Data management

The course aims at providing the basic concepts of data management, with focus on structured databases and on unstructured (big) data. Basic concepts of relational database systems and of the SQL query language are provided. To develop a deeper understanding of the relational data management in real contexts, examples of relational data schemas and SQL queries formulation for selective data extraction are presented and discussed. Recent and innovative NoSQL solutions for unstructured data management are also illustrated, with special focus on the MongoDB document-oriented system and on basic concepts of the Python scripting language, to interact with a MongoDB database for data extraction and manipulation purposes.
The contents of this course are essential to provide the students a sufficient background in data management that will be applied first in subsequent classes (in particular in the laboratories), and later on in their professional career when monitoring, analysing and addressing natural resource management issues.

· Knowledge and understanding.
Students are expected to be able to understand relational database schemas and languages.
Students are expected to be able to understand the principles of data organization in NoSQL systems with basic notions of scripting programming with the Python language.

· Applying knowledge and understanding.
Students will be able to describe the meaning, the properties, the relationships, and the constraints featuring data stored in a database.
Students will be able to apply concepts, models, and languages introduced in the course to formulate SQL queries over a database schema, with appropriate conditions to filter and retrieve target data satisfying specific user needs, also referring to real databases in environmental contexts.
Students will be able to apply NoSQL concepts and Python programming principles illustrated in the course for data extraction, aggregation, and manipulation over a MongoDB database.