Government 1008

An Introduction to Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

Fall 2014
Time: 10-11:30 AM Tuesdays (Lecture); 9:30AM-12:30PM Thursdays (Open Lab time)
Extra lab help hours: 11:30AM-1PM Tuesdays; 5-7PM, Wednesday; 3-5 PM Thursdays
(HMDC Lab)
Location:
Lectures: Tuesdays S 001 CGIS South
Labs: Thursdays (except first week) at Rm. K018 Concourse Computer Training Lab
accessed through the Harvard MIT Data Center Lab.
Lab Exercise demonstration times at 10AM on Thursday
Instructor: Sumeeta Srinivasan, ssriniv @ fas.harvard.edu
Teaching Fellow: Anna Hopper, ahopper @ fas.harvard.edu
Course website: http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k105915&login=yes
Office Hours: As arranged with students; Lab hours on Tuesdays 11:30-1; Thursdays
9:30AM-12:30; 3-5 PM
1.0 Course Objectives:
The major objectives are to:
1. Introduce basic concepts of GIS data structures, databases and geo-referencing
2. Introduce geographic thinking as an analytical method
3. Introduce the basics of spatial analysis and statistics
4. Hands-on experience in using GIS software
5. Provide experience in implementing an independent project
2.0 Course Description:
This course introduces Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and their applications. GIS
is a combination of software, data, methods and hardware with capabilities for
manipulating, analyzing and displaying spatially referenced information. In its simplest
applications GIS links spatial location to data. It is extremely helpful in layering location
data from various sources (related at the most micro level to individuals and buildings
which can be aggregated to other geographic units such as parcels, census units such as
blocks and tracts, counties, states, regions and up to countries). This layering of different
kinds of data can help us understand how different kinds of data interrelate amongst
themselves. For example, you could use GIS to ask questions like: Do property related
crime cluster in the wealthiest parts of the city and homicides cluster in the poorest parts of

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the city? Do poorer countries see more deaths due to conflict? Does the spatial distribution
of tweets mentioning a candidate cluster in locations where she has more voter support?
The course will meet two times every week. Every week, there will be a lecture on
Tuesdays and a laboratory exercise on Thursdays where students will work with GIS
software to solve a spatial problem. The lab exercise will segue into an assignment that
must be handed in the following Friday. Additional time may be required beyond the hours
of assigned lab time to complete exercises. The lab component will focus on the use of
ArcGIS (Version 10.2) software in a Windows environment in the Computer Lab. The
course will also require the student to implement an independent project (See section 4.0).
There are no prerequisites. Students will be expected to have competence in computer
use and some familiarity with Microsoft Windows environment and file management
(directories, subdirectories, copying, etc).
3.0 Grading:
The final course grade will be based on:
Lab exercises (4 points each for Labs 1-4, 6 points for Labs 5-7)

34%

Midterm exams (2)

8%+14%

Final project presentation (10%) and report (20%)

30%

Participation (each week 1 point)

14%

4.0 Final Project

The purpose of the final project is to provide additional experience in collecting, processing
and analyzing spatial data. The project can be relevant to your research interests or to
your thesis/ dissertation or for a joint project or final paper in another course. Students
must start thinking about project ideas early in the semester. They will be expected to
hand in a project abstract by November 12th. The abstract should summarize the project in
a paragraph or two. It should mention the spatial and non-spatial data the student will be
looking for, a proposed methodology and the research motivation for the project. The
project should use ArcGIS or other GIS software to examine the spatial implications of a
research problem. By November 25th, the student is expected to have scheduled and met
the instructor for a one-to-one discussion about their project (called project interview in the
schedule that follows in Section 7). The final project will require a formal in-class
presentation (10% of the course grade and about 10 minutes long) describing the data and
methods used during the first week of December. This presentation will build on the project
abstract and the interview discussions but does not require that the project be complete.
However it should present at least one map indicating that the student has both GIS data
and a methodology in mind. The instructor will provide further comments via email based
on the presentation. Further consultations with the instructor may need to be scheduled
after this depending on the students. The final project report (20% of the course grade) is

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due Dec 15th. Group projects are encouraged but the products of group work will be
expected to scale-up corresponding to the number of members in the group. All projects
must include a final report of at least 8 and at most 10 single-spaced, 12 pt font, pages
(excluding maps, tables, graphs and other visuals).
5.0 Textbook
Required:
Bolstad, Paul, 2012, GIS Fundamentals, 4th Edition, (Atlas Books). ISBN 978-0-97176473-6
Optional:
Longley, Paul A., Michael F. Goodchild, David J. Maguire, David W. Rhind. 2011
Geographic Information Systems and Science, 3rd Edition (John Wiley & Sons). ISBN
9780470721445
The required and optional textbooks are available from various booksellers both on and
off-line. The books will also be on Reserve at the Lamont Library.
6.0 Student Responsibilities for Meeting Course Objectives
1. Obtain and read the required textbook and supplemental material. Students will be
evaluated on knowledge and skills obtained from lecture, discussion, the required
textbook and supplemental reading materials. The midterm exam and laboratory
exercises will be based on this material.
2. Be prepared for class discussions and participation. Volunteer to both discuss
information and answer questions. Outcomes of this practice will be used by the
instructor as a means to subjectively evaluate students at the end of the semester.
3. Follow the student honor code and ethical behavior standards. This code of
conduct can be accessed over the web at
http://handbook.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k79903&pageid=icb.page418
752
4. Out-of-class assignment must be professionally prepared. This means the course
project and exercises will have to be legible and free of spelling errors, and poor
grammar. References must be cited properly. No late assignments or paper will be
accepted under any circumstances.
If you need to communicate with the instructor, you may do so via e-mail, or by
making a personal appointment. It may take at least one workday for the instructor
to return a telephone or e-mail message. Please plan accordingly. If you need more
then 5-10 minutes of the instructors time, it may be best to schedule an
appointment.

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7.0 Course Outline and Readings

Lecture Content

Laboratory Exercise Content

Week 1
Sep 2, 4

Course overview
Introduction to GIS, applications and history of GIS
Bolstad: Ch 1
Skim: Goodchild What is GIS?
http://ncgia.ucsb.edu/giscc/units/u002/
Greenman, Turning a map into a layercake of information
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/01/circuits/articles/20giss.html

Lecture format (first class meets at

CGIS Knafel K050) on Tue and Thu.
All subsequent Thursdays will meet in
the CGIS Knafel K018 lab)

Week 2
Sep 9, 11

Spatial data models

Bolstad: Ch 2, 4
Skim: Goodchild, Rasters
http://ncgia.ucsb.edu/giscc/units/u055/

Lab 1: ArcGIS Basics

Week 3
Sep 16, 18

Georeferencing 1: Coordinate Systems and Projections

Bolstad: Ch 3, 5
Kirvan, Latitude and Longitude
http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/education/curricula/giscc/units/u014/u014_f.html
Dana, Map Projections
http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/mapproj/mapproj.html#Intro

Lab 2: Coordinate Systems and

Projections in ArcGIS
th
Lab 1 due Sep 19

Week 4
Sep 23, 25

Georeferencing 2: Creating Spatial Data

Bolstad: Ch 6, 7
GPS Demo: TBA

Lab 3: Working with data: Google

Earth; Geocoding in ArcGIS
th
Lab 2 due Sep 26

Week 5
Sep 30, Oct 2

Databases
Bolstad: Ch 8
Foote, Database Concepts
http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/datacon/datacon_f.html

Lab 4: Databases in ArcGIS: Queries

& Joins
rd
Lab 3 is due Oct 3

Week 6
Oct 7, 9

Cartography and Visualization

Longley: Ch 12, 13
Foote and Crum, Cartographic Communication
http://www.Colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/cartocom/cartocom_f.html

24 hour take home midterm exam part

1
(until Week 6 Lecture and Labs 1-4)
Lab 5: Raster Data, DEM

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Lecture
Content

Laboratory Exercise
Content

Week 7
Oct 14, 16

Spatial Analysis 1: Introduction

Bolstad: Ch 9, 10 or Longley: Ch 14

Lab 6: Vector transformations

th
Lab 4 is due Oct 18

Week 8
Oct 21, 23

Spatial Analysis 2: Models

Bolstad: Ch 11, 12, 13 or Longley: Ch 15, 16
Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis:
http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/education/curricula/giscc/units/u128/u128_f.html

Lab 7: Basic spatial analysis

th
Lab 5 is due Oct 25

Week 9
Oct 28, 30

Spatial Error and Uncertainty

Bolstad: Ch 13, 14 or Longley: Ch 6, 16

24 hour take home midterm exam

part 2
(until week 9 lectures and labs 5-7)

Week 10
Nov 4, 6

GIS in the real world

Guest lecture: Jeff Amero, City of Cambridge
Longley: Ch 17, 18

Lab 6 is due Nov 7

Week 11
Nov 11, 13

GIS Project Discussion

Lab 7 is due Nov 14

th
Project abstract is due Nov 13
Project interviews

Week 12
Nov 18, 20

GIS in your career

Guest lecture : Prof Kelly ONeill and Dr. Wendy Guan, CGA

Project interviews

Week 13
Nov 25

GIS Project
Guest lecture: Anna Hopper

Thanksgiving Break

Week 14
Dec 2,4

Presentation of projects

Presentation of projects

Week 15
Dec 9, 11

GIS Project Help

HMDC lab

GIS Project Help

HMDC lab
th
Project paper is due Dec 15

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