Geographic Information Systems I (GEOG 488/588)
Draft Syllabus

NOTE: Due to a personal health issue, I will NOT be teaching this course for Fall '07

Please refer to Mike Mertens' home page for reference to the Fall '07 course offeringFall 2007 Class Sections meet: CRN: 11463/11489 4/588
Lecture: Wed 17:30 - 21:10 in 418 Cramer Hall
Labs: choose ONE of the following sections:
Mon 17:50-20:10 469 Cramer Hall
Tues 18:40-21:00 469 Cramer Hall
Wed 14:00-16:20 469 Cramer Hall
(note: you may attend ANY lab session, but need to be registered for one of these)

Instructor: Mark Bosworth
Email: bosworth@pdx.edu
Office: 424N Cramer Hall
Office Hours:  by appointment only.

Lab Instructor: Beth Goralski goralski@pdx.edu
 TA/Project Assistance: Minott Kerr kerrm@metro.dst.or.us



UPDATES Check here for announcements and updates related to class events etc...

PRESENTATIONS Presentation materials in PDF...posted weekly - as soon as I finish them!

GUEST SPEAKERS I've arranged for a number of people from around the region to come and present their work in GIS. These are colleagues and friends in the GIS community who have a great deal of practical experience to bring to the discussions. This is an important and exciting element of this course, and I'm sure you'll find them interesting.

MINOTT'S CORNER Advice and tools...tricks and thoughts about GIS data and techniques.

Course Objectives

GEOG 488/588 is an introductory course covering the theory and application of geographic information systems (GIS). The course includes an overview of the general principles of GIS and practical experience in its use. The practical component involves the use of desktop GIS software packages including ArcGIS and Spatial Analyst . Both the theoretical and practical components of the course are important.  Without a theoretical understanding of GIS methods you will make bad geographic modeling decisions and when necessary you will not be able to migrate to a new or different GIS software package.  Without a practical understanding of GIS software your theoretical knowledge cannot be put to use.  We will have an active learning environment, which means that students should be ready to participate and contribute to the class.  Graduate students must also complete a final project in which they investigate a GIS application in depth.

Text and Readings

The text for this course is "Geographic Information Systems and Science, Second Edition" which was written by Longley, Goodchild, Maguire, and Rhind: John Wiley & Sons (2005). The book that will be used for the practical component is "Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop" by Environmental Systems Research Inc. (ESRI), 2001 . The books are available at the Portland State Bookstore and from Amazon.com .  Both books are required.

The lecture component of this course consists of discussions of the readings and therefore you should have read the material before class. Students are expected to come to class ready to be active participants in the discussion. Therefore, class attendance and participation are required.

Practical Component: Lab work

During the lab sessions you will do practical GIS exercises on the computers. If you do not finish the labs during the assigned time periods the lab also has open hours. The practical exercises provide a way to acquire skills using ArcGIS and other software packages and to apply the course concepts to real data.  Computers in CH 469/475 both have ArcGIS 9.1 installed.  The labs are open when classes are not scheduled in these rooms.    The labs are due by noon Friday the week after they are assigned in the TA's mailbox in Cramer Hall room 424.  You can also give them to the TA during the lab section, or you are welcome to leave them with the instructor (Bosworth) in class on Wed.

Graduate Project

SInce this is a "slash" course, there are different requirements for undergraduates and graduate students. Graduate students are required to do an independent project in GIS. This will be a major portion of your grade (see below) and will require exposure to the research literature in GIS as well as independent data collection and analysis. This can be a very rewarding and instructive experience, and can be used as an opportunity to explore and develop potential thesis topics for your degree requirements. Undergraduate students are encouraged to consider developing a project as well. Graduate Student Project assignment details...

Undergraduate "mini-project"

Undergraduates will be assigned an extra computer lab where they will explore a defined research problem and perform spatial analysis. There will be two weeks to complete the mini-project.

Grading

Undergrads:
Lab Assignments 40%
Midterm 25%
Participation 10%
Final 25%

Grads:
Lab Assignments 25%
Midterm 20%
Participation 10%
Final 20%
Project 25%

Schedule of Lectures and Readings, Links to Labs, and Links to Discussion Questions

Date
Primi
Discussion Topic/ Readings		 Secundo 
Discussion Topic/ Readings		 Lab
Week 1
Sept. 27th		  Course Overview/Introductions
A Gallery of Applications
(Pages 36-60)		 Lab 1: Introduction to ArcGIS
Week 2
Oct. 4th		 Representing Geography
(Pages 63-82)		 Georeferencing
(Pages 109-126)		 Lab 2: Symbology and Classification
Week 3
Oct. 11th		 The Nature of Geographic Data
(Pages 85-107)		 Uncertainty, Generaliztion, Abstraction, and Metadata
(Pages 127-153)		 Lab 3: Projections; Data Aquisition and Transfer
Week 4
Oct. 18th		 GIS Software
(Pages 157-175)
 Geographic Data Modeling
(Pages 177-216)

 Lab 4: Querying Data; Joins, Relates, and Selecting Features by Location
Week 5
Oct. 25th		 GIS Data Collection
(Pages 199-216)
Midterm Distributed Project Outline Due 		Creating and Maintaining Geographic Databases
(Pages 217-239)		 Lab 5: Preparing Data for Analysis and Spatial Analysis
Week 6
Nov. 1st		 Visualization and User Interaction
(Pages 289-313)
Midterm Due		 Geographic Query and Analysis
(Pages 315-339)
 Lab 6: Building a Geodatabase; Creating and Editing Features and Attributes
Week 7
Nov. 8th		 Advanced Spatial Analysis
(Pages 341-362)
 Spatial Modelling and GIS
(Pages 363-382)
 Lab 7: Geocoding Addresses and Creating Maps
Week 8
Nov. 15th
Management: Operational Aspects of GIS
(Pages 385-424)
 Policy: GIS & Society
(Pages 425-470)
 Lab 8: Creating Models and Vector Analysis
Week 9
Nov. 22th		 Thanksgiving Holiday No Classes Lab 9: Introduction to Raster analysis using Spatial Analyst
Week 10
Nov 29th		 Project Presentations

Final Exam Distributed
 Project Presentations Lab 10: Undergraduate "mini project"
Finals Week
Dec. 6th		 Project Presentations

FinalExams Due		 Project Presentations Goodbye!

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