GEOG355: GIS for the Built Environment
Daniel Iwama
Mapping helps us view and interpret urban worlds. Geographic Information Systems is the primary mapping technology used by professionals who help shape the built environment through planning and policy. "GIS" is also used increasingly by communities themselves to produce thick visualizations of urban processes and lived joys/struggles in space. This course aims to prepare students to map the built environment by learning the skills required to: conduct site suitability analysis; model transportation environments; model environmental impact; interpret land use planning maps; and to visualize demographic data. These lessons will foster an introductory yet thorough understanding of sustainable land use change through modules on spatial data analysis and mapping.
Lab 1: Warmup & orienting ourselves to QGIS
Organizing your GIS workspace; Basemaps; File saving/exporting
Lab 2: Mapping census data 1: Income in the BC Lower Mainland
Attribute tables; loading data; spatial joins; symbology; layouts
Lab 3: Mapping census data 2: Housing tenure
Data tables (merging, editing, saving); joins, setting coordinate system
Lab 4: Demographics and Land-Use in Relation
Spatial joins, “point in polygon” operations
Lab 5: Mapping Social Interaction in Divided Cities
Spatial joins; indices; diagrams; styling data; labels
Lab 6: Visualizing Participatory Planning & Crowd-Sourced Data
Symbology; scaled diagrams; field calculator; mixed/multi-media attributes