Geography 591: Introduction to Geographic Information Science
Email: dmark@geog.buffalo.edu
Note: This course does NOT include any software
training or laboratories, which are available in Geography 506 and other
courses.
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.
Facts About the Course
FALL 2005 INFORMATION: GEO
591
TIMETABLE: Geography 591
meets twice a week (M & W), 10:30-11:50 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 2005 Course Outline
- Aug 29 (M) Course Introduction; Defining
Geographic Information Science
- Aug 31 (W) Geographic Information Science and
GI Systems (GIS) overview
Part 1: Ontology and Representation of Geographic Information
- Sep 5 (M) Labor Day—no classes
- Sep 7 (W) Ontology of the Geographic Domain:
Geographic Entities and Phenomena
- Sep 12 (M) Representing Geographic Entities
and Phenomena in Computational Systems (includes Raster and Vector Data Models; qualitative and
quantitative computation)
- Sep 19 (M) SDTS, the U.S. Spatial Data
Transfer Standard
Part 2: Computational Aspects of Geographic Information
- Sep 21 (W) Map Overlay: The Core of GIS
- Sep 26 (M) You Are Here and Where Here Is: Coordinate
Systems and Map Projections (by
Doug Flewelling)
- Sep 28 (W) Space is Very, Very Big. How to
Make It Smaller; Voronoi
Principles and Hierarchical Spatial Data Models (by Doug Flewelling)
- Oct 3 (M) Computers are Stupid, but Fast
Stupid: Spatial Indexing and Sharing Spatial Data (by Doug Flewelling)
- Oct 5 (W) Address Matching and Related Topics
- Oct 10 (M) Acquisition and Quality of
Geographic Data
- Oct 12 (W) Test #1 (Mid-term)
Part 3: Cognitive Aspects of Geographic Information
- Oct 17 (M) Cognitive Models of Geographic
Phenomena
o
UCGIS
White Paper on Cognition of Geographic Information (1998)
o
Review Paper:
"Cognitive Models of Geographic Space"
·
Oct 19
(W) Human Interaction with GI and Technology
o ESRI's Usability Engineering
page
- Oct 24 (M) Visualization and Cartographic
Design
- Oct 26 (W) Qualitative Spatial Reasoning:
Formalizing Spatial Relations
- Oct 31 (M) Scale, Detail, and Generalization
in GIS input and Output
- Nov 2 (W) Time in Geographic Space and in GIS
Part 4: Geographic Information and Society
- Nov 9 (W) Geographic Information and Society
Overview; Efficiency, Equity, Effectiveness
- Nov 14 (M) GIS and Indigenous People
- Nov 16 (W) GI and Society Panel (see Chris Brehme and Meghan Cope)
- Nov 21 (M) No Lecture today—reading assignment
- Nov 23 (W) Fall Recess—no classes (Thanksgiving)
- Nov 28 (M) Intellectual Property, Privacy,
and Ethics; Public Participation GIS
- Nov 30 (W) History of GIS
- Dec 5 (M) The GIS Industry: Current Status;
GI and US Federal Policy
- Dec 7 (W) TEST #2 (non cumulative)
- Dec 9 (F) (Last day of classes)
- Dec 14 (W) Term Paper Due
Last updated on November 9 2005
[ University at Buffalo
| UB Wings | UB Geography Department ]