Instructor: Steven Manson, Department of Geography Office: 473 Social Sciences, West Bank Phone: (612) 625-4577 Email: manson "at" umn.edu Office hours: see the teaching page Prerequisites: Geog 3531 and 3561/5561; or instructor consent. Course URL: hegis.umn.edu/gis5555 Credit: 3 units
Class meetings: Tues 200p-430p, (Blegen Hall 445, West Bank), Fall 2009. After this offering, the course is tentatively scheduled for Fall 2010. Materials: All readings are availabe for free in electronic format.

Subject. Spatial analysis is used to understand a range of human and environmental systems, their patterns and dynamics, and their interactions with the broader world.

Students. Students in this course have tended to come from across the social, natural, and information sciences with no clear majority in any one area. This distribution makes for a lively and challenging meeting of the minds. The course is oriented towards Masters, MGIS, or PhD students. Advanced undergraduates are invited to speak with the instructor to determine if they would find the course appropriate to their educational goals.

Purpose. This course expands on aspects of GISc and statistics covered by previous courses. It is designed to give hands-on experience with advanced methods in geographic, spatial, and statistical research.

Goals. Students who successfully complete this course will be able to use a range of spatial analysis tools to explore the patterns and dynamics of almost any problem that has a spatial element. Depending on student orientation, this course can be used to gain insight into the technical underpinnings of introductory spatial analysis, complement on-going research, or provide an applied focus for research or policy.

Prior experience. Students should be proficient in GIS, basic mathematics, and standard statistical methodology including descriptive statistics and bivariate regression. As noted above in the prerequisites, this translates into having at least one statistics course and the Principles of GIS course or its equivalent. Students without this experience fare poorly in this course.

Structure. This is an intensive hands-on class with a focus on reading, discussion, and applications. This translates into 30% Lecture, 20% Discussion, 50% Laboratory.