GEOG 586 - Geographical Information Analysis

Summer 2013, Section 002 - 3.0 Credits
Schedule Number 548150

Important Dates

Reg Period: 2/4/2013 - 5/28/2013
First Day of Class: 5/22/2013
End of Class: 7/31/2013

Course Description

Choosing and applying analytical methods for geospatial data, including point pattern analysis, interpolation, surface analysis, overlay analysis, and spatial autocorrelation.

Strong writing skills are recommended for this course. If English is not your native language, it is important that you read additional information regarding English language proficiency before registering for this course.

Prerequisites

GEOG 485 or GEOG 486 or GEOG 487

Sample Course Syllabus

You can view a sample course syllabus and a sample lesson for details of lessons and assignments for this course. (Note: this link will open in a new window.)

Costs and Fees

Tuition Charge	$2,208.00
Info Tech Fee	$127.00
Total	$2,335.00

Remarks

Geography 586 is a required course for students in the Penn State Master of GIS degree program. The course is organized around six weekly projects and a more substantial project pursued through all ten weeks of the course, with milestones through the quarter. Weekly projects include associated readings, quizzes, and discussions about the analysis of spatial data. This is a course in analytical methods for handling specifically spatial data, that is, data where the arrangement of observations in space is thought to be of significance. The techniques introduced are often mathematically complex, but while these aspects are covered in the course, the emphasis is on the choice and application of appropriate methods for the analysis of the spatial data often encountered in applied geography. Weekly projects are hands-on using geographic information systems or other appropriate computational tools, so that students appreciate the practical complexities involved, and the relative limitations of these methods in contemporary desktop GIS. Through the weekly projects, students acquire familiarity with use of a single method or family of methods in standard desktop tools, so that they can focus on aspects of that method and develop a thorough understanding of its potential and of its limitations. Problem scenarios range across electoral, demographic, planning, crime analysis, landscape analysis, and other application areas. The course-long project is intended to allow students to formulate a research problem in a topic area of their own choosing, to gather and organize appropriate available datasets, and to understand how a variety of methods among those covered in the course can be applied in combination to thoroughly explore real questions. Students will be asked to engage with their peers' work during the project planning stage. They will also be encouraged to consider developing customized tools to automate repetitive analysis tasks, if they have previous programming experience.  

Schedule This Course

If you are a:	Please:
First-time Penn State student	Phone, fax, or mail this form or Contact Us
Returning World Campus student (with active Penn State Access Account*)	Mail or fax this form or Contact Us*
Returning World Campus student (without active Penn State Access Account*)	Phone, fax, or mail this form
Student from a Penn State campus other than World Campus	Contact Us

* Verify an existing Access Account or request a new Access Account and return it.

Material Requirements

Your course materials are listed below. Textbooks can be acquired from any number of textbook sellers. If you wish, you may purchase your books from the sources listed below. The information displayed is provided pursuant to the U.S. Higher Education Opportunity Act.

Material Title	Edition	Author	ISBN	Source
Geographic Information Analysis	2nd	O'Sullivan and Unwin	9780470288573	MBS

Technical Requirements

Requires: For the current requirements, please go to: https://gis.e-education.psu.edu/gis/techspecs

Please test your computer for requirements

Software Requirements

Requires: Students will need a modern spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel, Openoffice.org (free), Calc or similar, and GeoDa, free exploratory spatial data analysis software available from the Geoda Center at Arizona State University. Students will need a copy of 'R' the statistical software platform. This is freely available from http://cran.r-project.org/. Students will also need to install the spatstat, spdep, and maptools packages for R (all freely available also). In addition to these course materials, you will be using ESRI's ArcGIS and Geostatistical Analyst software in this course. As a registered student in GEOG 586, you will be given online access to that software (served from Penn State by arrangement with ESRI, Inc.). Specific instructions for accessing the software will be provided in the online course materials. For the current requirements, please go to https://www.e-education.psu.edu/courses/gis/techspecs.html.

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Note: The above information is subject to change at any time by The Pennsylvania State University.