Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE GSC1400

 
TITLE IT Skills for Geoscientists (GIS)

 
UM LEVEL 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 5

 
ECTS CREDITS 4

 
DEPARTMENT Geosciences

 
DESCRIPTION The use of Geographic Information Systems is now a requisite tool in most branches of Geosciences. It is therefore considered to be an essential component, since it will equip the students with the fundamental tools and skills for inputting, reading, interpretation, presentation and analysis of geoscientific data. These skills will be used in later years of the course.

The study-unit will cover the following concepts in geographic information science:
• Principles of GIS (lectures):
    o Raster data structures;
    o Vector data structures;
    o Attributes.

• Propriety software- ArcGIS (lectures and practicals):
    o Geodatabases;
    o ArcCatalog;
    o metadata, feature classes, feature datasets;
    o ArcMap;
    o layers, data frames, data frame properties;
    o importing and exporting data and maps;
    o data creation and editing;
    o digitisation;
    o data conversion;
    o georeferencing;
    o digital cartography (symbolisation, labels, scaling, grids, legends, colour models, layout view, graphs);
    o tables (creating tables, summary statistics, value and attribute selection);
    o data exploration and querying;
    o raster/vector data analyses;
    o terrain analyses;
    o spatial modelling;
    o toolbox (3D analyst, analysis, data management, spatial analyst, spatial statistics).

• Open-source software - QGIS (lectures).

Study-unit Aims:

The goal of this study-unit is to provide students with an opportunity to gain knowledge in the theory and methods of Geographic Information Systems and their application in geosciences.

The study-unit covers the basic principles and functions of GIS, data handling and spatial analysis. The lectures are supplemented with practical sessions and assignments, through which the students will develop practical skills for analysing, visualising and synthesising geoscientific data, and the principles for applying these skills to address geoscientific problems.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- describe and explain the key principles and concepts of geographic information;
- explain data structures, attributes and projection systems;
- characterise the problems related to data quality;
- evaluate GIS techniques and identify the most appropriate to address questions in geosciences.

2. Skills
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- demonstrate proficiency in the use of proprietary or/and open source GIS software;
- create, manipulate, visualise, analyse and present geoscientific data in GIS to address specific problems.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

- Bonham-Carter, G. (1995) Geographic Information Systems for Geoscientists, Elsevier.
- Burrough, P. (1998) Principles of Geographic Information Systems for Land Resources Assessment, Oxford Science Publications.
- Clarke, K. (2000) Getting Started with Geographic Information Systems, Prentice Hall.
- Heywood, I. et al (2006) An introduction to Geographic Information Systems. Prentice Hall.
- Longley, P. et al (2010) Geographic Information Systems and Science. John Wiley and Sons.
- Lloyd, C.D. (2010) Spatial data analysis. An introduction for GIS Users. Oxford University Press.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture, Practicum & Tutorial

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Assignment SEM2 Yes 100%

 
LECTURER/S Therese Bajada
Adam Gauci

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

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