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LP20320: Geographical information systems

Follow this link for further information on academic years Academic Year: 2012/3
Further information on owning departmentsOwning Department/School: Department of Computer Science (administered by the Learning Partnerships Office)
Further information on credits Credits: 5
Further information on unit levels Level: Intermediate (FHEQ level 5)
Further information on teaching periods Period: Semester 2 at City of Bath College
Semester 2 at Weston College
Semester 2 at Wiltshire College
Further information on unit assessment Assessment: CW 100%
Further information on supplementary assessment Supplementary Assessment: Like-for-like reassessment (where allowed by programme regulations)
Further information on requisites Requisites:
Further information on descriptions Description: Aims:
Students to be able to:
* Discuss the principles of Geographic Information science and its relationship to applied Geographic Information Systems (GIS);
* Understand how Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be used to study and solve problems in transportation, environment, local government and business;
* Demonstrate their understanding of the application of GIS to applied problem solving by developing a GIS to meet an identified need in business, science or public policy making.

Learning Outcomes:
On completion of the unit the student should be able to:
* Define the nature of geographic information and the type of decisions that make use of such information;
* Discuss the problems and techniques of representation, (including generalisation, discrete and continuous fields, georeferencing and uncertainty of data);
* Develop a GIS to meet an identified need, using suitable software, appropriate data modelling and data collection techniques;
* Perform appropriate geovisualization, query, measurement and transformation and inference to the GIS they have developed;
* Discuss issues of maintaining the currency of large scale geographic databases;
* Evaluate a geographical information system including fitness for purpose and data integrity issues that may affect the validity of the model and reduce dependency on the outcomes.

Skills:

* Academic skills - Research, analyse, compare and contrast, apply, evaluate. (Taught and Assessed).
* Practical skills - GIS programming skills, development skills, programming and SQL design skills, coding skills, management skills. (Taught and Assessed).
* Personal skills - time management, personal organisation, problem solving, and research. (Taught and Assessed).
* Communication skills - demonstrations, working with an employer. (Taught and Assessed).

Content:

* Problems of representation by abstraction and generalisation that are required to produce maps and useful spatial data sets;
* Principles of uncertainty with respect to GIS;
* Identify and use appropriate data representations; raster, vector, georeferencing;
* Explain the limitations of data collection techniques;
* Develop a GIS. Identifying system requirements, developing a GIS application to meet the identified need, applying geo-referencing within the application and implement the design and populate it with data;
* Spatial Analysis using the geographical information system by generating relevant hypotheses and applying these hypotheses to support decisions.
Further information on programme availabilityProgramme availability:

LP20320 is Optional on the following programmes:

Programmes administered by the Learning Partnerships Office
  • USCM-DPF21 : FdSc Computing (Part-time at City of Bath College) - Year 3
  • USCM-LPF21 : FdSc Computing (Part-time at Weston College) - Year 3
  • USCM-WPF21 : FdSc Computing (Part-time at Wiltshire College) - Year 3

Notes:
* This unit catalogue is applicable for the 2012/13 academic year only. Students continuing their studies into 2013/14 and beyond should not assume that this unit will be available in future years in the format displayed here for 2012/13.
* Programmes and units are subject to change at any time, in accordance with normal University procedures.
* Availability of units will be subject to constraints such as staff availability, minimum and maximum group sizes, and timetabling factors as well as a student's ability to meet any pre-requisite rules.