Core Curriculum-Geographic Information Science (1997-2000)

By the mid-1990s, interest was growing in geographic information science as a discipline based on fundamental geographic concepts that could engage student learning from early childhood to a life-time interest in the infrastructural and intellectual developments required for advances in the modeling of complex environmental and social processes. Seeking to accommodate this need, NCGIA adopted a new approach for a revised core curriculum. It was organized around four major themes:

(1) “Fundamental Geographic Concepts for GIS"—enumerating the concepts and describing their role in human cognition;

(2)"Implementing Geographic Concepts in GIS"—discussing the implementation and handling of geographic concepts in digital computers;

(3) "Geographic Information Technology in Society"—examining the management of these technologies, their implications for society, and the social context in which they are used; and

(4) "Application Areas and Case Studies"—critically examining how GIS is used in various applications.

Each of these four groupings consisted of self-contained teaching units based on a one-hour lecture format of approximately 7 pages of point-form text, with inline sketches and graphics. By placing the materials on-line, the potential existed for instructors or subsidiary project teams to develop supporting structures (e.g., hypertext) to organize the lecture notes and other on-line materials into interactive tutorial systems.

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Outline of the Core Curriculum in GIScience

(2015)

This outline gives an overview of the units that comprise the Core Curriculum in GIScience, along with hyperlinks to each. Note that hyperlinks are active only from the downloaded PDF document.

Introduction to the Core Curriculum in GIScience

(2015)

This introduction provides context to the Core Curriculum in GIScience, including its design philosophy, organization of core concepts, editorial procedure, a development timetable, list of original developers and editorial notes. Note that hyperlinks are active only from the downloaded PDF document.

Unit 128 - Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis

(2000)

This unit explains the purpose of exploratory data analysis and exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA); the model which underlies statistical ESDA; the importance of cartographical, graphical and tabular tools in processing geographical data for ESDA; a range of ESDA techniques and their use in analyzing geographical data; and the limitations of current GIS software for undertaking ESDA.

Unit 164 - Land Information Systems and Cadastral Applications

(2000)

This unit describes the origin, components, functioning, and uses of land information systems, with particular emphasis on systems for maintaining cadastral (land ownership) data.

Unit 127 - Spatial Decision Support Systems

(2000)

This unit focuses on the concept of Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS). It covers the major characteristics of spatial decision problems; the decision-making process; a definition of SDSS; principles of SDSS; the dialog, data, model (DDM) paradigm; and technologies for developing SDSS.

Units 090-091 - Natural Resources Data

(2000)

These units provides a general overview of natural resources data, including types of data; typical applications; and common problems and limitations. Soil data are discussed in greater detail, including soil classification and mapping; types and contents of soil surveys; and the structure of soil data in GIS applications.

Unit 099 - Detecting and Evaluating Errors by Graphical Methods

(2000)

This unit discusses error detection and evaluation by graphical methods. It describes example methods used in statistics, cartography and GIS; challenges including issues in graphic design, metadata, error analysis and detection; techniques for analyzing raw data; and a framework for graphical methods.

Unit 191 - Digital Libraries

(2000)

This unit describes the use of World Wide Web technology for the development of digital libraries. Topics covered in this unit include the objectives, concept and architecture of digital libraries including spatial digital libraries.

Unit 057 - Quadtrees and Scan Orders

(2000)

This unit covers topics including raster scan orders (Bostrophedon, Morton, Pi-order); an introduction to quadtrees and how they are constructed; applications of quadtrees; and quadtree addressing.

Unit 055 - Rasters

(2000)

This unit covers topics including the definition of raster; raster layers, how they are sampled from reality and how they represent reality; geometry and topology of rasters and edge effects on rasters; other forms of rasters including hexagonal and curved surfaces; run length encoding; and issues about working with rasters.