Syllabus
Course description
The course explains digital representation and analysis of geospatial
phenomena and provides foundations in methods and algorithms used in
GIS analysis. Special focus is on terrain modeling,
geomorphometry, watershed analysis and introductory GIS-based
modeling of landscape processes (water, sediment).
The course includes analysis from lidar data, coastal change assessment and 3D visualization.
See slides
and video
which introduce the course in more depth.
Instructor
Corey White, see C.T. White's
CGA page
Google Scholar
| Office hours: |
by appointment |
| Appointment: |
please always make an appointment by email |
| Email: |
ctwhite@ncsu.edu |
Prerequisites
Knowledge of GIS principles at introductory level or strong computational background;
GIS280 Introduction to GIS, GIS510 Fundamentals of GIST, GIS520 Spatial Problem Solving
or GIS530 Spatial Data Foundations are recommended.
Educational approach
This course will consist of lectures, readings,
hand-on exercises, homework assignments, and a major
project. All the work will be collected within an electronic
portfolio that will systematically include the work that you will do
for this and other GIS courses. Extra credits will be given for
innovative solutions, creativity in problem solving and extensions
to given tasks.
Class materials and schedule
See the course Introduction
Textbooks
No required textbook, on-line material is used.
You may find the following titles helpful for some topics:
-
Neteler, M. and Mitasova, H., 2008, Open Source GIS: A GRASS GIS Approach. Third Edition.
Springer New York Inc, p. 406. Available free as e-book through NCSU library,
click on eBook link on the grassbook website
from a computer registered at NCSU.
-
Smith, Goodchild, and Longley:
Geospatial Analysis (free access)
-
Hengl, T. and Reuter, H. I., 2008,
Geomorphometry: Concepts, Software, Applications,
Elsevier, and a related web site,
get free access through NCSU Library
- Wilson, John P. 2018.
Environmental applications of digital terrain modelling. 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
-
Petrasova A, Harmon B, Petras V, Tabrizian P, Mitasova H., 2018,
Tangible Modeling with Open Source GIS.
Second edition. Springer International Publishing.
Available free as e-book through NCSU library.
Software
GRASS GIS, ArcGIS Pro.
To download, follow the links at the
Course logistics web page.
Grading policy
40% homeworks, 20% midterm, 40% project (10% proposal + 5% progress report and title submission on wiki + 10% presentation + 15% paper),
100% is the maximum number of points (total + extra credits) achieved in class.
Points are taken off for late submissions.
| Grade | Course and each HW |
|---|
| Max | 100 |
| A+ | 97 |
| A | 93 |
| A- | 90 |
| B+ | 87 |
| B | 83 |
| B- | 80 |
| C+ | 77 |
| C | 73 |
Topics
- Geospatial data acquisition
- mapping natural phenomena, concept of continuous fields and discrete sampling
- units, projections, coordinate transformations, georeferencing
- geospatial formats, conversions, geospatial data abstraction library
- raster and vector representation, raster-vector conversions and resampling
- Data display and visualization
- display of
continuous and discrete data, use of color, shading, symbols, to
extract the spatial pattern and relationships
- 3D visualization: multiple surfaces and volumes, 3D vector objects
- visualization for data analysis (lighting, zscaling, transparency,
cutting planes, animations)
- Geospatial Analysis
- foundations for analysis of continuous and discrete phenomena
- neighborhood operations and buffers,
- analysis and modeling with map algebra,
- cost surfaces and least cost path,
- spatial interpolation and approximation (gridding)
- Terrain Modeling and Analysis (Geomorphometry I-III)
- terrain and bathymetry mapping
- mathematical and digital representations (point clouds, contour, raster, TIN)
- DEM, DTM and DSM, working with multiple return lidar data
- spatial interpolation of elevation data and topographic analysis
- line of sight, viewshed analysis
- solar irradiation, photovoltaic energy potential
- time series of elevation data, analysis of coastal change
- Flow tracing, Watershed Analysis and Landforms I-II
- methods for flow routing and flowaccumulation
- extraction of stream networks
- extraction of watershed boundaries
- feature extraction, landforms
- Introduction to Modeling of Geospatial Processes
- model formulation, input data processing
- introduction to GIS-based hydrologic and erosion modeling
- Project
- Academic integrity
-
Overview,
Code of Student Conduct
- Attendance policy
-
in on-campus section, attendance is recommended.
- Accommodation of students with disabilities
-
Disability Services Office
- Large Language Model (LLM) (i.e., ChatGPT, Bard, etc..) policy
-
The use of LLMs in this course is permitted for the purposes of completing assignments and projects.
However, the use of LLMs for the purposes of completing exams is strictly prohibited. Students are also required
to cite the use of LLMs in their assignments and projects. Failure to do so will result in a violation of the
courses academic integrity policy.
Students are also to be aware that the use of LLMs in this course is not a substitute for learning the material.
Assignments and projects must be properly cited and contain no plagerized materials.
(The policy was created with the aid GitHub CoPilot)
For non-NCSU visitors
This course material is open and is often used by people outside NCSU.
Note that although we are trying to have maximum of our resources open,
some linked material like online library resources and virtual computing lab
are accessible only to people at NCSU. However, GRASS GIS and the dataset
used in the assignments are available to anybody under and open license.
The most useful page for an outside visitor is the
list of GRASS GIS assignments.