Course Schedule

2025 schedule (tentative – changes very likely)

Wk Dates Class Topics Reading Labs/Activities Quiz
1 Jan 13 & 15 GIS Intro & Types of data
-data vs metadata
– spatial data types
– attributes
Syllabus
Menke Chapter I.1
Gentle Intro Ch 3, 4, & 6
–Exercises 1: Introduction to software and data None
2 Jan 22 & 24

-Projections and coordinates
-Georeferencing
-Editing

Gentle Introduction Ch 8
Menke Chapter II.2; App A
M. Giamond Ch. 9
–Exercises 2:   projections, and tables/attributes
GIS case study; Available on Canvas and this website now
Jan 22
3 Jan 27 & 29

Overlay analysis;
Geoprocessing

Menke Ch. II.3; II.6 Project 1: Mapping Environmental Justice Jan 27
4 Feb 3 & 5 Digital topography Menke II.6
QGIS Training Manual Ch. 7.3
Exercises: digital terrain Feb 3
5 Feb 10 & 12 Location & Distance –
Geoprocessing models
Menke II.4
Training Manual Ch. 17
de Smith 2024 – Ch. 2 & 4
Gandhi “Line lengths” & “Batch processing”
Exercises: models and suitability Feb 10
6 Feb 17 & Feb 19 Geoprocessing models (cont…)
Snow day made our schedule difficult…
see above Exercise: Introduction to the graphical modeler Feb 17
7 March 3 & 5

Neighborhood, Density, & Distance analyses
Hydrology workflow
(if we have time):Shape, Size & Distribution

Menke II.6
ArcPro Neighborhood help
de Smith “point sets and distance statistics”

de Smith Ch. 5
ArcPro “what is Geostatistics?”
Project 2: Landslide Modeling

thinking about your Final Project yet? You shoudldbe!!
Mar 3
8 March 10 & 12 Geostatistics & Bayes Probability
Remote sensing intro:
data and instruments
de Smith Ch. 5 & 6
Boxer Ch 10
End-to-end google earth engine

Python foundations for spatial analysis
Customizing QGIS with python
Google earth engine – coding & QGIS integration Mar 10
9 March 17 & 19 Remote Sensing
Image enhancement, ratios and principal components
de Smith Ch. 5 & 6
Boxer Ch 10
Advanced GEE
Exercises: QGIS & Landsat exercises
Remote Sensing Case Study
Mar 17
10 March 24 & 26 Remote Sensing Classification Image Classification
Classification Intro (using ArcMap)
Gandhi – Master GDAL
An optional thorough explanation by de Smith
Lab: Project 3: Landslide hazard map – inverse modeling
Algorithm for Final Project is due Friday of this week (not perfect, not final, just in, so I can see where you’re heading)
Mar 24
11 March 31 & Apr 2

GPS data and technology
Mesh data (e.g., LiDAR)
Map Composition Review

GPS data in QGIS
Using Mesha data in QGIS

Lab: GPS & Mesh data demo, then final project work
Final Project Data Sources identified and turned in by Friday this week
Mar 31
12 Apr 7 & Apr 9 Final Project work   Lab: work on final project
Friday: present final projects during class time TBD
Apr 7
    Final Exam   during exam week, self scheduled, approx 1 hour exam  

Edited by NDB March 2, 2025