Based on your understanding and knowledge of basic GIS, this class will focus on some advanced GIS concepts, tools and operations including spatial analysis, spatial statistics, geostatistical analysis, 3D analysis, and geoprocessing.  The emphasis in this course is on understanding the underlying principles of those tools and how to apply them to solve real world problems. A term long class project is an important portion of the class which will really help you practice what you learned from the class.

Prerequisites: EES5033, or permission of instructor

 

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Instructor:  

Dr. Hongjie Xie , Email: hongjie.xie@utsa.edu, Tel: 210-458-5445
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at UTSA, http://www.utsa.edu/LRSG

Lab assistant: Mr. Xianwei Wang (xianwei.wang@utsa.edu, 458-7815, room SB04.03.24)

Office Hours:

Thursday 1:30-3:30 pm or by appointment at room of SB 2.02.16

Lecture and Lab:

Lecture and Lab: TR 7:00-8:15 pm, room SB 2.01.02

You are required to attend all lectures and labs except you have a good excuse (you should let me know prior to the class).

Textbook:

No text book required and but many materials from different sources will be assigned for reading.

Grade Policy:

The final grade for the course will be determined as below:

Lab exercises    40%
Final exam         20%
Term project     40% 

• Active class participation and exceptional performance in term project will be rewarded with extra credits. However, if you miss a class without permission (prior to the class), you will loss 1 point (based on 100 points) per missing class.
• Actively participate graduate seminar (for those did not register the class), will be awarded 1 point per seminar no more than 5 points in total.
• Final grade will be 90-100 (A), 80-89 (B), 70-79 (C), 60-69 (D), and less than 60 (F).
• March 26 is the last day to drop an individual course or withdraw from all classes and receive an automatic grade of "W".

Lab exercise:

Lab exercise will be assigned on Thursday and due right before the Thursday class in the following week. Late exercise is unacceptable, unless you do have an good excuse. No make-up lab exercise. Email submission is unacceptable unless you have to miss the class (you should let me know in advance). All lab exercises should use MS Word or others, please no handwriting (it is difficult to read).

Term project:  

A large portion (40%) of this class is a term project. You will submit a complete proposal (5%) (no less than 2 pages, double space, 12 font) with a title, student name(s) (up to two students as a team), introduction or question statement, data and methods to be used, and expecting results on Feb 1. You will be asked to present the progress (10%) on March 6 (10 minutes ±). All students will give a 15 minutes class presentation (10%) and a final project paper (15%) (no less than 10 pages, single space, 12 font). Instructor will also give some topics for your reference. More details will be given in the Term Project Assignment on Jan 23.  You are always very welcome to discuss with me about your project.

Academic dishonesty policy:

All works must be original. Plagiarizing or cheating in any form will be reported and a failing mark will be assigned.

Tentative Schedule:

                                     

Date	Subject	Lab	Reading
Jan 18, 23, 25, 30	Introduction, review of basic GIS (ppt)	lab1: geodatabase, a ESRI online class	paper 1
Feb 1	Spatial analysis: vector data analysis (ppt)	work on proposal	paper 2
Feb 6	Spatial analysis: raster data analysis (ppt)	work on proposal	reading (e-book of spatial analyst)
Feb 8	......	proposal due and lab2:  vector and raster analyses (session 1)
Feb 13, 15	......	Lab 2 session 2	paper 3
Feb 20, 22	Spatial statistics (ppt)	lab 3: hydrology application of GIS (pdf)	reading (1) (2) (3)
Feb 27, Mar 1	Geostatistical analysis (ppt)	lab 4: Intro to ArcGIS 9 geostatistical analyst (online): first part (A structured ...)	reading (e-book of geostatistical analyst)
Mar 6, 8	......	lab 4, rest of the online lab	reading kriging 1 papers 4, 5
Mar 13, 15	Spring break, no class
Mar 20, 22	Progress presentations (22th)	working on term project
Mar 27, 29	......	working on term project
Apr 3, 5	3D analysis (ppt)	Lab 5: 3D analysis	reading (e-book of 3D analyst), (more)
Apr 10, 12	Geoprocessing (ppt): modelBuilder (FreeCrs)	Lab 6: Intro to GeoProc.	reading (materials from the FreeCrs)
Apr 17, 19	Geoprocessing: PythonBasics (ppt); Review (doc)	Lab 7: Modelbuilder and Python	reading (e-book of Python Tutorial)
Apr 24, 26	Final exam (26th)	Working on term project
May 1, 3	Student presentations	Working on term project
May 8, 10	Final paper due (10th)	Working on term project

Student Projects: (link)