GTECH 361 Introduction to GIScience Contact Information

GTECH 361 Introduction to GIScience

Contact Information Instructor: Jochen Albrecht Office: Hunter N 1030 Office hours: We, Th 2 -3 PM E-Mail: jochen@hunter. cuny. edu Phone: (212) 772 -5221 TA: Pyung Ho Kim E-Mail: phkim@hunter. cuny. edu

Course Overview n n GIScience is a lofty goal for this course Principles/fundamentals of GIS is a more realistic goal n n n Theory and practice GIS as a process Becoming a well-versed user of any GIS

Relationship to GTECH 201 n n n Revision of course contents of undergraduate offerings One-time slight overlap with Fall 04 GTECH 201 New software (Arc. GIS 9)

Texts n n Required: none Recommended (choice of) n n Burke et al 2004. Getting to Know Arc. GIS Desktop (updated for Arc. GIS 9). ESRI Press (but a lot cheaper from Amazon). Burrough, P and R Mc. Donnell 1998. Principles of GIS. Oxford: Oxford University Press. de. Mers, Michael 2004. Fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems. New York: Wiley. Worboys, M and M Duckham 2004. GIS: a computing perspective. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Policies n Attendance n Plagiarism n Special accommodations n Lab policies n Assignments

Criteria for Evaluation n 10 Quizzes 20% n 14 Lab exercises 50% n Midterm exam 15% n Final exam 15% n Hunter undergraduate grading scheme according to percentage of points accumulated over the semester.

Schedule Class # 1 2 L 1 3 L 2 4 L 3 5 L 4 6 L 5 7 L 6 8 Date Topic 01/28 GIScience and GIStudies 02/01 Storing geographic information 02/04 Lab 1: Getting started with Arc. GIS 02/08 Geographic data sources 02/15 Lab 2: Creating map symbology 02/18 Cartographic communication and geospatial visualization 02/22 Lab 3: Referencing data to real locations 02/25 Datums, projections, and coordinate systems 03/01 Lab 4: Organizing geographic data 03/04 Basic spatial queries 03/08 Lab 5: Creating and editing data 03/11 Secondary data 03/15 Lab 6: Exploring the geodatabases model 03/18 Midterm Exam

Class # L 7 9 L 8 10 L 9 11 L 10 12 L 11 13 L 12 14 L 13 L 14 Schedule Date 03/22 03/24 04/01 Topic Lab 7: Creating a geodatabases Advanced spatial queries Lab 8: Creating and editing features in a geodatabases 04/05 The third dimension 04/08 Lab 9: Adding behavior to a geodatabase 04/12 Raster GIS and map algeba 04/15 Lab 10: Getting started with GIS analysis 04/19 Spatial statistics and data quality 04/22 Lab 11: Geoprocessing and Modeling 05/03 GIS and society: social, legal, economic and organizational aspects 05/06 Lab 12: Designing maps with Arc. GIS 05/10 Review and final exam preparation 05/13 Lab 13: Working with Labels 05/17 Lab 14: Working with Annotation 05/19 - 05/22 Final (online) Exam

Course Web Site n n www. geo. hunter. cuny. edu/~jochen/GTECH 361 Lecture Power. Point slides Lab exercise instructions Lab exercise datasets

GIScience vs. GIStudies n GISystems (GIS) n n Emphasis on technology and tools GIScience (GISci) n Fundamental issues raised by the use of GIS and related technologies (e. g. ) n n n Spatial analysis Map projections n n Accuracy Scientific visualization GIStudies (GISt) n Systematic study of the use of geographic information

GIS as an Approach to Science n Geographic Information Science is research both on and with GIS. “the generic issues that surround the use of GIS technology, impede its successful implementation, or emerge from an understanding of its potential capabilities. ” (Goodchild, 1992)

The Science Behind n In the U. S. : geography, UCGIS n to GIS as statistics is to the statistical packages n The science behind the systems n Fundamental issues arising from use n The science that is done with the technology n Systematic study of geographic information using scientific methods

A New Discipline n Symptoms of a science n n n journals, terms, books, conferences, departments, heroes, cultural artifacts grand challenges What would we say to Albert Einstein or Stephen Hawking? n “As young man, my fondest dream was to become a geographer. However, while working in the customs office I thought deeply about the matter and concluded that it was far too difficult a subject. With some reluctance, I then turned to physics as a substitute. ”

Contributing Disciplines n n n Geography Remote Sensing Surveying Statistics Computer Science Information Science n n n Cartography Photogrammetry Geodesy Operations Research Mathematics Management Science

Major Journals/Magazines n n ¨ ¨ International Journal of Geographical Information Science Cartography and Geographic Information Science Geographical Systems Transactions in GIS Geo Info Systems GEOWorld (formerly GISWorld)

Specialty Journals n n n ¨ ¨ ¨ Business Geographics GIS Law Mapping Awareness Grass. Clippings Arc User Intergraph News ¨ GIS Europe GIS Asia/Pacific GIS World Report/CANADA

Regular GISci Scholarly Papers n n n Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing Annals of the Association of American Geographers Cartographica Computers, Environment, and Urban Systems Computers and Geosciences IEEE Transactions on Computer Graphics and Applications

Occasional GISci Scholarly Papers n n n n n International Journal of Remote Sensing Landscape Ecology Cartographic Perspectives Cartographica Journal of Cartography Geocarto International IEEE Geosciences Remote Sensing Review Mapping Science and Remote Sensing Infoworld

Professional Organizations n n n AAG: The Association of American Geographers. GITA: Geospatial Information & Technology Assoc. (formerly AM/FM) URISA: Urban and Regional Information Systems Association. ACSM: American Congress on Surveying and Mapping. ASPRS: American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. UCGIS: University Consortium for Geographic Information Science