Course overview:

This second GIS course focuses on advanced spatial and 3D analysis methods and GIS techniques and skills, including geocoding, georeferencing, CAD data conversion, raster- and TIN-based spatial and 3D analysis such as digital terrain modeling and visualization, and surface analysis. The major purpose of this course is to extend fundamental theories and concepts in GIS students have learned from introductory GIS course (GIS I) so that they are better knowledgeable in advanced GIS applications.

The course will be divided into: lectures, which address basic theories and methods of advanced spatial and 3D analysis and GIS techniques and skills, and applications of GIS skills in fields of students’ interests, and lab exercises, which focus on hands-on experiences in the advanced and critical GIS techniques and skills.  

The course is also project-focused: each student is required to pick up a project and to work it through the semester. The project will use real GIS data and solve a real problem. The project could be integrated into one’s senior thesis project. Students will present the finished projects to the class near the end of the semester. Students are also encouraged to present their GIS projects to other audience such as department seminars, University Day seminars, and professional meetings.

Objectives:

GIS II is aimed to enhance ArcGIS skills for students who have taken GIS I. Upon completion of GIS II, students are expected to be able to independently work on general projects with ArcGIS, and to be able to move further and to be able to explore higher levels of ArcGIS with self study.

Textbooks:

Not required, but having one (or more than one) of the following will help. (You may buy from amazon.com). I will publish lecture notes and reading materials on the Blackboard.

§   Lo and Yeong, 2002. Concepts and Techniques of Geographic Information Systems (2^nd edition). Prentice Hall. (Note: Several other University of Maine system campuses use it as a textbook. It is reader friendly and recommended for this course and GIS II. The current 2^nd edition is however outdated and the 3^rd edition comes out in June, 2006)

§   deMers, Michael, 2004. Fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems. Wiley. (Note: This text is widely used as a textbook. It is compact and less expensive. Some chapters may be hard to read.)

§   Ormsby et al., 2004. Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop, (second edition updated for ArcGIS9). ESRI Press. (Note: This book focuses on ArcGIS and teaches how to work with ArcGIS9 for common GIS mapping and analyses methods.  It could help your ArcGIS skills a lot.)

Class policies:

Read the following policies carefully please.

§   Class attendance is crucial and strongly required.

§   Lab exercises are significant portion of the course. They account for 50% toward your ENV486 final grade. (1) Don’t miss/skip any lab exercises; (2) Post your lab work on your website as required by each lab timely (hard copies may be required for some exercises). Basically, lab work for each lab is due no later than the following week after it is assigned. It is in your best interests to keep up with the work and meet deadlines for assignments.

§   Plagiarism is simply not acceptable. Help between students is strongly encouraged. However, each student must go through all lab exercises without copying anything from other students. Students with a lab exercise showing copied work will receive a zero grade.

§   Blackboard. This course will again use Blackboard a lot. Lecture notes and other reading assignments will be published on the Blackboard. So you should check the Blackboard often. Data used for lab exercises and lab instructions for each lab will be also uploaded to the Blackboard.

Grading:

There will be NO exams as promised!! Your final ENV486 grade = 50% (lab exercises) + 50% (GIS Project).

Blackboard:

All the class materials including lab data (large-size data is exceptional and is hosted in a public drive, R: drive, in UMPI's network; you will be informed which data is hosted there), lab instructions, and reading assignments are published on the course site of the Blackboard. You need to login to Blackboard very often to download/print the relevant materials. A package of materials for a lab is published 1-2 days ahead of the lab meeting.