Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Spatial Analysis.

Catalog description

A geographic information system (GIS) provides a framework for storage, retrieval, analysis, and visualization of geographically referenced (ie., spatial) data. Because GIS techniques allow one to spatially represent social and environmental data, GIS has become an important tool across a variety of fields including planning, engineering, public health, environmental science, epidemiology, and business. Further, GIS has become an important political instrument allowing communities and regions to (geo)graphically tell their stories. This course emphasizes both skill building in GIS tools and techniques and hypothesis testing through the analysis of spatial relationships, patterns, and processes. Ultimately, you will learn to use GIS as tool for analyzing data and telling the stories of “place”. Laboratory exercises and projects in this class focus on applications of GIS for understanding and managing the interactions between people and their environment.