Introduction

The role that Geographic Information Systems (GIS) plays in design and planning has grown dramatically over the last five of years. In many cases designers are being asked to use existing information available on the World Wide Web to make preliminary land use decisions. Due to its increasing importance and value to the profession, this class was proposed for landscape architecture students.

 

Learning Outcomes: The goal of this course is to familiarize students with GIS software and the data available though the World Wide Web as well as GPS (Global Positioning Systems) hardware and software. The class will cover basic map concepts, data mining and downloading, field recording and downloading of GPS data, working with ArcGIS software suite, and map creation. Students will spend time analyzing data, creating layers and designing maps suitable for landscape architecture design and planning. The maps can be used for field work in the early stages of planning development and analysis. They may also be used as base sheets for master planning projects and for final presentations. A portion of this class will be spent collecting information in the field in digital form using GPS. That information will be transferred to GIS and used in landscape architecture applications.