon to be expanded through a dedicated online platform, has successfully planted the seeds for long-term, worldwide growth in geospatial competence in personnel who deal with AAH. The blended approach, dynamic learning environment, and commitment to open access create a replicable model for future training efforts in AAH and beyond.

5. Conclusions

The GIS training course described in this study is a significant step toward enhancing AAH management capacity worldwide, but particularly in low- and middle-income countries. By tailoring the course to the specific challenges and opportunities within the AAH sector, the authors believe participants will gain essential spatial thinking skills and practical competencies in geospatial analysis, which are essential for effective epidemiological evaluation and decision making. At the institutional level, we anticipate that the application of these newly acquired skills will lead to improved workflows, stronger data-driven approaches, and enhanced overall performance. The modular design of the GIS training course enables flexibility and adaptability across a wide range of aquaculture systems and geographic contexts. This structure facilitates participants to integrate GIS tools into their daily practice and supports the continued use of GISs beyond the scope of the training itself. The forthcoming e-learning version of the course—expected to be available online by the end of 2025—will further increase its reach and accessibility. Designed to extend and complement the content of the in-person training, the online course will leverage interactive and scenario-based learning to strengthen both individual and institutional capacity on a broader scale. A key innovation supporting this educational approach is Salmonopoly, a modular virtual environment developed to assist participants in visualizing and interacting with complex aquatic systems. The use of Salmonopoly provides not only a pedagogical advantage by making spatial concepts more tangible and memorable, but also is a means to maintain engagement and promote experiential learning. This integrated approach not only enhances participants’ technical skills but also supports the institutional use of GISs within AAH management systems. We offer this GIS training course based on open-source software with the intent of fostering long-term improvements in surveillance, disease management, and evidence-based decision making across diverse aquaculture contexts.