GEOG 475/575: Digital Compilation and Database Design

CRN: 11401/11421

Course Webpage: http://web.pdx.edu/~jduh/courses/geog475f08/index.htm

(Or go to http://web.pdx.edu/~jduh/ and select “Courses-> GEOG 4/575(F08)”)

Instructor: Geoffrey Duh (Email: jduh@pdx.edu)

Office: CH 424J Phone: 503-725-3159 Office hours: Mon 1-3 pm

Lectures/Lab: Tuesday and Thursday 18:00-19:50 in CH 418 (Tue) and CH469 (Thu).

Thursdays are scheduled for labs. Lab attendance is mandatory.

Course emailing list: gisdb@lists.pdx.edu

Pre-course survey: Go to the website below and follow the instructions to complete the questions by Oct 2, 8 pm. http://survey.oit.pdx.edu/ss/wsb.dll/jduh/gisdb.htm

Course Objectives:

GEOG 475/575 covers the theory and methods of designing, compiling, and managing GIS databases that can be used in applications ranging from natural resources management, parcel and cadastral mapping, transportation and location analyses, census and land survey, and cartographic representations, etc. Students will learn several basic and advanced spatial data automation and integration methods, including the use of vector layer editors, spatial data manipulation tools, and database management tools, to build a GIS database. After completing the course, students will be able to design, develop, and manage a GIS database and understand the critical issues of its design and operation for their research projects or most GIS data management tasks.

Text and Readings:

The required textbooks for this course are "Introduction to GIS 4^th Edition" (Chang 2008) and Designing Geodatabases (Arctur and Zeiler 2004). These books are available at the Portland State Bookstore. We all also use ESRI’s ArcGIS 9: Building a Geodatabase (Building_a_Geodatabase.pdf) and Geodatabase Workbook (GeodatabaseWorkbook.pdf). Digital copies of these books can be found in I:\Students\Data\GIS\ArcGIS Documentation\ArcGIS9.1_documentation\ESRI_Library\ Managing_data_with_ArcGIS. The pdf files of the journal articles (Bian 2007; Maclachlan et al. 2007) are available in I:\Students\Instructors\Geoffrey_Duh\GEOG4575\Readings.

Additional references (These pdf files can be found in I:\Students\Data\GIS\ArcGIS Documentation\ArcGIS9.1_documentation\ESRI_Library\)

· ArcGIS 3D-Analyst (& ArcScene). (ArcGIS_Extensions\Using_3D_Analyst.pdf)

· Getting Started with ArcIMS (ArcIMS\ Getting_Started_with_ArcIMS.pdf)

· Understanding ArcSDE (Managing_data_with_ArcGIS\ Understanding_ArcSDE.pdf)

Additional Online Resources:

http://web.pdx.edu/~jduh/courses/faq/ESRI_Geodatabase.htm

The lecture component of this course consists of discussions of the readings and therefore you should have read the material before class. Students are expected to come to class ready to be active participants in the discussion.

Grading

Class Participation        10%
Lab Assignments          30%
Midterm Exam              20%
Project Proposal           10%
Group Project              30%

Class Participation (10%):

Attendance to this course is mandatory. If you miss more than two class periods then you will be penalized five percent of your final grade per absence. PLEASE DO NOT MISS CLASS. You are expected to take part in the discussions and if you are not in class then you cannot. If you are repeatedly late you will be given an absence. The labs are due by Thursday before class the week after they are assigned. You can hand them in class or put them in my mailbox in CH424.

All students are required to select a topic from a list provided by the instructor (see the last page of the syllabus) and give a 10 minutes presentation on that topic to the class. You must prepare a powerpoint presentation, 4 discussion/quiz questions and their answers. Students who are responsible for the week’s topics must email the questions to the course mailing list and the questions and their answers to the instructor by 5pm the day before the class. The presentation should be mainly based on the assigned readings. I strongly encourage you to put additional relevant materials you find on the internet or from other references that might help students understand the topic.

Lab Assignments (30%):

During the lab sessions on Thursdays in CH469 you will do practical exercises on the computers. If you do not finish the labs during the assigned time periods the lab also has open hours. The practical exercises provide a way to acquire skills using MicroSoft Access, ArcGIS, and other software packages and to apply the course concepts to real data. CH 475, CH 1, CH 324, and Broadway Computer Lab all have ArcGIS on the computers. Lab exercise data are available in the CD that comes with the textbook and in: I:\Students\Instructors\Geoffrey_Duh\GEOG4575\Chang_4e.

Midterm Exam (20%):

There will be one in-class, closed-book midterm exam and no final exam. Unscheduled in-class quizzes will be administered without notifications. Results of these quizzes will be counted toward class participation.

Group Projects (40%):

Class will be divided into groups. Each group will work on a GIS database project of its own choice or assigned by the instructor. Each group must submit a project proposal in the 5th week and a final report by the scheduled final presentation time. During the scheduled final presentation time students will present their work to the class.

Project Proposal Guideline

Term projects should involve the design and implementation of a GIS database for existing or potential GIS applications. Each group is required to submit a typed project outline to my mailbox in 424 CH or my email address (jduh@pdx.edu) by 6 pm on Oct 28 (Tuesday). Your final term project will be carried out following the project outline. The outline should include the following information.

Project Title: A sentence highlighting the main objective of your project.
Background: A short paragraph describing the applications associated with the GIS database and the significance and contribution of these applications to a broader context.
Design objectives: Describe the specific objectives that you will accomplish in your project.
Data layer specifications and geographic extents: Describe your study area, the GIS data layers, and the topological characteristics of these data layers.
Methods and techniques: Describe the method and specific GIS techniques you will use to compile and manipulate your data (e.g., geocoding, creating relationship classes, overlaying, etc).
Intended applications: Describe the intended applications of your GIS database and how your specific database design will facilitate such applications.
Demonstration application: State a hypothetical or real scenario of using the database for geographical inquiry. This demonstration will be a part of your final project result.
Limitations and quality statements: State what might be the limitations of the database and why.
Literature cited: List the references, if any, that you cited in the proposal.

Oral Presentation:

Includes the essential information described in the proposal, data sets used, the analyses performed, and display the maps and tabular output derived from the analyses (see presentation rubric). The quality of your project is decided by the cohesiveness and logic of your arguments, the clarity of your objectives, and the appropriateness of the methods and techniques. The complexity and comprehensiveness of your project will not be major criteria in judging the quality of your project.

Click here for the information on the requests for academic accommodation and the policy on academic honesty.

Course Schedule & Readings

(Chang refers to the Chang 2008 textbook. ESRI refers to ArcGIS 9: Building a Geodatabase.)

Week

Tuesday

Thursday Labs

Sep 30, Oct 2

Course Overview (Slides)
Project Group Discussion

Computer Terminology and SQL (ESRI Ch 2)

Lab 0 (Optional): Chang Ch 1 Tasks.

Lab 1: SQL, MS Access & Map Projection

Oct 7, Oct 9