Maps and the Geospatial Revolution

Catalog description

The rapid evolution of digital mapping technology via personalized digital mapping applications and location-aware devices has completely transformed how we use place and space to make decisions about human and environmental problems. This course introduces the fundamentals of cartography, geographic information science, and associated technologies through mapping and spatial analysis to answer key human and environmental problems. The class explores the power and utility of geographic information to transform how we navigate, tell stories about data, and make decisions that impact people and the planet. The course also encourages students to become knowledgeable, critical, and ethical consumers of maps and geographic data produced by government agencies, industry, and the media. Hands-on laboratory exercises, individual creative mapping projects, and course lecture contents are designed to reveal the many ways in which geographic information can play a role in shaping contemporary society. In addition, key course elements focus on the diversity and growth associated with the geospatial industry, an industry that is expected to grow rapidly over the next twenty years. Students who successfully complete Geography 6N will be able to: - Describe and explain fundamental concepts in Geographic Information Science (GIScience) and related technologies for making maps and solving spatial analysis problems; - Explain how and why organizations create and use geographic data, including reference, thematic, and imagery sources - Demonstrate geographic information literacy to identify the kinds of geographic information needed for a particular task, determine whether needed data are available, use relevant technologies to acquire data, and to interpret and explain maps of the data critically; - Create digital thematic maps to tell stories about geographic phenomena