SO432 GIS Fall 2012

Course Project (8/16/2012)

Each student will prepare a final project .  This has the following objectives:

• Demonstrate mastery of the concepts and skills learned in the course.

• Apply those concepts and skills to an area or problem of personal interest.

• Show initiative and resourcefulness in acquiring and integrating data.

Examples of past projects.  The quality varies wildly, so insure that you look at several.  Each of the topics had the potential to be a good project.

• Fall 2008 Student Projects
• Fall 2009 Student Projects (USNA only, one 40 MB KMZ file )
• Fall 2011 Student Projects

The project should generally be in the United States, only because so much free data is available,.  If approved by the instructor, a student might do a project elsewhere in the world, but you must be sure that you can find data.  Data from the US federal government uses standard formats and is easy to use.  Data from state and local governments varies in quantity, quality, and data format, and may not be readily usable.  If you want to use such data, you should see the instructor to determine the feasibility of what you want to do, and plan for extra time to get your data in an acceptable format.  You should start this project early.  You will be dealing with computers, and complex data.  The instructor is committed to helping you as much as necessary, but it is rather hard to solve the problems of  every student in the course the night before an assignment is due.

Student Requirements:

• Collect and merge at least three different data sets, and use them to solve a problem.  You must have at least one raster data set, one imagery data set, and one vector data set, and create at least two different base maps that show good principles of map design. 
• Create a data base on your own.  The data set you create can contain images that you can bring up with a click of the mouse, or link to web sites.  It will be easier to create a point data base, but creating a line or area data base can also be done if you start early and work carefully.  You can add to an existing GIS database, but you must clearly point to enhancements that you have made.
• Create graphs, maps, 3D views, tables and other graphical products as appropriate.  You should aim for at least a half dozen good graphics.  You must show results from your data base displayed on the different base maps.  This should have your graphics, and text equivalent to at least three pages double spaced in Word.
  • If you want to include screen grabs in your paper to show how your proposal works, you can use the Print Screen key which will copy the screen to the clipboard. From there you can paste directly into Word, Paint, or any other program to edit or use the image. This is most appropriate if you are proposing the development of a GIS data base to solve a problem.  You can also save any map or view in the GIS with the File, Save Image command which will capture just the map or view and not the entire screen.
• Final product that "sells" or "explains" something to someone using GIS.  This should have your graphics, and text equivalent to at least three pages double spaced in Word :
  • Provide a KML/KMZ file.  This site provides a good example on working text and discussions in a KML page.  You can take your "paper" as a Word document, turn it into HTML, and embed that on the KML page.  Projects with appropriate topics and results will be posted on the course web page.
• Provide written appendices as Word Documents if this is not included in the final product:
  • Metadata--the source of all your data, any processing you had to do, and why.  Put this in a table.
  • The structure of your database, and why you picked the fields and coding you did.  Put this in a table.
  • An explanation of the audience to whom you are writing the paper, and any notes to the instructor that explain what you did and why.

Possible Ideas

• Analyze the region around your home.
• Analyze a region where you go hiking or hunting.
• Analyze a coastal region for its suitability for amphibious operations.
• Map the distribution of earthquakes in Nevada.
• Analyze hurricane storm tracks for the past century.
• Create a data base on marinas in Annapolis, and analyze the best location to store your new boat.
• Present a proposal to Historic Annapolis to make a GIS database showing pictures and the location of all historic houses in the city.
• Pick a site for a ski area near your house.

Critical Dates:

• Topic sentence.  If you are having trouble, email or see the instructor before this date.  This will explain the problem you intend to solve.
• Proposed structure for your database, with an explanation for the fields you have selected and their formats.  This will count as 10% of the project grade.
• Data sets downloaded from the internet,. Submit a table listing the data set, your source on the web, and anything you will have to do modify or reproject the data so you can use it.  This table will become the metadata portion of your final report.  This will count as 10% of the project grade.
• Final project due.  You will provide the KMZ file to the instructor.
• Project demonstration during last lab period.

The help file for MICRODEM has detailed directions on which formats to download, and how to prepare the data for use.  The computer is very fussy, and you must pay attention to details. MICRODEM and the help file are being updated almost daily to deal with issues that are coming up with various students; if you are having problems, or suggestions about what would make your like easier, let me know--but don't wait until the last minute.

• You must insure the data you get is registered, and in a usable format.  The biggest problems you might have will be data in State Plane Coordinate System, and some of that can be converted.  MI and CA have data in unique state projections which will not currently not work well.
• There is an incredible amount of data available on various states.  See Prof Guth, and google away, to find something of interest.  Remember that you must get data with registered coordinates.  Lists of state GIS data portals are listed in the MICRODEM help file.
• Some of the data sets will be very large.  Your computer can multitask, and download two files at a time, and perform other operations at the same time.
• The best format for vector databases, besides the TIGER files, is ESRI shapefiles.

Sample Metadata.

This analysis used the following data: