UCSB Fall Quarter 2005 Geography 176A
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Introduction to Geographic Information Systems

Instructor: Keith C. Clarke

Office: 3626A Ellison Hall
Phone: 893-7961
Email to: kclarke@geog.ucsb.edu

Office Hours: Tuesdays 3:30 pm-5:00pm or call.
Lecture: Class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30-10:45 am in 1940 Buchanan

WWW Page:http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/~kclarke/g176a.outline.html
Textbook Web Page: http://www.prenhall.com/clarke

Text: Clarke, K. C. (2003) Getting Started with Geographic Information Systems, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Fourth Edition.

When What Reading
September 22nd What is a GIS?: Definitions and History, Information Sources 
 Chapter 1
September 27th Overview of the labs and ArcGIS
September 29th GIS's Roots in Cartography: Basics and Scale Chapter 2
October 4th GIS's Root in Cartography: Map Projections & Coordinates Chapter 2
October 6th Maps as Numbers: Encoding Attributes Chapter 3
October 11th Maps as Numbers: Encoding Geometry Chapter 3
October 13th Getting the Map Into the Computer: Existing Data Chapter 4
October 18th Getting the Map Into the Computer: Digitizing, Scanning, Field Data Chapter 4
October 20th What is Where? DBMS Search and Retreival Chapter 5
October 25th Why is it There? Spatial Analysis: Descriptive Statistics Chapter 6
October 27th Mid-Term Examination (Practice Test Here) Review Chapters 1-5
November 1st Why is it There? Spatial Analysis: Analysis of Maps
Chapter 6
November 3rd Making Maps With GIS: Parts of the Map Chapter 7
November 8th Making Maps With GIS: Map Types & Design Chapter 7
November 10th How to Pick a GIS: Software Functionality Chapter 8
November 15th How to Pick a GIS: The Big Eight Chapter 8
November 17th Guest Lectures on GIS Applications: Reggie Archer, Kirk Goldsberry
November 22nd GIS In Action: Case Studies I Chapter 9
November 29th
 GIS In Action: Case Studies II Chapter 9
December 1st The Future of GIS Chapter 10
Wednesday December 7th,
8:00-11:00am		 Final Examination (Practice Test Here) All since Mid-Term

Laboratory Assignments

The software we will be using in the class is ESRI's ArcGIS 9.1. This is a Windows-based GIS with  complete functionality, and is extensively used in the real world of GIS. If you feel you need extra help to understand ArcGIS, check out the ESRI Virtual Campus. UCSB Geography's class laboratory, the Star Lab, can accomodate up to 25 people using the software running under Windows NT. The introductory class will cover also how to use e-mail,  Web browsing and searching, and Windows itself for the class. Should you have access to ArcGIS on any other machine, you are encouraged to work in that environment. Note that ArcView 8.x, in spite of its many similarities, has some slight differences from its later versions, which may be resident on Departmental and other computers. labs on the book web site use this older software. Labs for Fall l2005 have been updated for ArcGIS 9.1.

Links to the Labs will be added here as the Quarter Progresses:

LAB 1: Getting Started

LAB 2: Map Projections and Distortion

LAB 3: Address Matching and Geocoding

LAB 4: Choropleth Mapping and Spatial Analysis

LAB 5: Spatial Analysis-Map Overlay and Analysis: Solar Power

Grades

Your grade will be weighted as follows: Mid-term: 20%; Final: 20%; Laboratory Exercises: 60% evenly weighted across labs.

Laboratory and Assignment Policy: This applies uniformly to all sections. Please read.

Laboratory Sections (All in the Star Lab 2610 Ellison Hall)
 
1 Red (Lab 1) Wednesday 12:00-1:50 Kate Rose
 		rose@geog.ucsb.edu
2 Blue (Lab 2) Wednesday 10:00-11:50 Kate Rose
 		rose@geog.ucsb.edu
3 Magenta (Lab 3) Tuesday 11:00-12:50 Ting Lei
 		leiting@umail.ucsb.edu
4 Green (Lab 4) Tuesday 3:00-4:50 Ting lei
 leiting@umail.ucsb.edu 

TA Office Hours: Thursday 10:45-noon 3626 Ellison

All Labs in 2610 Ellison Hall. Note: The Labs themselves will require a sustantial time commitment. Students with time constraints should yield their places in the class to people on the waiting list.

This page last updated 9/22/2005 by Keith Clarke kclarke@geog.ucsb.edu

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