{"id":56,"date":"2015-11-13T17:37:25","date_gmt":"2015-11-14T00:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/advancedgis\/?page_id=56"},"modified":"2026-09-11T17:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T00:31:14","slug":"introduction","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/advancedgis\/schedule\/slides\/introduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"level01text\">I hope that you enjoy the course and, in doing so, learn more about GIScience, GISystems, and geographical analysis. In the first lectures I will review the course requirements (which are listed in the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/advancedgis\/syllabus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Syllabus<\/a>), discuss some relevant courses offered in the Department (provide some context) and talk a bit about becoming a geographical thinker.<\/p>\n<p class=\"level01text\">Over the next few weeks I&#8217;ll review some of the concepts you should be familiar with (i.e., the &#8220;prerequisites&#8221;), and then we&#8217;ll move onto new material. You should read over the relevant chapter before the class so that you can meaningfully follow the content in the lecture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"level01text\">The labs cover important GIScience concepts and application areas, as well advanced GISoftware capabilities. For the final project, which can either be a group-based project or something you tackle on your own, you will need to demonstrate that you have mastered the software and are capable of performing advanced analysis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"level01text\">If you have any questions about any of the materials presented in the class, or in the labs, do not hesitate to contact me.<\/p>\n<div id=\"random-accordion-id-137\" class=\"accordion-shortcode  \">\n<h3 ><a href=\"#learning-objectives-0\" >Learning Objectives<\/a><\/h3><div id=\"learning-objectives-0\" class=\"accordian-shortcode-content \" ><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Be able to tell geographic information science from a geographic information system.<\/li>\n<li>Be able to say which knowledge about geographic information outlasts the software that carries it.<\/li>\n<li>Be able to say what kind of work a geographic information system is being asked to do in a given case.<\/li>\n<li>Be able to point to a setting where spatial data and spatial analysis are used, could be used, or should be used.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n<\/div>\n<h3 ><a href=\"#recommended-readings-1\" >Recommended Readings<\/a><\/h3><div id=\"recommended-readings-1\" class=\"accordian-shortcode-content \" ><\/p>\n<p>Slides from the lecture are on Canvas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Text<\/strong>: Supplemental Materials 1: A Gallery of Applications in <a href=\"https:\/\/gw2jh3xr2c.search.serialssolutions.com\/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&amp;ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&amp;rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsummon.serialssolutions.com&amp;rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&amp;rft.genre=book&amp;rft.title=Geographic+Information+Science+and+Systems%2C+4th+Edition&amp;rft.au=Longley%2C+Paul+A&amp;rft.date=2015-01-01&amp;rft.pub=Wiley&amp;rft.isbn=9781119031574&amp;rft.externalDocID=EBC5106363&amp;paramdict=en-US\">Geographic Information: Science &amp; Systems<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Alternative (free) text<\/strong>: GIS Basics: <a href=\"https:\/\/saylordotorg.github.io\/text_essentials-of-geographic-information-systems\/s05-introduction.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chapter 1<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/advancedgis\/geospatial-thinking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Some thoughts on becoming a <strong>Geospatial Thinker<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><h3 ><a href=\"#useful-resources-2\" >Useful Resources<\/a><\/h3><div id=\"useful-resources-2\" class=\"accordian-shortcode-content \" ><p><a href=\"https:\/\/gisgeography.com\/gis-applications-uses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">1000 GIS applications<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>A VERY relevant free, online text: <a href=\"https:\/\/mgimond.github.io\/Spatial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Intro to GIS and Spatial Analysis<\/a> by <em>Manuel Gimond.\u00a0<\/em>If you know R then this text is for you--Gimond provides an appendix in which he outlines how to perform spatial analysis using R.\u00a0 However, the first half of the text provides an easy-to-follow introduction to GIS and spatial analysis that I highly recommend everyone review.<\/p>\n<p>ESRI's '<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kEaMzPo1Q7Q\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">What is GIS?<\/a> <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">video<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"VXjEDsiBog\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gogeomatics.ca\/things-to-know-about-geographic-information-systems-gis-as-a-career\/\">Things to know about Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a Career<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Things to know about Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a Career&#8221; &#8212; GoGeomatics\" src=\"https:\/\/gogeomatics.ca\/things-to-know-about-geographic-information-systems-gis-as-a-career\/embed\/#?secret=p1OFqciEmJ#?secret=VXjEDsiBog\" data-secret=\"VXjEDsiBog\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?reload=9&amp;v=5tfnmhl-A54&amp;feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Precision Information Environments: envisioning the future of emergency management (a PNNL vision video)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Penn State University: <a class=\"level01text\" href=\"https:\/\/geospatialrevolution.wpsu.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The GeoSpatial Revolution<\/a> (<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">video<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p>\n<\/div>\n<h3 ><a href=\"#keywords-3\" >Keywords<\/a><\/h3><div id=\"keywords-3\" class=\"accordian-shortcode-content \" ><p>Geodesign, Geospatial Thinking, GIScience, GISystems<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><!-- #random-accordion-id-137end of accordion shortcode -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I hope that you enjoy the course and, in doing so, learn more about GIScience, GISystems, and geographical analysis. In the first lectures I will review the course requirements (which are listed in the Syllabus), discuss some relevant courses offered in the Department (provide some context) and talk a bit about becoming a geographical thinker. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18620,"featured_media":0,"parent":73,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-56","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/advancedgis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/advancedgis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/advancedgis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/advancedgis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18620"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/advancedgis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":95,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/advancedgis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/56\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5213,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/advancedgis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/56\/revisions\/5213"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/advancedgis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/advancedgis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}