Geography 591: Introduction to Geographic Information Science

Instructor: David M. Mark

Email: dmark@geog.buffalo.edu

Geography 591 presents a survey of Geographic Information Science, the basic research field underpinning geographic information systems (GIS). Geographic information science rests on three basic areas: cognitive models of geographic concepts; computational and implementations of geographic models; and interactions between GIS and society. The course will provide overviews of these three research areas. The course will review applications of GIS and sources of geographic data, and include material on spatial data quality and spatial data standards. It also will provide students with an awareness of the history of GIS, the current state of the GIS industry, and trends and projections for the future. Ethical issues and legal dimensions of geographic information will be presented, and current high priority research areas within geographic information science also will be reviewed. This course is required course in UB's IGERT (Integrated Graduate Education and Research Training) multidisciplinary Ph.D. in Geographic Information Science.

FALL 2001 INFORMATION: GEO 591

TIMETABLE: Geography 591 meets twice a week (Tu & Th), 12:30-1:50 pm.

CREDIT HOURS: Geography 591 is a 3-credit course.

GRADING: Two non-cumulative short-essay tests will each be worth 35 % of the grade, and a term paper will be worth 30 %.

Fall 2001 Course Outline

• Aug 28 (Tu) Course Introduction; Defining Geographic Information Science
• What is GI Science?
• Aug 30 (Th) Geographic Information Science and GIS overview
• NCGIA CC Unit 1 - What Is GIS?
• GIS Frequently Asked Questions
• Basic GI Science research vs. basic Research Using GIS
• University Consortium for Geographic Information Science

• Sep 4 (Tu) Geographic Entities and Phenomena: Ontology of the Geographic Domain
• NCGIA CC Unit 10 - Spatial Databases as Models of Reality
• NCGIA CC Unit 11 - Spatial Objects and Database Models
• Smith and Mark paper: Ontology and Geographic Kinds
• Sep 6 (Th) Geographic Entities and Phenomena: Formal Representation of Geographic Phenomena
  • (includes Raster and Vector Data Models; qualitative and quantitative computation)
    • NCGIA CC Unit 4 - Raster GIS
    • NCGIA CC Unit 13 - Vector or Object GIS
    • NCGIA CC Unit 14 - Vector GIS Capabilities
    • NCGIA CC Unit 21 - The Raster/Vector Debate

• Sep 11 (Tu) SDTS, the U.S. Spatial Data Transfer Standard
• Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) Information Site
• NSDI Presidential Order

• Sep 13 (Th) Computational Geometry 1: Coordinate Systems, Map Projections, Map Overlay
  • NCGIA CC Unit 26 - General Coordinate Systems
  • NCGIA CC Unit 27 - Map Projections
  • Map Projections Overview

• Sep 18 (Tu) Class cancelled (DMM Away for COSIT)
• Sep 20 (Th) Class cancelled (DMM Away for COSIT)

• Sep 25 (Tu) Computational Geometry 2: Voronoi principles
• Sep 27 (Th) Yom Kippur: Classes Cancelled

• Oct 2 (Tu) Efficient Indexing in Geographic Databases
• Oct 4 (Th) Qualitative Spatial Reasoning: Formalizing Spatial Relations
  • NCGIA CC Unit 12 - Relationships among spatial entities

• Oct 9 (Tu) Acquisition and Quality of Geographic Data
  • NCGIA CC Unit 6 - Sampling the world
  • NCGIA CC Unit 45 - Accuracy of Spatial Databases
  • UCGIS White Paper on "Spatial Data Acquisition and Integration"

• Oct 11 (Th) Scale, Detail, and Generalization in GIS input and Output
  • UCGIS White Paper on "Scale"

• Oct 16 (Tu) Class cancelled (DMM Away for FOIS)
• Oct 18 (Th) Mid-term Test (DMM Away for FOIS)

• Oct 23 (Tu) Address Matching and Related Topics
  • University of Iowa "Address Matching" Page
  • NCGIA CC Unit 29 - Discrete Georeferencing
• Oct 25 (Th) Distributed Databases and Interoperability
• UCGIS White Paper on "Distributed Computing"
• Open GIS Consortium

• Oct 30 (Tu) Time in Geographic Space and in GIS
  • NCGIA CC Unit 42 - Temporal and Three-Dimensional Representations
  • Temporal GIS and Spatio-Temporal Modeling (paper by May Yuan)

• Nov 1 (Th) No Lecture: Explore Web GIS Using the Links Below
• Some Web Mapping and GIS Bookmarks

• Nov 6 (Tu) Cognitive Models of Geographic Phenomena

• Nov 8 (Th) Human Interaction with GI and Technology
  • ESRI's Usability Engineering page

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• Nov 13 (Tu) Visualization and Cartographic Design
• Color Use Guidelines for Data Representation (by Cindy Brewer, Penn State)
• "Light and Eyes" Lecture Material (from Stanford University)

• Nov 15 (Th) Geographic Information and Society
• UCGIS GIS & Society White paper, 1998 version
• GISOC'99 Conference

• Nov 20 (Tu) Intellectual Property, Privacy, and Ethics; Efficiency, Equity, Effectiveness

• Nov 22 (Th) No classes: Thanksgiving

• Nov 27 (Tu) Public Participation GIS; GIS and Social Theory
• Public Participation GIS Home Page
• Empowerment, Marginalization, and Public-Participation GIS (Varenius Project)
• Links relating to First Nations and GIS
• Intertribal GIS Council Home Page
• Nov 29 (Th) History of GIS
• History of GIS review paper
• The GIS History Project

• Dec 4 (Tu) The GIS Industry: Current Status; GI and US Federal Policy
• NCGIA CC Unit 24 - GIS Marketplace
• Executive Order establising the NSDI
• GI Science Report
• PITAC report
• Congressional Hearings
• Dec 6 (Th) TEST #2 (non cumulative)
• Dec 7 ( F) (Last day of classes)

• Dec 10 (M) Term Paper Due

Last updated on August 7 2001

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