FREC 480 -- classroom and course overview
The GIS lab

The Pearson Hall GIS lab is UD's best-equipped, best-managed GIS teaching facility, established through a Unidel grant in 2002 and upgraded in 2006.  Please help keep this lab clean and functioning; it occasionally doubles as a commercial GIS training facility. 

The lab's principal software is ArcGIS, published by ESRI;  the lab has Adobe Photoshop and various other useful programs as well.  UD has a comprehensive site license for all of ESRI's GIS software packages. 

It doesn't matter which machine you work on.  You should NOT save any your work to the local C:  drive of the computer you are working on.   For security reasons, these drives are cleaned frequently.  You will mostly store your GIS work on the network drive or your own USB data stick, and your web pages on UD's copland UNIX server, which is the university's main web server.  I will arrange extra disk quotas for you on copland.  I recommend you buy a 2GB or larger USB data stick, and buy a skinny one that will fit into the lab's computer chassis. 


Overview of ArcGIS

ArcGIS has three levels of operation (i.e., license levels): ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo. 
  • ArcView incorporates the basic functions of ArcGIS--data visualization, queries, etc.  It is analogous to the older free-standing ArcView 3.3 program. 
  • ArcEditor supports data creation and editing. 
  • ArcInfo supports sophisticated geoprocessing, multi-layer analyses, etc. 
Each level of operation (ArcView, ArcEditor, or ArcInfo) has three component program sets: ArcMap, ArcCatalog and ArcToolbox.
  • ArcMap is the basic viewing, analysis and map making component--what you will use most of the time. 
  • ArcCatalog works like Windows Explorer, and manages geographic data files. 
  • ArcToolbox includes various analytical and data conversion functions. 
The lab is licensed for all of these levels and components.  The links between levels of operation are seamless enough that you probably won't notice transitions between them.

Class Projects

This class will require you to complete five projects, and the entire course grade depends on these.  There are no quizzes or exams.  You are to complete each project on your own and prepare your own web presentation of it.  You may consult with other students on strategies for completing these projects.  The first four projects involve data analyses that are progressively less structured and more complex.  The fifth project requires you to write a research grant proposal, and does not involve actual data analysis.
  • Project 1 covers standard analyses with (vector) shapefiles, including spatial queries, joining external attribute data to geographic features, and thematic mapping.  The primary data for this project will be US Census TIGER files and associated census data. 
  • Project 2 introduces rasters and the Spatial Analyst and 3D Analyst extensions.  You will use a digital elevation model (DEM) to create various derivative maps (slope, aspect, etc.), and combine these with land-use/land cover, road and hydrology shapefiles to complete a habitat analysis for an endangered species. 
  • Project 3 involves GPS fieldwork to collect data for analysis in ArcGIS, and introduces some additioanl raster and 3D analysis functions.
  • Project 4 uses Arc's suite of watershed analysis tools to delineate streams and drainage basins within the Nanticoke watershed.  It also introduces basic satellite image processing and analysis: you will register a SPOT satellite image and extract vegetation information from it. 
  • Project 5 is a GIS-related research grant proposal.  You have free choice of topic and are not required to do any data analysis for this.  Your proposal must include the all standard elements expected in a grant application, including realistic timeframe and budget. 
All of your projects are to be published and presented as web pages.  I will teach you how to create web pages from scratch, writing your own HTML code. 

We will have two or three project presentation sessions during the semester, where your colleagues will provide peer evaluations of your projects, and I will give out special awards for the highest-scoring presentation of each project.  Your peers will grade you on completeness and accuracy as well as presentation quality, and they typically favor jazzy presentations! 

Your course grades will not depend on peer evaluations.  I only grade completeness and accuracy. 

By the end of this class I want you to have an online portfolio of your GIS work that you would be proud to show a prospective employer.