ERTH 110: Introduction to GIS for Earth and Environmental Scientists

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ERTH 110: Introduction to GIS for Earth and Environmental Scientists

Spring Quarter 2004

Location : SSB 139-140

Time : MWF 3-3:50 PM(Lecture)

Lab : MWF 4:4:50 PM

Instructor : Peter Selkin pselkin@ucsd.,edu

Office: 1165 Sverdrup Hall (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)

Phone: (858) 534-4550

Office Hours: Wednesdays, 9:30-12:00 AM and by appointment

Lab Hours: WF 2-3 PM and by appointment

Textbook : P.A. Longley, M.F. Goodchild, D.J. Maguire and D.W. Rhind, Geographic

Information Systems and Science , Wiley, 2001

And supplemental reading from other sources.

Online Tutorials : Learning ArcGIS 8, Part I (Part II optional) , ESRI. Start in lab during week 1; continue as homework.

Software : ArcView GIS 8.3

Course Objectives :

By the end of the course, you should:…

1.

Understand the capabilities of GIS, especially those important for Earth science tasks

2.

Be familiar with the basic functions of ArcView

3.

Begin to understand spatial data (collection, interpretation, and presentation) and spatial reasoning as applied to the Earth sciences

Grading :

Your grade in the course will depend on the following:

Midterm (30%)

Final project (30%)

Laboratory exercises (30%)

Class participation and short homework assignments (10%)

Your laboratory grade will depend on two factors. First, I expect that you will complete the online tutorial (Part I) before the midterm. This will count for 1/3 of your lab grade (10% of your total grade). To verify that you have completed the tutorial exercises, either email me copies of your completion “ribbons” from ESRI’s webiste, or print the “ribbons” out and hand them in.

In addition, there will be 6 laboratory exercises. In each of these, you will produce at least one map (.MXD) document, and sometimes other files (e.g. a printable layout or a geodatabase). Along with copies of these files, I expect a short (1-2 page) report. Reports should be typed and in full sentences of comprehensible English (please…!). These

reports should contain notes on how you produced the maps from the given data 1 as well as a short discussion about the topic of the lab and the questions you set out to answer.

The questions will be in the lab handouts. The labs will be worth 2/3 of your lab grade

(20% of the total).

By the end of the course, you will have produced several GIS products, including maps that you may want to show off. We will have a party and map display at the end of the quarter.

Schedule :

Week 1

1.

Introduction, zip code map, map exercise

2.

What is a map? History and basic concepts of cartography. (Ch. 3)

3.

How is GIS different from a map? Layers, topology (Ch. 3)

Lab: Start ESRI Tutorial 1

Week 2

4.

Georeferencing: Coordinate systems, projection (Ch. 4)

5.

Map and Compass Exercise

6.

Georeferencing 2: Surveying techniques and GPS (Ch. 4, supplements)

Lab Continue ESRI Tutorial I

Week 3

7.

Sampling nature: Scale, spatial autocorrelation, detail (Ch. 5, first part)

8.

Data models: vector and raster data (Ch. 9)

9.

Modeling nature: interpolation (Ch. 5, second part)

Lab: Projections lab

Week 4

10.

Uncertainty (Ch. 6)

11.

Resolution, smoothing and generalization (Ch.7, first part)

12.

Metadata and data sources (Ch. 7, second part)

Lab : Geological Map of the World (Geological Survey of Canada dataset; generalize from individual mapped formations)

Week 5

13.

Review

14.

MIDTERM

15.

Graphic design of maps (Ch. 12)

Lab: None

Week 6

16.

Conventions for geological and topographic maps (supplements)

17.

Editing vector data (supplements)

1 The idea here being that you will need to reproduce the same steps on other datasets for the midterm and final… or later on, on the job.

18.

From paper to electrons: digitizing and vectorizing (Ch. 10)

Lab: Graphic Design Exercise

Week 7

19.

Queries (Ch. 13)

20.

Overlay and buffer analysis (Ch. 13)

21.

Air photos (Ch. 10, supplements)

Lab: San Diego Bay project (Pending data acquisition from US Navy)

Week 8

22.

Other remotely-sensed data (Ch. 10, supplements)

23.

Seafloor mapping: GEBCO

24.

Beach sand level survey design

Lab: Raster data and interpolation

Week 9

25.

Natural resource management using GIS (Ch. 16)

26.

Reports and graphs (supplements)

27.

Change over time (supplements)

Lab: Beach survey I (data collection, data processing and visualization)

Week 10

28.

3D GIS and visualizaion

29.

Mapping other planets

30.

Review

Lab: Beach survey II

Final project: GIS, map and report summarizing beach erosion survey

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