In this course, you will become familiar with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). You will be
able to navigate within the ArcGIS, import and export datasets,change the reference frame, create maps,use simple scripts, and search online to find and adjust GIS workflows within the context of Earth systems science. You will also learn how to generate 30 models using photogrammetry using the software Agisoft Photoscan, and how to export the data from those models into ArcGIS.
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Year Taken: AY20/21, Sem 1
Grade: AThis is the notoriously time (and brain) consuming course that is definitely worth at least 10 AUs, but surprisingly the most relevant one in the industry. You’ll be handling so many new software and creating so many maps that many of us ended the semester with worse eyesight just from the hours of squinting and staring at the screen.
GIS was traditionally done in a lab setting, with physical lessons and everyone working on the same tasks besides each other. However, as we all know, the situation with COVID has forced the professors to moving teaching online. Any queries will be answered in specially allocated office hour sessions and the notorious YellowDig platform that will be explained below.
Lab assignments (55%, 5% each for 11 weeks)
The bulk of the course will be spent on this – Using Arc GIS (and QGIS and Metashapes) to complete various tasks. Do not be fooled by the first few labs as the learning curve is exponential! Number of steps decreases with each lab, requiring more of your own research and creativity in tackling the problems. Each lab typically introduces you to (several) new functions in the software needed to produce a final report/map. The task can range from producing maps for consultancy reports such as from risk assessments to least-cost paths for railway construction. The final lab is a group project, in which we used ArcGIS story maps to deliver an “online excursion”. Note: Photogrammetry with the aid of Metashapes used to be the final project, but we had ours swapped with another lab due to COVID 19.
Check out our Story Map (Final Project): https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/65feb9f568f34a27aff8f0375bf27902
Quizzes and Tests (30%)
Every other week (depending on schedule), you will either be tested on theory learnt in the previous lecture or a lab test. The lab test is extremely anxiety inducing as you are given a time limit to create a map for an unknown task. Be sure to screenshot any crashes or malfunctions so that you can justify submitting slightly later. I truly had a fair share of the pop-up of death: “ArcGIS has stopped working *Loading Bar*”. You have been warned.
Class Participation (15%)
For the newly inducted, allow me to introduce to you this really agonizing online participation platform – Yellowdig. In short, this platform is basically Facebook, but each post/comment you create, as well as comments/”likes” received will confer you points. We were also expected to hit a certain ‘goal’ by the end of the course and there is a limit on how many points per week (so you’ll have to contribute throughout). Some posts were really interesting and helpful for the labs and it was really heartening to see my coursemates help each other out. In the end, Yellowdig was just a massive ArcGIS walkthrough whereby people who did the assignment earlier were posting all the problems they faced (paving the way for the procrastinators behind LOL). Also lets not mention the amount of trash-posting and people thanking each other just to hit the word limit for points. I guess the course coordinators didn’t really had a choice either given the situation but …YellowDig was truly spectacular.
This review was reposted with the kind permission of Roy. Originally published at https://djtangent.wordpress.com/2021/04/02/eess-y2s1-2020/
June 11, 2021
