GIScience
This course explores the concepts, principles, and practices of acquiring, storing, analyzing, displaying, and using geospatial data. Additionally, it investigates the science behind geographic information systems and the techniques and methods GIS scientists and professionals use to answer questions with a spatial component. The lab exercies make use of the commercial ArcGIS Pro software or the free and open-source QGIS software. This course prepares students to take more advanced geospatial science courses. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to contact us. We hope to continue to update and improve this course. If you would like an introductory text on GIS and GIScience, we would suggest GIS Fundamentals: A First Text on Geographic Information Systems by Bolstad or Introduction to Geographic Information Systems by Chang. Both are great texts.
After completing this course you will be able to:
- describe how computers store spatial data using the vector and raster data structures.
- find geospatial data using the web.
- design map layouts and simple web apps to communicate your data and findings.
- describe uncertainty associated with data and assess the suitability of data for a specific task.
- use a variety of data, methods, and software tools to address a question with a spatial component.
- assess the suitability of specific spatial analysis techniques for addressing a spatial problem.
- produce spatial models using graphical modeling and weighted overlay techniques.
- use the ArcGIS and QGIS software packages and have gained enough knowledge with the use of these software tools to further your knowledge of them independently.
This course was produced by West Virginia View (http://www.wvview.org/) with support from AmericaView (https://americaview.org/). This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Geological Survey under Grant/Cooperative Agreement No. G18AP00077 and G23AP00683. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies of the U.S. Geological Survey. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Thanks to Dr. Yiting Fan, Kaitlin Stewart, Dr. Shobha Yadav, Dr. Annie Mahmoudi, and Annaka Exley for helping create and edit the materials associated with this course.
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