CP 660 – GIS for City Planners
Fall 2014
Professor Sherry Ryan
Office: PSFA 161
Telephone: 858-349-5330 - email: sryan@mail.sdsu.edu
Office Hours:
Wednesdays, 3:30-5:30PM, or by appointment
OVERVIEW
This course is the first of a 2-part sequence of courses intended to introduce graduate City Planning
students to long range community planning, specifically in the preparation of a general plan. CP660 and
CP690 teach students how to prepare a long range community plan, perhaps the most fundamental
exercise planners engage in professionally.
In CP660, we will focus on preparing an Existing Conditions Report for a community of your choice within
the City of San Diego. The Existing Condition Report is typically prepared as part of the earlier tasks
associated with any long range planning process. Preparation of an Existing Conditions Report
necessitates accessing, analyzing, and presenting key attributes of your community in a professional,
easy-to-read, and appealing report. One of the basic ways planners uncover and communicate
opportunities and constraints related to a particular community is through mapping information related to
land uses, demographics, and the transportation systems. In this class, we will begin to learn about where
to access publically available data for the San Diego region, how to analyze that data in a very basic
manner, how to map that data, and finally, how to prepare a report that communicates key issues and
opportunities related to your community.
In CP690, we will continue the long range planning process for your community and prepare a full
community plan update.
We will be using a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software called ArcGIS 10.1 which is a product
of Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI).
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
ArcGIS Assignments: There are 11 ArcGIS assignments due during the course of the semester. These
assignments are due at the beginning of each class.
Existing Conditions Report: A final Existing Conditions Report for your community will due on Dec. 15th
and will include a written report and an in-class PowerPoint presentation. I’ll provide a handout describing
the required format for the report and presentation. The final Existing Conditions Report allows you to
apply your GIS mapping and analysis techniques to a long-range community plan update effort, as well as
provides you the opportunity to practice your presentation skills.
Participation: I will take roll every class. This course requires consistent, weekly work, which cannot be
accomplished if you miss class. To help discourage you from missing classes and leaving your work until
the last couple weeks of the semester, I will be taking attendance. People who don’t attend class won’t be
given extra help outside of class.
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GRADING
11 ArcGIS Exercises (10 points each):
Final Existing Conditions Report
Final Presentation:
Participation:
TOTAL
40%
40%
12%
8%
100%
110 points
110 points
35 points
20 points
275 points
TEXTS
 Law and Collins; Getting to Know ArcGIS, 3rd Edition (2013)
 City of San Diego Community Plan Preparation Manual November 2009
(http://www.sandiego.gov/planning/genplan/statusreports.shtml)
 City of San Diego General Plan (2008)
(http://www.sandiego.gov/planning/genplan/statusreports.shtml)

State of CA Governor’s Office of Planning and Research General Plan Guidelines (online)
Source: City of San Diego Community Plan Preparation Manual, 2009
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COURSE OUTLINE
Week
Date
Topic
Reading
Assignment
1
8/25
Course Overview
-
-
2
9/1
Labor Day – No Class
9/8
ArcMap Interface
Chapters 1, 2, 3 (Law &
Collins)
Chapters 1 – 5 (Plan
Update Manual)
4
9/15
ArcCatalog Interface
Data Sources
Getting Data Into ArcView
Chapters 4 & 5
5
9/22
Creating Layouts
Chapter 10
6
9/29
Classifying and
Symbolizing Data
Chapters 7, 8 & 9
7
10/6
Map Projections
Chapter 6
8
10/13
Querying Data
Chapters 15 & 17
9
10/20
Joining Tables
Chapter 16
10
10/27
Feature Relationships –
Dissolving, Appending,
Clipping, Buffering, Union,
Intersect
Chapters 18 & 19
Assignment 7:
Tabular and Spatials Joins
11
11/3
Creating Your Own Data
Chapters 11, 12 & 13
Assignment 8:
Geoprocessing I
12
11/10
13
11/17
Geocoding
Chapter 14
14
11/24
Suitability Analysis
Chapter 20
15
12/1
16
12/8
Finals
12/15
3
Assignment 1:
ArcMap Interface
Assignment 2:
Data Sources
Assignment 3:
Creating Layouts
Assignment 4:
Classifiying/Symbolizing
Assignment 5:
Projections
Assignment 6:
Querying Data
Veteran’s Day – No Class
Class time for Final Project
work
Class time for Final Project
work
---
Assignment 9:
Creating GIS Data Files
Assignment 10:
Geocoding
Assignment 11:
Suitability Analysis
--
Final Assignment / Presentations Due
Some basics for success in the class –
1. Read the assigned chapter(s) in the Getting to Know text before coming to class. Click through each
chapter’s GIS exercises before coming to class each week and especially before attempting to do the
assignment due the following week.
2. Purchase some significant memory and always back up your assignment work. The computers in the lab
get “cleaned” every once in a while. Create a folder on the lab harddrive and keep all your classwork in
that folder. At the end of each work session, copy your class folder to your back-up.
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