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This course builds on GEOG205: Introduction to GIS, delving deeper into the nuts and bolts of how GIS work and advancing students' knowledge and skills in geographic data management, analysis and visualisation. GEOG324 is a technical, largely lab and project based course, where students will use a mix of the leading proprietary GIS software, ArcGIS, and open source software to gain advanced skills in GIS. Students will learn how databases are used to store geographic information and how we can customise existing GIS to our needs, and gain practice in spatial analysis and how to publish and visualise geographic information on paper and on the web. There is also a research component to the course in order to ensure students are aware of the research landscape in GIS and are able to critically analyse work undertaken in GIScience.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS), are an increasingly pervasive set of technologies found in an ever wider set of applications, from mainstream databases and statistical software, to all kinds of web applications. As a consequence, having GIS skills today is increasingly akin to having the Microsoft Word Skills of yesterday. That is, they are fundamental for communicating geospatial information, where it is oft quoted that 80% of information has some spatial aspect. Without this knowledge and skill set, you are increasingly at a disadvantage in the job market in roles that use geospatial information.This course aims to ensure you advance your knowledge and skills across the breadth of GIS concepts. It aims to consolidate your introductory GIS skills, and build your problem solving skills such that you can tackle more difficult problems, translating those problems into solutions. Geog324 encourages independent learning and learning in pairs or teams, while providing support where needed. The group project will throw you into a real world kind of scenario where you will face the challenges of team work, real world data sets, and translating research into GIS methods, in identifying the best cycle route through Christchurch given a set of criteria. Other highlights include a visit to the HITLab, the Human Interface Technology Lab at UC, to get a sense for the latest developments in research and technology in Augmented Reality for geospatial data, and a fair bit of chocolate.
The learning outcomes of this course are two fold, to attain technical GIS skills such that you can solve problems in your particular domain, and to attain a deep understanding of the underlying concepts such that you can apply your technical skills in any kind of GIS environment.More specifically you should gain:* The ability to think spatially and to transform a domain question, be that domain Geology, Geography, Forestry or Economics, into to something that can be solved with geospatial technology* Spatial, GIS and ArcGIS problem solving skills* Strong technical skills with ArcGIS and an appreciation of some of the open source GIS tools available * An appreciation of the latest GIScience research in a topic area of interest
30 points of 200-level Geography, including GEOG205, orin special cases with approval of the Head of Department.
Femke Reitsma
Fu, Pinde , Sun, Jiulin; Web GIS : principles and applications ; 1st ed; ESRI Press, 2011.
MacEachren, Alan M; How maps work : representation, visualization, and design ; Guilford Press, 1995.
Monmonier, Mark S; How to lie with maps ; University of Chicago Press, 1991.
Worboys, Michael. , Duckham, Matt; GIS : a computing perspective ; 2nd ed; CRC Press, 2004.
Learn for all online course materials Course Handout
Domestic fee $748.00
International fee $3,388.00
* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.
For further information see School of Earth and Environment .