Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Catalog description

How do corporations know where to locate retail stores and restaurants? How do epidemiologists know how to confront epidemics, pandemics, and related disease outbreaks? How does your utility provider know the location of power outages and water leaks? How do demographers create maps based on ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, gender, religious affiliation, and other population characteristics? The answers to these questions and more are found within Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This course provides an introduction to the fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), including the history of automated mapping. It includes a brief introduction to basic cartographic principles, including map scales, coordinate systems and map projections. GIS hardware and software are implemented, as are various applications of GIS technology used in environmental science, business and government. Using automatic mapping software like ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Pro, ArcMap, and Story Maps, you will create maps that address a variety of local to global issues. (This course is also offered as GEOG 130)