Lesson 0

Lesson 0 azs2 Fri, 11/15/2024 - 12:23

Course Overview

Course Overview bah6009 Fri, 11/15/2024 - 12:35

In this course, you will focus on developing a GIS system and designing a project proposal, as well as, investigating some existing and new technologies. The nature of this course allows you to explore a project of your own interest such as a work project, personal interest, hobby, etc. You will develop your term project throughout the semester following published design methodologies that will culminate in a final proposal consisting of 8 stages (Figure 1, below). The course will culminate in a peer reviewed presentation and final paper.

The Design process followed in this course, beginning with the problem statement and ending with the Unified Modelling Language.

Credit: Brandi Gaertner © Penn State is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Course Objectives:

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Design a GISystem that solves a spatial problem using the main stages of GIS Design
Write a proposal describing a GISystem Design
Justify the development, implementation, and evaluation of the GIS design
Complete and discuss a variety of geospatial technology lessons
Apply and discuss the different stages of GIS design.

Throughout the semester you will be exploring some existing and new technologies, including proprietary (ESRI) technology as well as open-source technology and data sources. The technology covered in the first 5 modules of the course will include WebGIS proprietary and open-source software, architecture, and data. Then, the last 5 technologies will focus on new technology trends including cloud computing, deep learning, 3D mapping, and GeoAI.

Diagram of the lessons covered in this course

Figure 2: The technology lessons covered in this course. The first five lessons are focused on Design Software including WebGIS, software, data, and enterprise design, and are seen in the leftmost column. The right column shows the last five lessons, which focus on new geospatial technology such as deep learning and GeoAI.

Credit: Brandi Gaertner © Penn State is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Term Project Overview

Term Project Overview jib18 Tue, 10/27/2009 - 11:24

This course is built around a term project that each of you will complete to integrate and apply your understanding of GISystem design in the context of an application scenario you choose. You will select ONE project option from the list below and complete a system design proposal. To a large degree, you will have the freedom to shape the specifics of your term project around a GISystem context that you desire. I hope that this allows you to either focus on a topic related to your day-to-day work or choose an area that sparks your curiosity.

As you will see below, all project options focus on a “design” and/or “plan” for something (a revised, extended, or completely new system for a specific application domain). Thus, your term project for this course will not be a finished product (i.e., you will not implement a new GISystem or carry out a full assessment or usability study of some existing system), instead you will produce a formal plan for such a product. A good way to conceptualize the term project that you will submit at the end of the term (following an iterative process of preliminary steps and feedback on each) is as a proposal appropriate for submission to a decision maker or funding agency, who would evaluate and decide whether or not to support/fund the idea.

A critical component of any successful proposal is to ground the planned work in relevant existing knowledge/guidelines. Thus, we will work through a series of steps in weekly lessons designed to provide you with (or reinforce existing) knowledge related to multiple aspects of geospatial system analysis and design, along with strategies for leveraging literature and other resources from academia, government, and industry that can help you fill in knowledge gaps specific to your chosen design/plan target. The set of activities in the lessons, along with feedback on your in-progress work, will enable you to end up with a well-organized, well-grounded design/plan that would be convincing to decision-makers judging whether or not to support doing what you propose.

Each week, you will notice at least one page of the lesson dedicated to a goal or assignment associated with your term project. Each week, you will also have one graded deliverable related to your final project. I've developed a project schedule that is designed to make sure you make steady progress on the term project and that also ensures that we have one full round of draft editing to refine your work.

Term Project Options

Here are five options you have for your term project. You should choose one of these options. If you have another project idea in mind that you think would work well, send me a note so we can talk about it. Your idea may be an excellent alternative to these pre-canned options,

OPTION 1: A GISystem design proposal that incorporates the use of mobile devices to access and update geospatial data from the field in real-time.
OPTION 2: A design proposal to audit a GISystem with the goal of proposing changes that will improve system functionality.
OPTION 3: A design proposal for a GISystem application that serves the needs of a professional niche (e.g., forest management, city planning, etc…).
OPTION 4: A design proposal that incorporates the use of a web portal to access and update geospatial data
OPTION 5: A design proposal to apply Artificial Intelligence/ Deep Learning to established geospatial products and services.

Term Project Outline

Executive Summary:
The Executive Summary (abstract) should motivate readers to study the full report. The executive summary is a short, powerful synopsis of the report, highlighting important needs, presenting key features of the proposed solution, and listing the significant benefits of the solution. It should be less than one page in length, address issues of greatest interest to decision makers, including pivotal technical and business merits of the conceptual design, and it should recommend desired responses to the proposal.
Table of Contents:
The table of contents is a list, usually before the start of a written work, of the section titles with their commencing page numbers.
Background:
This background section provides a background of the problem, explains the current situation, identifies the proposed solution to the problem, and provides of the overall objectives of the design and proposal. You will write this like a literature review and have sources/citations (around 10).
Needs Assessment:
The Needs Assessment section discusses the different users of the system and how each of the users will be involved in the design project. This section also describes the different needs assessment options, which one you chose and why, and how you will implement the needs assessment in your proposal.
Concepts Considered:
The Concepts Considered section describes the options explored by the design team in its search for a solution to the above problem. It should address both original ideas and those derived from other sources, summarize the scope of ideas considered, and highlight the most creative and relevant concepts for the overall solution and for its component parts.
Concept Selection:
The Concept Selection section describes the processes and rationale used for selecting the “best” concepts for the overall product and for the component parts of the design product. It may include summary tables comparing concepts against design criteria or summary evaluations of specific concepts.
Wireframe design:
The wireframe design section includes multiple designs to show the user interface screens, arrow/explanations for each feature and screens of the interface, an explanation of the steps the user will take to navigate the interface, and a justification for the design.
System Architecture:
The system architecture section describes the overall architecture and components of the design including the GIS workstations, software, hardware, network resources, database design, and requirements. You will also discuss the enterprise GIS requirements including performance considerations, maintenance considerations, and security considerations.
Data Storage:
The Data Storage section describes in the detail the software you will use to house the design and the data you will use to populate the map.
Evaluation:
The evaluation section will identify and explain the method(s) you will use to evaluate the effectiveness of your design, justify the final evaluation method you choose, and explain how you will implement the evaluation method.
UML Design:
The UML Diagram will illustrate the system, actors, use cases, and relationships in your GISystem design. You will also include a short explanation of the diagram.
Cost/Benefit Analysis:
The cost/benefit analysis section should explain AND justify the specific costs of the design.
Future Work:
The Future Work section sets forth clear recommendations and rationale for project continuation. It summarizes the principal features of the product that satisfy users’ needs and provides an anticipated work schedule with milestones for the next phase of the project. Any unresolved issues should be highlighted at this time. Specific approvals for project continuation are requested here.

Deliverables (for Future Lessons)

In this lesson, you need to think about the term project assignment for this class. This week you will complete the topic idea assignment and literature search found in Canvas. Make sure the project is one that is related to GIS design as outlined above. The project should be one that you are interested in and engaged with so that it is something you want to complete. If you are completely stuck for an idea, now is the time to contact the instructor with a range of things that interest you -- so they can help you choose.

The term project includes the following deliverables that will be assigned to you in future lessons:

Topic Idea Assignment indicating which project option you chose and describing in general terms what you will cover - assigned in lesson 1
Literature search and 10 references relevant to your proposed topic cited in an appropriate APA (or other relevant) format - assigned in lesson 1
A Background, Problem Definition, Objectives, and User Analysis section related to your project proposal - assigned in lesson 2
A concepts considered and concept selection section related to your project topic - assigned in lesson 3
A wireframe design outlining the user interface of the proposal application, website, or mobile design - assigned in lesson 4
An explanation of the steps the user will take in the user interface - assigned in lesson 4
A description of the system architecture- assigned in lesson 5
An Explanation of how you will store your data - lesson 6
An evaluation, economic analysis, and future works document for your final project - assigned in lesson 7
A UML that displays the process in your GISystem Design Term Project proposal - assigned in lesson 8
Peer Review Discussion of work to date - assigned in lesson 8
5 Minute Video Presentation of Term Project Highlights - assigned in lesson 9
Peer Review of video presentations (provide constructive feedback on your classmates' work) - assigned in lesson 10
Revised Final Term Project - assigned in lesson 10

Look for details on each deliverable (including specific due dates) on the Canvas calendar.

Writing Hints

Writing Hints fck2 Mon, 08/08/2016 - 16:20

For a fortunate few of us, writing isn’t too difficult. For most of us, though, writing is challenging. Writing is about communicating your thoughts clearly and unambiguously, and this is often a challenging task. How you present your thoughts through the written word is important, especially when communicating about a specialized discipline like GISystem design. You have to understand the discipline in which you are working, and you also have to communicate that knowledge to the reader.

The goal of the writing assignments in this course is simple: demonstrate to the instructor that you understand the specific design process for each lesson and how that process is implemented. You likely spent many hours learning the material, refining the design, developing the wire-frame, and performing prototyping. You probably feel pretty good about reaching this stage of the process. But don’t stop yet! The hard part is to communicate what you did and what you discovered during the design process so that your readers will understand it, too.

Remember that though you have a form of intimacy with the system design process, your reader – not even your instructor – does not. When you write these assignments, you should keep in mind that you are not writing to someone with your level of intimacy. Rather, you need to explain everything, justify why you did what you did, how you did it, and do so using clear and concise language.

As part of your grade with every written assignment, I will assess the clarity, organization, and formatting of your work. What follows is an overview of some commonsense approaches to clear and concise writing for GISystem analysis and design.

Online Resources

The EMS Writer-in-Residence and several colleagues here at Penn State recently compiled a comprehensive guide to Science Communication in Earth and Mineral Sciences. You will find a range of useful suggestions and guidance there that will help with your term project and other writing for the course. The Guide includes some Discipline-Specific material as well; check out the "Geography" link there.

There are quite a few online guides available on how to write about, design, and include figures and tables in your paper. These are some of the most approachable.

Penn State offers a rather comprehensive outline of topics related to writing in general.
Common Errors in Student Research Papers by Rice University. This site has many spot-on examples of common errors and ways to prevent them from creeping into your paper. A short site, but worth the read.
Here is a special section on including figures and tables.
Purdue Online Writing Lab.
Examples of how to cite figures in your paper (i.e., using a figure that you did not create).

Including Tables in a Paper

Including Tables in a Paper mjg8 Tue, 08/09/2016 - 14:04

Tables

Just to be clear, tables (unlike figures) are most often used to report lists of numbers, qualitative information, or other information that can be reported in a list. Similar to figures, all tables should be uniquely and sequentially referenced by a table number. Each table reference should appear in the text as Table 1, Table 2, and so forth according to the number of tables you use. The location of a specific table should follow the first mention of the table in the text. You do not need to break a paragraph so as to place a table. Simply place the table at the end of the paragraph where that table is first mentioned. Each table should have a short header that briefly explains the important information about what is being listed. The table header should be positioned above the table. The anatomy of a properly organized table is shown in Table 1.

Discussing Tables in a Paper

You probably spent hours creating your table. Thus, you have an intimate knowledge of the details of what each one shows. Unfortunately, your reader does not share this same intimacy. Therefore, you must make clear to the reader the important information that they should see. To be clear, start your discussion with the general overview of each table. For example, Table 1 lists the action items in each GIS component. Once that general overview is presented, you can move on to discuss some of the relevant details. Table 1 is the first of two examples of tables and their headers.

Table 1. Concept development in each GIS component. **[the table header]**
GIS Component	Action Item [column titles]
Data Collection	Select the hardware and software for field data collection. Determine the accuracy level requirement. Determine the departments who will perform data collection. [the table body - note the use of border lines to organize the table info]
Data Storage	Choose a placeholder for GPS captured data, possibly create a separate feature dataset with no geometric network rules. Determine who will have editing rights in the production database. Design versioning workflow.
Data Display	Enhance “B-Map Viewer¹” user interface. Possibly design additional Web App to display Pipeline Replacement Project only.

¹ = B-Map Viewer is an internal GUI [footnote]

Here is a sample discussion for Table 2 that would appear in the text.

Only one application, ArcGIS Earth could not produce simple maps and export simple point, line, and polygon files (Table 1). However, the number of steps required to create and export simple point, line, and polygon files varied between applications. Of the applications with these capabilities, ArcGIS Explorer and Google Earth Pro required the fewest steps to create new vector files. Vector creation in ArcGIS for Desktop, gvSig, QGIS, and uDig all required two steps to create files, file creations, and editing. If vector creation requires fewer steps and is more user-friendly, then ArcGIS Explorer and Google Earth Pro performed better for this requirement. In addition, only ArcGIS for Desktop, ArcGIS Earth, ArcGIS Explorer, and QGIS were capable of accessing data from the PIFWO geodatabase (Table 1), though all applications were capable of loading and viewing shapefiles and GeoTIFF files, two common formats used by PIFWO.

Table 2. Summary of GIS application testing to determine if they were capable of completing required tasks. Applications with a score of 1 were capable of completing the required task while applications with a score of 0 were not. Required tasks are shown on each row of the table with a final row summarizing the score for the application for all tasks. All applications are listed on the first row of the table. For details about each system, see their associated reference below.

Table 2. Summary of GIS application testing
Requirement	Applications
Requirement	ArcGIS for Desktop¹	ArcGIS Earth²	ARCGIS Explorer³	Google Earth Pro⁴	gvSIG⁵	QGIS⁶	uDig⁷
Geodatabase Access	1	1	1	0	0	1	0
Vector Creation	1	0	1	1	1	1	1
Map Production	1	0	1	1	1	1	1
Overall Score (Sum)	3	1	3	2	2	3	2

¹ ESRI, 2016a; ² ESRI, 2016b; ³ ESRI, 2016c; ⁴ Google, 2016; ⁵ gvSIG Association, 2016; ⁶ QGIS, 2016; and ⁷Refractions Research, 2016.

Table 3 outlines some examples of problematic wording and why the wording is confusing to the reader.

Table 3. What to Avoid When Discussing Tables in a Paper
Wording Issues with Graphics	Irrationality of the Statement
Table 1 below shows…	"Below" is unnecessary as the "Table 1" reference will direct the reader to the appropriate location.
Inserting a table without any reference to or explanation of said table.	If you are going to insert a table, make sure you reference it and explain its contents for the reader’s benefit.
Since the data show a trend…	First, make sure that you did, in fact, assert that a trend in the data was observed and verified in the body of the text. Second, if you say you are going to do something, then make sure you do - or the reader will be lost.
Table 3 shows a range of data that suggests an important correlation between x and y.	If you say there is something of importance appearing in a table (i.e., “an important correlation”) make sure that is evident in the table. And then support that claim with numerical evidence from the table and explain what that importance is to the reader.

Finding and Citing Sources

Finding and Citing Sources jls164 Mon, 08/05/2019 - 13:29

Penn State Libraries

Writing an exploratory abstract before starting a written paper can be helpful. But after you define the scope of your topic you will need to figure out what knowledge exists about this topic already. While Google’s standard search engine has become second nature to most of us, we encourage you to explore other methods for retrieval of scientific/technical information. As a Penn State student, you have access to a vast digital library. You may access journal articles and eBooks remotely online. You can even get print materials delivered to your home!

After completing this class, you will be practiced in compiling a comprehensive reference list to support and drive your project development, professional writing, and your own exploration of ideas. We encourage you to get familiar with the access to academic publications provided by the PSU libraries.

Google Scholar

To help navigate academic sources, Google Scholar offers an easy to use platform to locate articles and find keywords to use in further searches. Google Scholar makes it easy:

to search for publications from a specific scholar,
to search by keyword to find commonly referenced works pertaining to a specific topic, and
to find new sources by exploring the “Related articles” and “Cited by” features.

Google Scholar also provides multiple ways to filter your searches (click on the ‘hamburger’ icon next to “Google Scholar” at the top of the search page, then pick “Advanced Search” to access these). For more search tips, see Google’s recommendations and a tutorial from the Penn State Libraries.

As you navigate Google Scholar, it is helpful to know about how Google keeps track of metrics pertaining to individual articles and authors. For publications, the “cited by” metric tells you how many other papers have cited this one. A key metric for individual authors is the h-index which measures how many times a scientist’s most cited papers have been cited.

Also note that through the PSU Libraries you have access to Web of Science, which offers similar tools to search academic publications with more control over search parameters but a smaller set of publications to search on (primarily those published in refereed journals and repeating conferences; thus typically missing book chapters, theses and dissertations, and many conferences and workshops).

Citing Sources

As you explore articles, websites, and other publications, it is important to keep track of the citations for papers you find useful. This is best done with a citation manager. In addition to keeping track of works you have consulted and notes that you may have made along the way; these citation managers generate bibliographies and works cited pages very easily! There are a couple of free citation managers that we recommend:

Zotero is a free and open-source citation manager.
Mendeley is another good free option.

Our favorite paid option is Endnote ($75 for Penn State students). The Smithsonian Libraries prepared a useful comparison of these three citation managers that is worth a look.

Citation practices

Throughout this course, please follow formal citation practices to consistently cite both electronic and print sources. Rules for citation practices can be found online. For this course, we suggest that you use the Chicago style but if you are more familiar with another citation style, feel free to use that but be consistent.

We encourage you to draw from a range of sources from academic articles to topical magazines to company promotional material. As you do so, we expect that you maintain proper citation practices.