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GEOG 763: Seminar in Geographic Information Science (Theme: Geospatial big data, cloud computing, and cyberinfrastructure: innovations and applications) (Flyer)
Massive volumes of geospatial data are being acquired at increasingly faster speeds from a variety of Earth observation platforms. These big geospatial data pose grand challenges for scientists in geography and other related geospatial domains, especially with regard to efficient data management, information extraction, spatial analysis, and visualization. Focusing on the emerging geospatial cloud computing and cyberinfrastructure, this seminar is organized to capture and discuss the latest innovations and cutting-edge technologies in GIScience for tackling data- and computational-intensive geospatial problems.
Students are expected to have basic training in GIS. Please contact the instructor for more information.
GEOG 556: WebGIS (Flyer)
By integrating GIS and web technologies, WebGIS brings the traditional GIS functionalities such as spatial analysis and mapping into the web environment in a way that was not possible before. This course is intended for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in Geography or related disciplines to 1) develop an understanding of WebGIS principles, and 2) gain necessary techniques, web and GIS programming skills, and hands-on experiences to develop high-quality web mapping applications for use in professional or research settings.
Prerequisite: GEOG 363 or permission of instructor.
GEOG 554: Spatial Programming (Flyer)
How to find the centroid, perimeter, or area of a polygon? How can the system tell that two geographical features overlap each other? How to develop your own algorithms to extract information from spatial data? How to automate a series of tasks to solve a complex spatial problem? This course addresses these fundamental spatial questions from a programming perspective. With this course, students will be able to 1) develop fundamental programming skills with Python by working with spatial data in the context of GIS, 2) gain practical experience in designing and developing tools to solve specific spatial problems by programming with ArcGIS and other spatial packages, and 3) understand the principles of popular GIS data models and algorithms, and the internal operations of GIS software.
Prior experience with programming languages such as Python, Java, and C++ is helpful but not required. Hands-on programming exercises will be accompanied with most of the lectures to help students gain programming experience as well as enhance the understanding of discussed concepts/techniques.
GEOG 531: Quantitative Methods in Geographic Research (Flyer)
How do the flu activities in South Carolina vary over space? Are the activities randomly scattered throughout the state, or are there discernible geographic patterns? What are the effects of socioeconomic status on the evacuation decision making during Hurricane Matthew? What counties attracted the most visitors along the totality path during the Great American Eclipse and why? Answering these questions needs to make use of quantitative methods(or statistical analysis) with geographic data.
This course will deal with the nature of geographical datasets, statistical measures and spatial models commonly used by geographers to describe spatial variations and patterns, distributions, and relationships among geographical data. Each student will be given opportunities to apply these techniques to geographical datasets, with practice involving the use of computer-based exercises and written examinations. The course assumes knowledge of basic algebra. The course does not focus on the derivation of equations, but rather focuses on applications.
GEOG 363: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
Geographic Information Systems (GISs) represent a major advancement in computer handling of geographical data. These systems are used extensively throughout all levels of government, private industry, and academia to provide support for spatial decision making and problem solving. Principles and methods of Geographic Information Systems are presented with an emphasis on modeling the Earth and abstracting geographical data, collection of geographical data using modern techniques such as GPS, mapping information, and analyzing patterns and spatial relationships.
Practical experience with GIS is provided during the lab exercises using a state‐of‐the‐art GIS. Students are provided free copies of the GIS software. No prerequisites required.