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Unit of study_
OLET1610: GIS: Geographic Information Systems
2025 unit information
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has a critical role in addressing major challenges facing humanity, including our environmental futures (applications involve the measurement of biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, land degradation, natural hazards planning); our future social lives ('smart' and 'digital' cities); water, food and energy security, and the role of local environments for population health, (e.g. in debate on healthy neighbourhoods and epidemiology) and in corporate responsibility. GIS is an emergent technological platform with broad application across natural and social sciences. It involves the practices of producing and negotiating geographic knowledge through the representation, manipulation and analysis of geospatial data using digital technologies. In this foundation level OLE, students will examine GIS based methods to investigate spatial patterns in social, environmental and health data and query the processes underlying these trends. The technologies behind GIS, geospatial data structures, map projections and different methods for querying and analysing geographic data will be introduced through multidisciplinary case studies.
Unit details and rules
Managing faculty or University school:
Science
| Study level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Academic unit | Geosciences Academic Operations |
| Credit points | 2 |
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Prerequisites:
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None |
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Corequisites:
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None |
| Prohibitions:
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None |
| Assumed knowledge:
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A general awareness and understanding of human and environmental interactions is assumed |
At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:
- LO1. recognise how GIS is used across breadth of disciplines
- LO2. consider GIS based methods for investigating spatial patterns in social, environmental, and health data, and query the processes underlying these trends
- LO3. perform basic spatial analysis and understand the importance of method design in addressing geographic questions
- LO4. understand geographic data models and structures
- LO5. understand geographic theory and translate spatial reasoning into practice
- LO6. demonstrate basic knowledge of a standard GIS software environment.
Unit availability
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The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.
| Session | MoA ? | Location | Outline ? |
|---|---|---|---|
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Intensive March - April 2025
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Online | Camperdown / Darlington, Sydney |
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Modes of attendance (MoA)
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