Geographic Information Systems GEO481/506, Fall 2012 Tu Th 2:30-3:20pm, NSC 210 The course is offered three times a year

Instructor Ling Bian, 120 Wilkeson Office Hours Tu Th 4-5pm or by appts

Lab Wilkeson 145 LabA Tue: 6:30-7:50pm LabB Wed: 3:30-4:50pm LabB Wed: 3:30-4:50pm LabC Thur: 9:30-10:50am No lab in the first week

Access to WilkesonGIAL computer account printing account See Joe if there are still problems

Purpose There is a spatial component to all activities on the planet. Everything happens somewhere and knowing why and how these things happen at where and how these things are related to each other are important for us to fully understand the spatial phenomena. This course provides a general introduction to geographic information systems that help study these spatial phenomena. The goal of the course is to help students understand principles, application, and techniques of geographic information systems (GIS).

This is the introductory course of a series of GIS courses offered in the Geography Department. The lecture is divided in four sections. The first section introduces basics of a GIS system. The second section discusses GIS Data and their sources. The third section focuses on GIS functions in order to extract spatial information from geographic data. The fourth section covers GIS applications. GIS is useful to virtually any discipline that uses geographic information. The course should benefit students from a wide range of background.

A series of laboratory exercises are designed to help students familiarize with basic GIS operations. ArcGIS will be used as the primary software. Digital data of various themes will be used for the lab exercises. Students will gain experience with the following techniques: manipulating GIS data, querying spatial and attribute data, spatial join, projection, GPS, geocoding, 3D view, analysis, and online mapping applications. Labs

Text Lo, C.P. and Yeung, A. K.W. 2002, 2007 Concepts and Techniques of Geographic Information Systems. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Annotated Bibliography Each graduate student is expected to review 10 GIS application articles and to develop an annotated bibliography for each article. The 10 articles should be from refereed journals. At the end of the semester, graduate students are expected to develop a summary of these bibliographies and present the summary to the class.

Annotated Bibliography.. The 10 articles should cover one topic of student's interest. The bibliography should briefly describe (1) the reference of the article, (2) the purpose of the study, (3) the data used for the study, and (4) the GIS analysis used for the study. The weekly bibliography is due on Thursdays.

Annotated Bibliography.. The weekly bibliography should be typed in less than one double-spaced page. Each bibliography will be given a maximum of 10 points. The bibliographies account for 10% of the total grade for graduate students.

A Sample Reference Cowen, D.J., GIS versus CAD versus DBMS: What are the differences? Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 54(11):

Journals that cover GIS ► Cartography and Geographic Information Systems ► Computers and Geosciences ► Computers, Environment and Urban Systems ► International Journal of Geographical Information Science ► Journal of Geographical Systems ► Transactions in GIS

Project Proposal Graduate students are expected to develop a proposal for a project that uses GIS.

Grading System Undergraduate Graduate Mid-term exam 30% 25% Final exam 30% 25% Lab exercises40%30% Bibliography 10% Project Proposal 10% Total 100% 100% You will earn two identical grades for the lecture and the lab. The exams will be mostly based on lectures

Grad cut-off A A B B B C C C D D F<60

Tentative Schedule I. GIS System Aug 30Course introduction Sep 1 Definition of GIS Sep 1 Definition of GIS 6 Coordinate systems 6 Coordinate systems 8 Map projections (first bibli due) 8 Map projections (first bibli due) 13 Data models and data structures 13 Data models and data structures 15 Databases 15 Databases

Tentative Schedule (2) II. GIS Data Sep 20 Remote Sensing 22 GPS 22 GPS 27 digital elevation models 27 digital elevation models Oct 4 TIGER data Oct 4 TIGER data 6 Natural resources data 6 Natural resources data 11 Data quality 13 Mid Term Exam 11 Data quality 13 Mid Term Exam 18 Visualization 18 Visualization

Tentative Schedule (3) III. GIS Analysis Oct 20GIS analysis and modeling 25GIS analysis and modeling 25GIS analysis and modeling 27 Guest speaker 27 Guest speaker Nov 1 GIS analysis and Modeling 3Guest speaker 3Guest speaker 8GIS software 8GIS software 10New trends in GIS 10New trends in GIS

Tentative Schedule (4) IV. GIS Application Nov 15,17,22,29, Dec 1,6 Student presentations (1, last bibliography due) Dec 8 Conclusions Final Exam: Dec 15 (Thur) 3:30-6:30pm, 170 Fillmore

Plagiarism What is plagiarism and how to avoid it: defence-minister-resigns-plagiarism defence-minister-resigns-plagiarism

Expectation After this course, you should be comfortable to be a good GIS intern.