CUSP-GX 5053 Geographic Information Systems

3 Credits

This course will provide an accessible introduction to the fundamental concepts and operations that underpin Geographic Information Systems (GIS). At its core, GIS relies on geography as an interface to structured and unstructured data that are stored and managed in what are often complex information systems. The course will introduce students to the central components of GIS as commonly deployed in enterprise software, free and open source code libraries, and experimental systems. The course treats the methodology underlying GIS (particularly in spatial and computer science) and the software operations that collectively enable GIS functionality and applications (particularly data structures, spatial data access, and geometric operations). Hands-on lab sessions will walk students through GIS methods in popular software, including the Google Maps Javascript Application Programming Interface (API), ESRI ArcGIS (ArcMap and ArcGISPro), GeoDa, and GIS libraries in R Studio. The course is intended to prepare students for more advanced coursework at NYU CUSP, particularly Urban Spatial Analytics and Advanced Spatial Analytics.