Geography 462: Coastal Geographic Information Systems
Autumn, 2011

10:30 - 11:20 MWF Lecture Raitt 121

MTWTH Labs Smith 401
http://courses.washington.edu/geog462

UW catalog course description

 

 

Instructors:

Tim Nyerges, Professor, nyerges@u.washington.edu

Smith 402, Office hours : F 11:30AM-12:20PM or by appointment

Hong Chen, Teaching Assistant, hongchen@u.washington.edu

Smith XXX, Office hours: to be announced in lab section
Guilan Weng, Teaching Assistant, wengguilan@gmail.com

Smith 430, Office hours: to be announced in lab section

 

Locations:

Lectures: Raitt Hall room 121 MWF
Lab Sections: Geography Department's Sherman Lab (Smith 401) for Geog 462/562 on Monday/Wednesday (AB, AD) or Tuesday/Thursday (AA, AC).

 

Overview:

Geography 462 is an intermediate course that examines the theory and application of geographic information systems (GIS). It combines an overview of general principles of geographic information science and practical experience in the analytical processing and use of geospatial information with GIS. The lectures introduce students to the analytical treatment of geographic information using several frameworks for understanding data, software operations, and systems. The course adopts a thematic focus on coastal concerns in the Puget Sound Region. Coastal is defined as the watershed basins that drain into Puget Sound as well as the water of Puget Sound; the idea being that both raster and vector data models are treated. Over one-half the US population lives in only 17% of the land area along coasts. Several readings that support both GIS concepts and coastal concepts are made available through .pdf on a password protected web site. Students work with many of these concepts and skills in laboratory assignments, discussion sessions and a final project undertaken in student teams. Lab assignments take place in the Geography Department's Sherman Lab (Smith 401) as hands on experience with ESRI's ArcGIS. The lab assignments, and particularly the final project, require additional hours of work outside of the lab session according to the U of Washington guidelines that 2 hours of outside work are expected for every hour of class time. In the lecture and the labs we make use of a coastal data model developed as an integration of the ArcMarine and ArcHydro data models to investigate interaction of the terrestrial and marine environments of coastal areas. The dynamic (i.e. change) about terrestrial and marine/estuarine environments is an important underlying theme of the course.  Students are expected to participate in discussion sessions on a diverse range of pertinent geographic information topics and applications.   Web resources will provide lecture notes, lab assignment materials, case study materials and sources for geographic data and analysis at UW and around the world. 

 

This course is designed for a broad range of students, but each student should have some exposure to the procedures used to make maps and some introduction to the use of spatial information. Students should have exposure to ArcGIS through Geog. 360 Principles of GIS Mapping or its equivalent such as GIS in surveying, site analysis for landscape architects, or environmental sciences. A multidisciplinary mix of students helps demonstrate the multidisciplinary nature of geographic information applications.

 

Although there are several definitions for GIS, Prof. Nyerges' working definition of GIS for this course is: a combination of hardware, software, data, people, procedures, and institutional arrangements for collecting, storing, manipulating, analyzing, and displaying information about spatially distributed phenomena for the purpose of inventory, decision making and/or problem solving within operations, management, strategic contexts. Although Prof. Nyerges' focus for this course is on landscape, water resource, and coastal geographic processes, other related regional issues are treated based on teaching assistant and student interest through readings and class discussion. 

 

The fundamental learning goals for students in this course are to:

  • understand the challenges, intellectual benefits and costs of integrated data processing strategies with GIS, particularly within landscape contexts of water resource and coastal region management and sustainability issues. These strategies include (but are not limited to) problem definition, database design, data collection, data structuring, data analysis, and information presentation.
  • master the use of several GIS data processing strategies as applied through hands-on use of GIS software to complete laboratory assignments as practice in critical enquiry.
  • experience the process of working in groups in order to encourage a broader and deeper understanding about the value of using geographic information to address complex geographic issues within a context of a pluralistic society, i.e., a society that mediates multi-valued interests for overall improvement.

 

Required Reading:

Texts:  Chrisman, N. (2002). Exploring Geographic Information Systems, 2nd ed, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.  

Beatley, T., Brower D. J. and Schwab, A. K. (2002). An Introduction to Coastal Zone Management, 2nd ed, Island Press.

Selected readings: available through web site links on course schedule.

Lab reading:  Using_Spatial_Analyst_Tutorial.pdf

 

Optional Reading:

For those needing more background preparation in ArcGIS: Getting to Know ArcGIS, 2nd edition

Grading:

Geography 462 students:

- Exam 1 - short answer essay questions, 100 points, 25% of final grade.

- Exam 2 - short answer essay questions, 100 points, 25% of final grade.

- Six lab assignments with an increasing percentage of points across the quarter, total 150 points, 37.5% of final grade.

- Final project: 1) scoping - 10 points, 2) presentation – 10 points, and 3) report - 30 points, total 50 points 12.5% of final grade.

- Peer evaluation learning assessment for final project; final project will not be graded unless submitted.

 

Geog 562 students:

Same as Geography 462, plus “Movement of Water” lab at the end of the quarter is required.


Software to be used in Geography's Sherman Lab (Smith 401) on Windows 7: ArcInfo 10 with Spatial Analyst. This software is also available on workstations in the Geography Commons Room (Smith 411) and the Geography Collaboratory (Smith 415C).