1. Introduction to GIScience
GTECH 361
Introduction to GIScience

2. Contact Information
Instructor: Jochen Albrecht
Office: Hunter N1030
Office hours: We, Th 2-3 PM
Phone: (212)
TA: Pyung Ho Kim

3. Course Overview GIScience is a lofty goal for this course
Principles/fundamentals of GIS is a more realistic goal
Theory and practice
GIS as a process
Becoming a well-versed user of any GIS

4. Relationship to GTECH 201
Revision of course contents of undergraduate offerings
One-time slight overlap with Fall 04 GTECH 201
New software (ArcGIS 9)

5. Texts Required: none Recommended (choice of)
Burke et al Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop (updated for ArcGIS 9). ESRI Press (but a lot cheaper from Amazon).
Burrough, P and R McDonnell Principles of GIS. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
deMers, Michael Fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems. New York: Wiley.
Worboys, M and M Duckham GIS: a computing perspective. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

6. Policies Attendance Plagiarism Special accommodations Lab policies
Assignments

7. Criteria for Evaluation
10 Quizzes 20%
14 Lab exercises 50%
Midterm exam 15%
Final exam 15%
Hunter undergraduate grading scheme according to percentage of points accumulated over the semester.

8. Schedule Class # Date Topic 1 01/28 GIScience and GIStudies
2 02/01 Storing geographic information
L1 02/04 Lab 1: Getting started with ArcGIS
3 02/08 Geographic data sources
L2 02/15 Lab 2: Creating map symbology
4 02/18 Cartographic communication and geospatial visualization
L3 02/22 Lab 3: Referencing data to real locations
5 02/25 Datums, projections, and coordinate systems
L4 03/01 Lab 4: Organizing geographic data
6 03/04 Basic spatial queries
L5 03/08 Lab 5: Creating and editing data
7 03/11 Secondary data
L6 03/15 Lab 6: Exploring the geodatabases model
8 03/18 Midterm Exam

9. Schedule Class # Date Topic L7 03/22 Lab 7: Creating a geodatabases
9 03/24 Advanced spatial queries
L8 04/01 Lab 8: Creating and editing features in a geodatabases
10 04/05 The third dimension
L9 04/08 Lab 9: Adding behavior to a geodatabase
11 04/12 Raster GIS and map algeba
L10 04/15 Lab 10: Getting started with GIS analysis
12 04/19 Spatial statistics and data quality
L11 04/22 Lab 11: Geoprocessing and Modeling
13 05/03 GIS and society: social, legal, economic and organizational aspects
L12 05/06 Lab 12: Designing maps with ArcGIS
14 05/10 Review and final exam preparation
L13 05/13 Lab 13: Working with Labels
L14 05/17 Lab 14: Working with Annotation
05/ /22 Final (online) Exam

10. Course Web Site Lecture PowerPoint slides Lab exercise instructions
Lecture PowerPoint slides
Lab exercise instructions
Lab exercise datasets

11. GIScience vs. GIStudies
GISystems (GIS)
Emphasis on technology and tools
GIScience (GISci)
Fundamental issues raised by the use of GIS and related technologies (e.g.)
Spatial analysis
Map projections
GIStudies (GISt)
Systematic study of the use of geographic information
Accuracy
Scientific visualization

12. GIS as an Approach to Science
Geographic Information Science is research both on and with GIS.
“the generic issues that surround the use of GIS technology, impede its successful implementation, or emerge from an understanding of its potential capabilities.” (Goodchild, 1992)

13. The Science Behind In the U.S.: geography, UCGIS
to GIS as statistics is to the statistical packages
The science behind the systems
Fundamental issues arising from use
The science that is done with the technology
Systematic study of geographic information using scientific methods
Geographic Information Science is research both on and with GIS.
(called geomatics in Canada, ties to surveying and engineering communities there, multilingual)
“the generic issues that surround the use of GIS technology, impede its successful implementation, or emerge from an understanding of its potential capabilities.” (Goodchild, 1992)

14. A New Discipline Symptoms of a science
journals, terms, books, conferences, departments, heroes, cultural artifacts
grand challenges
What would we say to Albert Einstein or Stephen Hawking?
“As young man, my fondest dream was to become a geographer. However, while working in the customs office I thought deeply about the matter and concluded that it was far too difficult a subject. With some reluctance, I then turned to physics as a substitute.”

15. Contributing Disciplines
Geography
Remote Sensing
Surveying
Statistics
Computer Science
Information Science
Cartography
Photogrammetry
Geodesy
Operations Research
Mathematics
Management Science

16. Major Journals/Magazines
International Journal of Geographical Information Science
Cartography and Geographic Information Science
Geographical Systems
Transactions in GIS
Geo Info Systems
GEOWorld (formerly GISWorld)

17. Specialty Journals Business Geographics GIS Law Mapping Awareness
GrassClippings
Arc User
Intergraph News
GIS Asia/Pacific
GIS World Report/CANADA
GIS Europe

18. Regular GISci Scholarly Papers
Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing
Annals of the Association of American Geographers
Cartographica
Computers, Environment, and Urban Systems
Computers and Geosciences
IEEE Transactions on Computer Graphics and Applications

19. Occasional GISci Scholarly Papers
International Journal of Remote Sensing
Landscape Ecology
Cartographic Perspectives
Cartographica
Journal of Cartography
Geocarto International
IEEE Geosciences
Remote Sensing Review
Mapping Science and Remote Sensing
Infoworld

20. Professional Organizations
AAG: The Association of American Geographers.
GITA: Geospatial Information & Technology Assoc. (formerly AM/FM)
URISA: Urban and Regional Information Systems Association.
ACSM: American Congress on Surveying and Mapping.
ASPRS: American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
UCGIS: University Consortium for Geographic Information Science