Syllabus

GEOG70: Introduction to Geographic Information

Fall 2005

Instructor:  Gregory Taff 

Course Description: There is a spatial component to all activities on the planet. Everything happens somewhere and knowing where things happen and how they are related to each other are important for us to fully understand certain phenomena. This course provides a general survey of geographic data, including maps, photos, images, census data, and others. An emphasis is given to maps in digital format. Topics include geographic data structure, Global Positioning System (GPS), map projections, coordinate systems, remote sensing, spatial analysis and map design. Students will be provided with hands-on experience to work with ESRI’s software product, ArcGIS, which is becoming the standard in most U.S. industries and academia.  The goals are to help students:

  • Establish a geographic perspective of social and physical phenomena of the real world
  • Know the fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems
  • Understand the basic geographic data model
  • Be aware of the different types of Geographic Information and know where to go for data
  • Know how to bring Geographic Information into a Geographic Information System

Office hours: 11:00am to 12:00pm Monday and Wednesday

Other times by appointment only.

310 Saunders

Email: gtaff@email.unc.edu

 

Lab Instructors: 

Michael Bacon

Email: baconm@email.unc.edu

Office hours, room 324 Saunders:

      Monday 1 - 3,

 

Daisy Small

Email: mjsmall@email.unc.edu

Office hours, Saunders 320 

      Tues 2:30 - 4:00
      Thurs 3:50 - 5:00

 


Michael Bacon has created a helpful page to aid you in navigating through your labs:

Lab instructions: http://www.unc.edu/courses/2005fall/geog/070/001/labs/

 

Course folder:  /afs/isis/html/courses/2005fall/geog/070/001
Course website (to find this document online): http://www.unc.edu/courses/2005fall/geog/070/001/
 

Lab Sessions:

Wed: 2:00-2:50pm

Wed: 3:00-3:50pm

Thu:  2:00-2:50pm

Location: 322 Saunders
 

Grading Policy:

Final course grade will be determined as in the following:

Test 1: 15%

Test 2: 15%

Final Exam (cumulative): 30%

            Labs: 40%
 

Required Text Book:

Ian Heywood, Sarah Cornelius, and Steve Carver. 2002. An Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, Second edition, Pearson Education Limited Harlow, England.

Exams

Exam #1:  Friday, October 7 (in class)

Exam #2:  Wednesday, November 2 (in class)

Final exam:  Friday, December 16,  8:00am

Note: Please report to me any conflict with the final exam no later than Friday, November 4, 2005

 

 

GIS labs available to you on campus to complete lab assignments:

Saunders, room 322 (or 319) is available during TA section leader office hours only.

Resource: Odum Institute GIS Lab
Location: GIS Lab Manning Hall, Room 016
Hours:Monday - Thursday, 9am - 9pm, Friday, 9am - 5pm
Equipment: 12 machines specifically for GIS use, a Digitizing Tablet, a Color Printer (size up to 11x17), Black/White Printer, Server with 1 terabyte of disk space.
Assistance/Staff: Experienced GIS staff are on hand at times.
For more information, call 843-6051 or visit their website: http://www2.irss.unc.edu/irss/home.asp .

Resource: ITS Classrooms and Labs
Locations: Davis Library, Hinton James Residence Hall, Law School Library, R.B. House Undergraduate Library, School of Public Health, Student Union, and Venable
Hours: See the Current Lab Schedule
Equipment: Click here for lab hardware information. Click here for lab software information.
Assistance/Staff: The labs are staffed, but staff members may not be trained in GIS.
For more information, see: http://www.unc.edu/atn/labs/

Resource: Davis Library Geographic Information Systems
Location: Davis Library Reference
Hours: GIS Machines are available when the Reference Department is Open
Equipment: 4 PCs specifically for GIS use, Color Printer (size up to 11x17), Black/White Printer, Plotter: Hewlett Packard Design Jet Plotter 1055 CM, 36" wide (Please see our plotter policy ).
Assistance/Staff: By appointment. Contact Amanda Henley, GIS Librarian.
For more information, see: http://www.lib.unc.edu/reference/gis/gissoftware.html

 

Resource: Health Sciences Library (Microsoft) Media Kitchen
Location: Health Sciences Library, 2nd Floor
Hours: The Media Kitchens are available when the library is open.
Equipment: There are two Media Kitchens in HSL, one with two PCs and one with two Macintosh machines. The Microsoft Media Kitchen has two computers with GIS software installed. Each machine has two scanners connected to each computer. Each computer has a flopppy drive, a CD burner and a DVD drive. An HP inkjet printer and a plotter are also available.
Assistance/Staff: An orientation is required in order to use a media kitchen. For additional information, visit the Media Kitchen Guidelines website.

 

Topics (tentative, subject to change)                 

 

Course topics

Course notes (in course folder)

Heywood text chapter

Complete readings by: (dates will be updated throughout the semester)

1 Intro/GIS overview

1, 2

Chapter 1

September 7

2 GIS data

 

Chapter 2

 
  • Geodesy

3

 

 
  • Projections

4

pp. 20 – 34

September 12
  • Coordinate systems

5, extra reading

pp. 34 – 44

September 14

3 GIS data models

 

Chapter 3

 
  • Vector

6

pp. 46 – 59

September 16
  • Raster

7

 

 
  • Scale

8

 

 

4 Attribute data, remote sensing

9, 10, 11, 12

Chapter 4

September 26

5 Cartographic design, map creation, GIS output

13, 14
Test review 15, post-test 16,

17, exercise#1

Chapter 8

October 26

6 Data input, GPS, existing data sources

18, 19

Chapter 5

(optional)

7 Data error, metadata, accuracy, precision

20

Chapter 10

October 31

8 Data query, analysis, surfaces, network analysis

21, 22, 23, 24, exercise#2

Chapter 3
(pp. 59 – 70)

Chapter 6

November 7 (ch 3)

 

November 14 (ch 6)

9 Modeling, classification

25, exercise3, 26

Chapter 7, focus on pp. 141 - 153

November 30

10 Student-directed topic options:

  • Intro statistics
    • Data summaries
    • Hypothesis testing
    • Regression
  • GIS project management/organizational issues (chapters 11 and 12 in Heywood)
  • Advanced remote sensing
  • More GIS applications scenerios
  • Applications in population and environment

Final exam review

 

 

 

Lab schedule

 

Lab 1:  logging in, starting ArcGIS, etc.

 

Lab 2:  ESRI’s Learning ArcGIS 9 – Modules 1 and 2

 

Lab 3:  Module 3

 

Lab 4:  Module 4

 

Lab 5:  Module 5

 

Lab 6:  Module 6

 

Lab 7:  short lab, dataset #1

 

Lab 8:  a portion of Module 7 and Module 8 (due Nov 7)

 

Lab 9: Short lab, dataset #2

 

Lab 10:  Introduction of Big lab/final project

 

Lab #11:  Census lab – guest lecturer – Amanda Henley, UNC’s GIS librarian
2nd floor of Davis Library (247)

 

Labs 12 and 13:  Big lab/final project