Marine Affairs 560

Introduction to Marine Geospatial Information Systems

Fall Semester 2001

S/A 120 17:00-18:15

Course description: Marine Geospatial Information Systems are emerging as a distinct subset of GIS, due to fundamental differences between terrestrial and underwater spatial information (2-D vs. 3-D, multiresolution, synoptic data collection, time depth [4-D] modeling). Approximately the first half of this course will be a brief review of basic GIS, and the second half will concentrate on aspects of marine data acquisition and manipulation in the GIS context.

Instructor: John A. Gifford (Grosvenor S125-E, RSMAS, 361-4191). I’m at RSMAS almost all Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (not Tu-Th); please just call ahead to make an appointment to see me. You can also send e-mail to jgifford@rsmas.miami.edu.

Required Texts: Geographic Information Systems: an Introduction, Bernhardsen (1999); Marine and Coastal Geographical Information Systems, Wright and Bartlett (2000).

The recently published volume edited by Wright and Bartlett will be used during the second half of the course.

Examinations: 50% of final course grade:

• one midterm exam, worth 20%;

• a cumulative final examination, worth 30% of final course grade.

Library Review Paper and Oral Report: 50% of course grade. A 4000-word minimum paper (about 16 pages typed, double-spaced) reviewing one well-defined aspect of marine GIS using at least six published references from the scholarly journals of GIS and related marine science fields (e.g., Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, International Journal of GIS), well as relevant books and monographs will be due at the last schedule class meeting. In addition to its topical content, your paper will be graded on such aspects of non-fiction technical writing as clarity of thought and presentation, structure, style, use of English, in-text citations, and references (among others).

By Week 5 of the semester I will have handed out a list of possible topics, but you are encouraged to discover your own, based on interests that emerge during the semester. A formal outline and the initial section of your paper will be required in advance of it final submission, so I can monitor (to a small extent) your progress. Due dates are included in the course schedule below; you are responsible for submitting these items on schedule or face the consequences of failure to do so.

The last one or two meetings of the semester will be devoted to oral presentations by each student of his/her review paper topic. I envision each of these presentations to last around 15 minutes, and they will count as (approximately) 1/3 of the final paper grade (i.e., 15-20% of overall course grade). More details regarding these presentations will follow.

MAF 560 J: Fall 2001 Schedule

Week Dates Topics (Chapter readings in GIS:I and MCGIS)

1 23 Aug Course Introduction: GIS terms & definitions; what is a MGIS (GIS:I Chap 1)

4 11 Sep continued…

13 Sep Advanced Data Models (Chap 5)

5 18 Sep Georef/Coordinate Systems (Chap 6)

20 Sep Hardware/Comms for GIS (Chap 7)

6 25 Sep Software for GIS (Chap 8)

27 Sep Data Collection I (Chap 9)

7 02 Oct Data Collection II (Chap 10)

04 Oct Data Quality (Chap 11)

8 09 Oct Midterm Examination

11 Oct Database Implementation (Chap 12)

9 16 Oct Housekeeping Tools (Chap 13)

18 Oct Basic Spatial Analysis (Chap 14)

Library Research Paper (LRP) titles and outlines due!

10 23 Oct Continued…

25 Oct Advanced Analysis (Chap 15)

11 30 Oct Remote sensing in the marine environment (MCGIS: Chaps 1, 2)

01 Nov Data Models for MCGIS (Chap 3)

12 06 Nov Representation of Variability for MCGIS (Chap 5) )

08 Nov Linear Reference Systems for MCGIS (Chap 7)

13 13 Nov Real-time MCGIS (Chap 10)

15 Nov Vents Program GIS (Chap 12)

14. 20 Nov GIS and Fisheries Management (Chap 15) GIS

15 27 Nov Student presentations I

29 Nov Student presentations II

FINAL version of your LRP due today at the LATEST

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