Course ID: | FORS 7690-7690L. 3 hours. 2 hours lecture and 3 hours lab per week. |
Course Title: | Applied Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Forest Resource Management |
Course Description: | Geographic Information Systems (GIS) methods and techniques to
solve management problems faced by forestry professionals.
Focus on the collection, organization, and analysis of spatial
and tabular information with an emphasis on big data (FIA, RPA,
census, Landsat) and their use in the decision-making process. |
Oasis Title: | Applied GIS For Res Mgmt |
Prerequisite: | (FANR 3800 and FANR 3800L) or (FANR 4201/6201 and FANR 4201L/6201L) |
Semester Course Offered: | Offered fall semester every year. |
Grading System: | A-F (Traditional) |
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Course Objectives: | Students will develop a functional knowledge of the spatial
analysis tools forest managers use to evaluate the landscape.
Students will apply their newly acquired skills to address
topics related to the:
a. assessment of the current state of the land base in terms of
area, composition, and regulation compliance, the
b. spatial nature of proposed management practices and regimes
and their probable outcomes, and the
c. delivery of that information in both hard and soft copy
formats and through web-based systems (Google Earth, ArcGIS
Online).
Topics will be drawn primarily from forestry related operations
such as BMP planning and compliance audits, FIA reporting and
mapping, and due diligence mapping of forestland property for
real estate transactions. Self-paced online training modules
developed by ESRI will be used as a means to quickly orient the
student to the ArcGIS environment and to introduce upcoming
topics. The student will be expected to complete these
tutorials outside of class meeting times.
Students who successfully complete this course will:
a. have a basic understanding of the underlying geographic
concepts related to GIS and mapping (i.e., coordinate systems
and data models), and will be able assess the impact of their
implementation,
b. know how to assemble projects consisting of both public and
proprietary information, and when it is unavailable, they will
know how to generate the needed data themselves,
c. understand how to apply geospatial techniques and methods
commonly used to address real-world natural resource management
issues, and will
d. be able to employ the various spatial reporting and summary
techniques, and map output and information delivery tools. |
Topical Outline: | a. Introduction to GIS and spatially referenced information
b. Introduction to ArcGIS I: (ArcMap, ArcCatalog,
ArcToolbox)
c. Project planning and data management
d. Tabular data collection, management, and analysis
e. Map production and report generation in ArcGIS
f. Data acquisition and mapping I: digitizing
g. Data acquisition and mapping II: GPS
h. Data acquisition, mapping and reporting III: public data
sources (big data)
i. Vector analysis I: overlays, extraction, and proximity
j. Vector analysis II: spatial summaries, statistics, and
reporting
k. Raster analysis techniques
l. Satellite remote sensing I: sources, acquisition, and
import
m. Satellite remote sensing II: image classification, zonal
summaries and statistics
n. Online mapping and information dissemination tools
(Google Earth, ArcGIS Online) |