Geographical Information Systems

Geog 481/506                                                                                                  Tu Th 3:30-4:50pm
Fall 2011                                                                                                          Fillmore 170

Instructor: Ling Bian                                                                                          LabA: Tue:   5-6:20pm, W145, Chunyuan Diao
Office: 120 Wilkeson                                                                                        LabB: Thur:  6:30-7:50pm, W145, Tong Sun
Office hours: Tu Th 2-3pm  or by appt.                                                             LabC: Fri:  10-11:20am, W145, Tong Sun

Purposes:
There is a spatial component to all activities on the planet. Everything happens somewhere and knowing why and how these things happen at where and how these things are related to each other are important for us to fully understand the spatial phenomena. This course provides a general introduction to geographic information systems that help study these spatial phenomena. The goal of the course is to help students understand the principles of geographic information systems (GIS) and their applications.

This is the introductory course of GIS out of a series of GIS courses offered in the Geography Department. The lecture is divided in four sections. The first introduces the basics of a GIS system. The second section discusses GIS data and sources of these data. The third section focuses on GIS analysis functions in order to extract spatial information from geographic data.  The fourth section covers GIS applications and related practical issues. GIS is useful to virtually any discipline that uses geographic information. The course should benefit students from a wide range of background.

Text:
Lo, C.P. and Yeung, A. K.W. 2002, 2007. Concepts and Techniques of Geographic Information Systems. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Labs:
A series of laboratory exercises are designed to help students familiarize with basic GIS operations. Detailed information is discussed at the lab sections.

Annotated Bibliography:
Each graduate student is expected to review 10 GIS application articles and to develop an annotated bibliography for each article. At the end of the semester, graduate students are expected to summarize these bibliographies and present the summary to the class.

Project Proposal:
Graduate students are required to develop a proposal for a project that uses GIS.

Grading System:
                                    Undergraduate     Graduate
Mid-term exam                  30%                   25%
Final exam                         30%                   25%
Lab exercises                     40%                   30%
Bibliography                                                 10%
Project Proposal                                          10%
Total                               100%                  100%
Note: Students will earn two identical grades for the lecture and the lab.
Grade Cutoff

Tentative Schedule
I. GIS Systems
Aug  30            Course introduction
Sep    1            Definition of GIS
          6            Coordinate systems
          8            Data models and data structures (First bibliography due)  
        13            Databases
        15            Remote sensing

II GIS Data         
        20            GPS  
        22            Digital elevation models
        27            TIGER data
Oct    4            Natural resources data  
          6            Data quality
        11            Visualization  
        13            Mid Term Exam

III. GIS Analysis       
Oct  18            GIS analysis and modeling
        20            GIS analysis and modeling
        25            Guest Speaker, Rich Quodomine (NY DOT)
        27            GIS analysis and modeling
Nov   1            GIS analysis and modeling
          3            Guest Speaker, Steve Russell (Erie County)
          8            GIS software
        15            Cloud GIS

IV. GIS Application
        17,22,29  Student presentations (last bibliography due Nov 17)
Dec    1,6         Student presentations
          8            Jon's advise, Conclusions     
        19            Graduate students' proposal due   

Final Exam:     Dec 15 Thur 3:30-6:30pm 170 Fillmore

GIS Data
http://cugir.mannlib.cornell.edu/
http://www.nysgis.state.ny.us/
http://seamless.usgs.gov/
http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/

What is plagiarism and how to avoid it:
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/guides/plagiarism.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/01/german-defence-minister-resigns-plagiarism