Internet GIS
We are pleased to offer a course on Internet GIS in Winter 2021, under our Special Topics in Geomatics course code, GEOM 4001.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS), once considered the state of the art in geographic data handling, analysis and geovisualization, are no longer packaged into single desktop-based systems. Advances in geographic information occur on cloud and mobile platforms, and data representations are “mashed up” in web 2.0 applications. The nature of geographic data has changed as well. We now have very large, streaming datasets which are heterogenous in nature, called ‘big data’. Much of the new data comes from crowdsourced geographic information in contrast to traditional geospatial data, which originates from authoritative sources. In this course, we will cover the principles of this paradigm, called the Geospatial Web 2.0 or Geoweb.
Like GIS, the Geoweb has broad applicability. Numerous examples can be seen in health geography, wildlife and natural resources, criminology, transportation planning, business administration, and tourism, to name only a few. The Geoweb also can be linked to social networking platforms.
The course will offer a combination of theory and practice of the Geoweb. In terms of theory, we will cover subjects like crowdsourced geographic information and how it changes our ideas about spatial data accuracy. In practical lab sessions students will design and develop Geoweb “apps”. An additional goal is not to learn specific skills per se, but to ‘learn how to learn’ so students can anticipate innovations in geospatial technologies and adapt to the ever-changing technological landscape of geospatial web.
Questions about this course? Please contact the instructor, Dipto Sarkar. Questions about the Geomatics program can be sent to Murray Richardson.
(image courtesy of The Opte Project / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)