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