Geographic Data Management

Geography 311  Brandon Plewe 
MWF, 2:00-2:50pm  672B SWKT, 2-4161, plewe@byu.edu 
660/640 SWKT  Office Hours: M-F 1:00-2:00pm 

Objectives:

This is the first half of the 2-class core of the GIS program (412 being the other half): if you learn the material of these courses, you should be qualified for about any entry-level GIS analyst job. The primary focus of this class will be three-fold: 1) for you to obtain a sound understanding of the fundamental principles of Geographic Information Science, 2) to give you the ability to create and manage GIS data; and 2) to give you marketable skills in using a popular GIS program (ESRI ArcGIS) in real applications. This will be mostly a hands-on course, with many projects to help you apply the principles and learn the software.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  I have learned from long experience (and you may have from 212) that the only way to really learn theory and skills is to work on them over and over again.  Because of that, we will only have two credits of lecture, with the third credit being an in-class lab.  You should therefore expect to have a lot of work.

Course Context:

As one of the core courses in the GIS program, this course directly ties into our program learning objectives, specifically, the second, third, fourth, and final objectives.  You should review these objectives frequently, because they will help you see the point of what I am trying to teach you.  Also, this course is strongly aligned with the GIS&T Body of Knowledge, especially knowledge areas CF Conceptual Foundations, DA Design Aspects, DM Data Modeling, DN Data Manipulation, GD Geospatial Data, and OI Organizational & Institutional Aspects.

Required Text:

Longley, Goodchild, Maguire, and Rhind (2005) Geographic Information: Systems and Science, 2nd Edition.
We will read it somewhat out of order.  That's not because I disagree with their order, but because we need to squeeze it into our schedule.  This book is used in both 311 and 412.
DiBiase, et al (2006) GIS&T Body of Knowledge.  (purchase online from www.aag.org or Amazon, $20)
This is not a textbook, but is an important document you should have with you to give some context to the things you learn in this and other courses.

Requirements

  1. Readings-GIS&T Knowledge Web.  I firmly believe that you need to see information several times to really understand it.  It is best if you study the text before the lecture, then scan it again afterward.  Instead of a readings journal, this semester you'll be helping to construct a GIS&T Knowledge Web (could be our next 212 textbook), at http://webmap.geog.byu.edu/gistkw/.  Each week, by Monday, you'll need to post at least one paragraph (or image) toward an article from the list, based on our textbook or whatever other sources you can find.  By Friday, you need to post an edit to another article contributed by one of the other students.
  2. Labs. This is where the majority of work in the class will be done. There will be 7 labs giving you experience with the various GIS tasks we discuss in class.  The labs will give you experience with ArcGIS.  They will work together into a common project, building a GIS for a particular project.
  3. Midterms. There will be two small tests, which will test the topics in the readings and lectures (not labs).
  4. Final Exam (Monday, April 20, 8:00am). This will be a third midterm, not comprehenshive, covering the theoretical concepts and procedures discussed in class.

Schedule

The course is split into three sections.  The first half deals with the basics of  geographic information science, studying the nature of geographic information and how we represent it in GIS.  The second half deals with geographic data management; that is, how we build a GIS. The third section, at the end, will cover some more advanced topics in geographic information science.
 
Dates
 Lecture Topic
 GISTBoK Units Reading
 Assignments (given/due Friday)
Jan 5,7,9
 GIS history, industry, software
OI1, OI6 1, 2, 7
Jan 12,14,16
 Conceptual Models of Geographic Information
CF2, CF3, CF4, CF5 3, 4, 5, 8.1
 Lab 1 given
Jan 21,23
 Raster Data Models and Structures DM3 8.1-8.2.2
Jan 26,28,30
 Vector Data Models and Structures
 DM4 rest of 8.2
 Lab 1 due
Feb 2,4,6
 Slightly Complex Data: Terrain, Networks
 DM3-5, DM4-5 8.2.3.3, 8.2.3.4
 Lab 2 given
Feb 9,11,13
 Midterm 1 (M), Transfer: Federal Data Sources GD12, GS4, GS5, OI5, OI6 9.1,9.4-9.6,20
Feb 17,18,20
 Transfer: Other Data Sources GD6, GD12, OI5, OI6 links Lab 2 due
Feb 23,25,27
 Basic Preprocessing DN1 5.9, 9.4.1 (scan 5) Lab 3 given
Mar 2,4,6
 Entry: Softcopy & Paper Digitizing GD8, DN3 9.2.1,9.3 Lab 3 due; Lab 4 given
Mar 9,11,13
 Entry: GPS/Survey data GD7 9.2.2 Lab 4 due; Lab 5 given
Mar 16,18,20
 Entry: Tabular Data Entry, Address Geocoding 9.5, 5.3, 5.4, 5.9 Lab 5 due; Lab 6 given
Mar 23,25,27
 Midterm 2 (M) Data Transformation DN1, DN2 14.4
M30,Apr 1,3
 Databases, Specific Model Design DA2, DA3, DA4, OI3 8.3, 8.4,10 Lab 6 due; Lab 7 given
Apr 6,8,10
 Data Sharing & Interoperability GD12, GS5, OI3 11,17
Apr 13
 Very Complex Data: 3-D, Time, Uncertainty DM5 6
Apr 20
 Final Exam
Lab 7 due



The most up-to-date version of this syllabus, along with lecture outlines and assignments, can always be found at:
http://www.geog.byu.edu/plewe/311/