Introduction to GIS

meets in-person in CGIS Knafel 401 or online Tuesdays, 12:15 – 2:15 pm ( Zoom link )

Instructor – Jill Kelly,  jkelly@fastmail.com , office hours drop in via zoom: Wednesdays 11am - 1pm. By appointment: Wednesdays 1pm - 3pm, Thursdays 11am - 1pm, Fridays 10am - 12noon.  Here is the signup sheet for my by-appointment hours .

Teaching Fellow: Tyler Simko,  tsimko@g.harvard.edu , office hours Monday, 9-11 am via  Zoom 

This course teaches the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a collection of hardware and software tools that allow users to visualize and analyze geographic data in its spatial configuration. Students will learn the theory of geospatial analysis alongside practical methods for acquiring, manipulating, displaying, and analyzing cartographic data.

GOV 1008 offers a full series of lectures exposing students to the theory and techniques of spatial analysis, supplemented with hands-on exercises to develop your facility with ArcGIS Pro, a common GIS software.

Software: This course will make use of ArcGIS Pro, a Windows-based GIS software. For Fall 2021, GOV 1008 will most likely not meet in a computer lab. Therefore, you must install a copy on your own computer following the instructions on  the CGA’s software page  prior to the start of the term. The CGA (Center for Geographic Analysis) can help with installation.

If your computer does not meet  the recommended requirements  to run Pro, please contact me. We can arrange remote access to a computer in the IQSS lab.

We will also make some use of  ArcGIS Online , so please verify your access to that website and contact CGA if you cannot log in. Your organization's URL is harvard-cga.

Late in the semester, time permitting, we will also explore the GeoDa software for spatial statistics and QGIS, a free, open-source GIS that runs on Mac, Windows and Linux systems.

Slack: Most class discussion and technical Q&A will take place on Slack. We will also use Slack for hosting materials and recorded lectures.  Please join our Slack  right away.

Google Drive: Homework and larger datasets will be kept on  our class Google Drive folder  .  Each week, you will submit your homework to the correct week’s folder. Please name them with only your last name and the week’s number: YourLastName_HW#. Please do not submit your homework by email.

Textbooks: There is no textbook formally required for this course. A full set of instructional videos will be available. Some suggested supplemental texts are: ArcGIS Pro 2.x Cookbook, Tripp Corbin, 2018; Getting to Know ArcGIS Pro, Law & Collins, 2019; GIS and Cartographic Modeling, C. Dana Tomlin, 2013. You may also find extra support in the prepared lessons offered at  learn.arcgis.com .

Homework Assignments: The first few assignments will be uniform for the entire class; subsequent homework will be oriented toward the development and execution of your final course project. Please expect to spend approximately five hours per week outside of class on assignments for this course. Late homework will eventually be counted, but you may not receive timely constructive feedback on it, so please try to turn it in on time. You will not be able to execute the final project without having done the homework.

Final Project: The term project will be a substantial exploration of a topic through a spatial lens.  Examples of past student projects .

Grading: Course grades are assigned primarily based upon the term project, with several grades recorded for project milestones (project plan 10%, abstract and table of contents 10%, in-class presentation 20%, final project 40%). Homework, though absolutely essential, is a minor component of the final grade (20%).

Approximate Schedule of Topics by Week

1 -- introduction to the ArcGIS Pro interface, GIS data types, and making coherent maps

2 -- fundamentals of data management (acquisition and storage, coordinate reference systems, sharing maps and their supporting data), plotting point coordinates

3 – symbology for vector and raster data, advanced layouts, raster surface operations

4 – operations on the attribute table, creating new data (digitizing, editing), combining vector and raster data, AGOL apps and dashboards

5 – distance and allocation

6 – table joins and spatial joins

7 – working with US Census data, 3D visualization, unit support and spatial aggregation

8 – density, georeferencing an image, ethics and locational privacy

9 -- map algebra, constant rasters, raster logic, masks, creating timelapse animations

10 – conversion between raster and vector, cost distance and drive-times, site selection

11 -- raster neighborhood operations/statistics, zonal operations

12 – intro to autocorrelation and spatial statistics

13 -- student projects and tour of alternative GIS software

Attendance: In-person attendance is not required, and some students may find it safer or more efficient to learn remotely. All classes will be streamed on  Zoom , and the recordings will be posted on  Slack . You may also use the recorded lectures to review a complicated topic.

Individual Authorship: Your final project must be your own work and yours alone. But, progress in technical topics fundamentally relies on collaboration, expanding upon techniques developed by others. Please do not hesitate to share or borrow analytic strategies, workflows, cartographic techniques, shortcuts, workarounds, etc. from one another and from online sources. A note giving credit for these in your submitted work is a nice gesture of gratitude, but not formally required.

Data Privacy: As a university student, personal information about you is collected and stored on university computer systems (e.g. Canvas). ESRI (the owner of ArcGIS Pro), Slack, Zoom and Google also collect and use information generated by your use of the software and other online resources.  ESRI privacy policy . Google privacy policy .  Slack privacy policy .  Zoom privacy policy . Live class sessions will be recorded and posted on Slack for asynchronous review. We can’t opt out of using these common tools, but some awareness of your exposure may cause you to adjust your online behavior as you think appropriate.