P age |1 LAR 622/PLG 622: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems Fall 2012 Seminar (4 credit units) Iris Patten, Assistant Professor Email:
[email protected] Office Phone: 520-626-7004 Office Location: Architecture, A303E Class Location: CALA, Room 202 Class Time: Wednesday, 8:00am – 12:00pm; Thursday, 8:00am – 9:15am Iris Patten Office Hours: Thursdays, 10am – 1pm or by appointment Teaching Assistants: Chris Turner (
[email protected]) - Tuesdays, TBD Mathieu Mayer (
[email protected]) - Wednesdays, 1p-5p Course Description: LAR 622/PLG622 is an introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and its application in urban planning, landscape planning, the social sciences, or other students interested in a professional GIS curriculum. The course is presented in a lecture/laboratory format. The lecture component of the course will help students understand fundamentals, show examples of application, and discuss the use of GIS as a decision-making tool. The laboratory portion will provide students with hands-on contact with GIS software products, such as ArcGIS, that are used in the analysis of geographically-referenced data sets. Students will undertake a class project that applies GIS to a planning/landscape architecture context. By the end of the semester, students will be expected to have gained working knowledge of GIS concepts and methods, and become proficient users of ArcGIS. Objectives: The goal of the course is to provide students with experiences in the design, development, analysis, and visualization of geographic data. Upon completion of the course, students should be able to: demonstrate an understanding of the theoretical and practical concepts used in GIS manage spatial and non-spatial data management techniques for use in a GIS conduct spatial and logical queries on geospatial data describe and communicate analytical findings to a non-technical audience demonstrate a working knowledge of GIS software capabilities demonstrate the ability to design a process that utilizes GIS as a tool to facilitate decisionmaking meet the prerequisite skill requirements of advanced GIS courses Required Texts: Chang, Kang-tsung 2012. Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, Sixth Edition. New York, McGraw Hill. (Referred to below as “Chang”) Monmonier, Mark. 1996. How to Lie with Maps. Second Edition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. (Referred to below as “Monmonier”) Readings beyond the required texts that are listed above will be distributed in class or made available through alternative means (i.e., D2L).
LAR 622/PLG 622, Introduction to Geographic Information Systems Fall 2012
P age |2 Recommended Texts ESRI (Ormsby, T. et al). 2010. Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop: Updated for ArcGIS 10. Second Edition. Redlands, California: ESRI Press. Course Requirements: This course is an applied lecture/discussion class so attendance is important. Students are expected to contribute to class discussions and participation. Students are expected to have done assigned reading prior to class and be able to give some insights into the readings. Students are expected to attend all classes and are responsible for all material presented orally and in assigned readings. According to university policy, students missing more than four class periods may be automatically dropped from the class. It is recommended that students notify the professor if they anticipate being absent from class. Do not expect to get class notes from the professor. Students missing class are expected to get notes from other students unless some arrangements have been made with the professor. SUPPLY REQUIREMENTS Each student needs an external hard drive to save data and maps. A 250 GB drive should be sufficient. Course Evaluation: Activity Participation Projects (3) Weekly Assignments Exam Final Exam/Project TOTAL
Point Distribution 130 150 100 100 100 580
Computing Facilities: Computers with GIS installed are available in the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (CALA), Room 205. Open lab hours for the Fall 2012 semester will be announced in class. Students enrolled in this course will be provided with a 1 year student evaluation version of ESRI ArcGIS. You will need this software to complete assignments. I strongly recommend reviewing the hardware requirements to run this software: http://resources.arcgis.com/content/arcgisdesktop/10.0/arcgisdesktop-system-requirements. Students will also need access to a color printer. Many assignments will require you to submit a COLOR map; in these instances, a black and white map WILL NOT BE ACCEPTABLE. Academic Integrity: Students are governed by the University of Arizona’s Student Code of Conduct and the Code of Academic Integrity which are available in the office of the Dean of Students. Of particular importance is that they indicate that all forms of student academic dishonesty including cheating, fabrication, facilitating dishonesty, and plagiarism may lead to disciplinary action. Fabrication means the intentional falsification or invention of any information or citation and plagiarism means intentionally or knowingly representing the words or ideas of another as one’s own. Any individual caught plagiarizing, cheating, LAR 622/PLG 622, Introduction to Geographic Information Systems Fall 2012
P age |3 and fabricating will automatically be given an F in the course. The professor may pursue disciplinary actions and the Dean of Students may impose additional disciplinary actions, including suspension or expulsion from the University of Arizona. Students should feel free to exchange ideas in and out of the classroom and consult with each other concerning course materials. All submitted work must reflect the student’s own contributions, thoughts, ideas, and references. Other Course Information: Exams and Papers: Weekly assignments, take home exams, papers must be submitted at the beginning of class AND via D2L on designated due dates. Papers submitted after the due date will not be accepted, and the student will receive zero (0) credit for the paper. If there is some problem with submitting work on time, special arrangements in advance of the due date need to be made with the professor. Students cannot make up papers or exams. Student Assistance: The Writing Center is a free resource for UA undergraduate and graduate students. At the Writing Center, a trained peer consultant will work individually with you on anything you’re writing (in or out of class) at any point in the writing process from brainstorming to editing. For more information or to make an appointment, visit their website at http://uawc.web.arizona.edu/[1], stop by Bear Down Gym 102 or call 621-3182. Holidays and Absences: All holidays or special events observed by organized religions will be honored for those students that show affiliation with that particular religion. Also absences pre-approved by the University of Arizona’s Dean of Students will be honored. Please speak with the professor at the beginning of the semester about these special holidays, special events or excuses from the Dean of Students so that appropriate arrangements may be made. Special Needs Students: Students with special needs who are registered with the S.A.L.T. Center (http://www.salt.arizona.edu/) or the Disability Resource Center (http://drc.arizona.edu/) must submit appropriate documentation if requesting special accommodations. These requests should be made at the beginning of the semester so that appropriate arrangements may be made. Important notes: Students should visit the professor during office hours or make an appointment if they have questions, complaints, need to discuss issues brought forth in class or need direction in further research. Students will only get out of this course what they put into it. A general rule of thumb is that graduate students should spend 3-4 hours outside of class for every hour of class in preparation and reading. This may be hard to do at times with demands from other classes or work, but being prepared is a minimum expectation of the professor. Changes may be made to this syllabus, other than the grade and absence policies, with adequate notice to students. Students are expected to attend the entire class period and be attentive and participating. Cell phones should be silenced during class. The use of cell phones, reading materials such as newspapers, playing computer games on cell phones or computers, or engaging in any other activity LAR 622/PLG 622, Introduction to Geographic Information Systems Fall 2012
P age |4 that shows disrespect to fellow students or the professor, are not allowed during the class. A student may be asked to leave class and not return for the period and will also be marked down on participation.
LAR 622/PLG 622, Introduction to Geographic Information Systems Fall 2012
P age |5 Schedule: How to read the schedule For each week, general topics to be discussed during the same week listed. Under the READINGS heading, these are readings to be discussed during the following lecture (Tuesdays) session. Under the LAB heading, these are the general topics/projects discussed in lab during the same week they are listed during the lab (Thursday) session. Week/Date Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Readings & Assignments Course Overview Computer Lab Orientation Introduction to Geographic Information Systems READINGS GIS for MLA Chang, Chapter 1 LAB ArcGIS Basics FOR REFERENCE Ormsby, Chapters 1, 2 Coordinate Systems Introduction to the Workflow and Directory Structure Vector Data Model READINGS Chang, Chapters 2 and 3 Monmonier, Chapter 2 LAB Creating a basemap FOR REFERENCE Ormsby, Chapters 3, 4, 13, 18, 19 Classification Schemes and Thematic Mapping READINGS Chang, Chapter 9 Monmonier, Chapters 10 and 11 LAB Demographic Decisions (Due Week 5) FOR REFERENCE Ormsby, Chapters 5, 6, 7 GIS Data Structure Attribute Tables Data Editing READINGS Chang, Chapter 5, 8, 10 Monmonier, Chapters 4, 6
LAR 622/PLG 622, Introduction to Geographic Information Systems Fall 2012
P age |6
LAB Spatial Data Querying
Week 5
Week 6
FOR REFERENCE Ormsby, Chapters 8, 9, 10, 14 Data input Analysis Tools READINGS Chang, Chapter 11 ESRI Virtual Campus LAB Environmental Decisions FOR REFERENCE Ormsby, Chapters 11-12 Creating Features Editing Geocoding READINGS Chang, Chapter 16 Drummond, W. J. 1995. “Address Matching -- GIS Technology for Mapping Human Activity Patterns.” Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 61, No. 2, pp. 240-251 LAB
Week 7
Week 8
FOR REFERENCE Ormsby, Chapters 15, 16, 17 Raster Data Model Overlay READINGS Chang, Chapter 4, 12 LAB Overlay Models and Modeling Hand out final semester project READINGS Chang, Chapter 18 LAB Creating Basic Suitability Models
Week 9
FOR REFERENCE Ormsby, Chapters 20 Suitability Models
LAR 622/PLG 622, Introduction to Geographic Information Systems Fall 2012
P age |7 Students discussion of project ideas READINGS Zwick, P. and P. Carr. 2007. “Getting the Future We Want.” Planning. Landis, J. D. 1995. “Imagining Land Use Futures - Applying the California Urban Futures Model.” Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 61, No. 4, pp. 438-457.
Week 10
Week 11
LAB Urban Planning Decisions (Due Week 14) Terrain Mapping and Analysis Sources of Data Final Project proposal due READINGS Chang, Chapter 13 Monmonier, Chapters 9 LAB Hurricane Damage Decisions (Due Week 12) Terrain Mapping and Analysis Analysis READINGS Chang, Chapter 13 (repeated) LAB
Week 12
Viewsheds and Watersheds Semester Review READINGS Chang, Chapter 14
Week 13
LAB Hurricane Damage Decisions Exam
Week 14
Final project preparations
Week 15
Final project preparations
Week 16
LAB Begin Project Presentations Project Presentations (Project Report Due December 13, 2011 by 10am via D2L) • Presentations will be completed on December 13, 2011 from 8a to 10a.
LAR 622/PLG 622, Introduction to Geographic Information Systems Fall 2012