Geography 363: "Geographic Information Systems"

This course describes and explains the principles of Geographic Information Science. Given an overall introduction in Geography 160 about the special characteristics of spatial data and how our earth is measured and mapped, Geography 363 focuses upon how to input data and how to develop solutions to geographic analysis and modeling tasks using GIS (Geographic Information Systems).

The purpose of this course is to familiarize the student with how GIS can be used as a methodology for geographic data handling and analysis, and to provide a firm basis for further work in Geographic Information Science in practical application or in follow-on courses. A key component of this is to be able to easily adapt to changes in technology and software environments given an understanding of the concepts involved.

When finished with this course, the student should:

have a broad-based understanding of the principles of Geographic Information Science
have an understanding of how GIS can be used as a methodology for geographic data handling and analysis for a variety of applications
have an understanding of the overall capabilities, as well as the limitations of current GIS software packages
be able to use the more important and frequently used capabilities of some widely-used software package
be able to design and carry out spatial analyses using GIS
be able to work in a team environment to solve complex spatial problems
be able to communicate the results of geographic analyses to others, both in oral and in written from.

This course has a laboratory as well as a lecture component. The purpose of the laboratory component is to elaborate upon the concepts covered during the lecture times, and to provide practical, hands-on experience to reinforce those concepts using a commercial GIS used in many government and industry contexts.

The last several weeks of lab is devoted to a final project. In the final project, the student selects and designs as well as performs a complete GIS analysis and presents the results in lab at the end of the semester. The purpose is in part to demonstrate how well the student has integrated the concepts and software skills acquired through the semester, and in part to let the student 'do their own thing' in an application area of interest.

Instructor: David Fyfe