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GSD6322: Fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems |
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| Lecture: | Tuesday 11:30-1:00 Room Gund 318 |
| Section 1: | Thursday 11:30-1:00 Gund 516 |
| Web Site: | http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/pbcote/courses/gsd6322 |
| Instructor: | Paul Cote |
| Office: | Gund Hall 520 |
| Office Hours: | By Appoinment |
A university education should prepare students to handle information in a professional/scholarly manner. We handle information in order to better understand problems and opportunities. We mix information with ideas to form logical models. Models let us perform experiments and test hypotheses that we hope will create new understanding that has some validity or utility. If our understanding is to have impact in the world, we must learn to present information and ideas effectively. To this end, we should be familiar with conventions and technologies for compiling, documenting and sharing data, information, and models. We should have a critical understanding of how information is extracted from data and how this information can be evaluated.
Linking independent pieces of data to create new information is an ancient craft that has been shifted into overdrive by information systems and the internet. Spatial databases and Geographical Information Systems are of particular interest in this regard owing to the fact that spatial referencing systems, even those in use thousands of years ago, are easily reconciled to create associations between information layers -- even if the original compilers of such information never envisioned this potential. Today vast amounts of information regarding the physical lay of the land, of the built environment, of cirulatory networks, natural systems, the regulatory environment, are being developed and maintained that have this capacity. As independently generated and maintained databases grow in number, the new information that may potentially be gleaned in the combination of databases grows exponentially. Particularly now, as the technical barriers to sharing information recede into history, each of us -- especially leaders in scholarship and decisionmaking -- have a responsibility to understand the issues and technical details involved with integrating and sharing spatially referenced information.
To create new information using data is easy. It is somewhat more difficult and much more important to understand the utility of the new information that we create or that is presented to us. A framework for evaluating data and models and the information derived from them gives us a basis for making the best possible models; for presenting information responsibly and effectively; and ultimately for having an appropriate level of confidence in our decisions or assumptions. As with studies of rhetorical composition, new ideas created by transforming information with logical procedures can be evaluated by examining critical aspects of the data inputs and intervening procedures, along with the logical rationale behind their assembly. Developing a formal understanding and technical capacity for composing, sharing, and evaluating complex arguments that use spatial data is the goal of this course.
One of the most im portyant skills to develop as a scholar is to be able to insert your ideas into the minds of others in a streamlined fashion. This involves establishing trust, and being very concise. Making maps with GIS is actually very easy these days. But the art of making maps that communicate effectively requires skills that software does not substitute for. This underestanding will be the subject of the second and third lectures.
A key aspect of scholarship, as opposed to just fooling around, is that scholarship involves advancing discourse and collaboration by organizing and sharing the resources and porocedures that you used, so that others may start where you left off. An important aspect of this course will be for students to demonstrate their ability to organize data and processes so that they may be easily re-used by others. Projects deemed worthy in this regard will be posted in the The Harvard Dataverse Project
Gathering and Sharing GIS Data Layers and Communicating with Maps The first half of the course explores the Nouns of GIS. Students choose a site in the United States and compile a base dataset from various sources, including circulation, hydrography, landmarks, georeferenced aerial photography and scanned maps, demographic data, terrain models, and land cover. This dataset will serve as the basis for several analytical statements about the site and its context with maps that serve to illustrate the text. The product for each student at mid-term is a 10-page (more or less) document of annotated maps. along with a well-documented geographic dataset compiled on CD in a scholarly manner, suitible for sharing. The content of this first module deals as much with the principles of cartography as with technical details of data handling and sharing.
GIS-Based Inquiry The focus of second half of the course is on building and evaluating complex statements using the associative or transforming operations of GIS to derive new information. We will examine the major computational models for spatial analysis:
Student work in the second half of the term will consit of two projects that uses vector and raster GIS to explore a simple hypothesis about how a place works. Each project demonstrating several of the procedures of one of the featured GIS frameworks: Vector-Relational, Raster, or Image Processing. These projects will be handed in with their data
Examples of Student Work from Previous Years
In weekly hands-on demonstrations, students will practice with GIS techniques. These lab exercises are scripted with references to all of the applicable software documentation and a sample dataset. Students are should take these same procedures and apply them to their own site datasets on their own time.
Lab sessions will begin promptly at 11:37. Please be on time!
Students are expected to spend at least 4 hours per week extending the techniques introduced in lab to their own datasets and documenting their work. It is stressed here that 4 hours per week is much different from a 16 hour binge the night before the assignments are due. Your time management choices are your business, but our ability to help you is limited if you are not applying your new skills each week!
This is not an introductory computing class. Students should be experienced and comfortable with learning to use software by reading documentation, and with creating and organizing digital documents, and with keeping backups of all of their work.
Presentation documents created for each assignment require textual descriptions so students should be very comfortable writing in English.
The primary software platform used for the laboratory and independent work will be ArcGIS version 9.2. This software is available for use for GSD Students, or for other Harvard Users. All of the user manuals for ArcGIS 9.2 can be found at the Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis Web Site
There are some lab exercises and assignments that require access to file-system resources available only within the GSD. To access these resources, students will need to have a GSD computing Account and have thier computer on the GSD network, or use a public lab computer in Gund Hall.
All student work will be will handed back using the MyGSD courseware system. Use of this system requires a valid Harvard PIN. For more information, see Harvard PIN Request Site.