Course Number: Geog 579
Instructor/Department: A-Xing Zhu, Geography
Credit Hours: 3
Offered: Fall

This is an advanced course covering analytical methods used in GIS and spatial analysis. The course is intended to provide students with a firm understanding of the theoretical/conceptual side of algorithms found in GIS software. We are concerned with the assumptions and underlying mathematical basis for widely-used techniques, and the degree to which analytical capabilities are constrained by those assumptions.

Among the topics covered are methods for line generalization, map transformation, spatial interpolation, terrain analysis, network analysis, spatial overlay, and basic measurement operations. The emphasis is on the usefulness and limitations of competing algorithms, as opposed to optimal implementation.

The objectives are to 1) provide students with a proper understanding of the usefulness and the limitations of GIS analytical techniques with the hope that students will observe these limitations when using these GIS techniques and 2) to develop students' analytical ability so that they would naturally seek the limitations of GIS techniques which are new to them so that misuse or abuse of existing and new GIS analytical techniques can be avoided.

Prerequisites: Geog 377 and an introductory statistic course.