About

DESCRIPTION

This course will introduce the key concepts of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and illustrate how GIS data may be employed in population health research. The course will be comprised of daily lectures and lab sessions. The lectures will feature presentations of basic GIS concepts, GIS data and analysis, how to leverage GIS data to model spatial health-related phenomena, data mining, and how to use GIS output data. The lab sessions will allow course attendees to work hands-on with ESRI’s ArcGIS software package, QGIS, and other GIS tools during lab exercises using spatial data, geocoding, preparing data for analysis, geoprocessing and mapping of public health data

Please fill out the Pre-Course Form:

INSTRUCTOR

Daniel M. Sheehan

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OBJECTIVES

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

Understand the basics of using ArcGIS software
Demonstrate processing techniques appropriate to spatial data
Design and create map output in both static and dynamic form
Discuss the capabilities of GIS and spatial analysis as they relate to the attendees’ particular research interests

PREREQUISITES

Basic understanding of computer file structure and directory paths. For students with administrative rights over a laptop, they may choose to install the latest version of QGIS (http://www.qgis.org/) prior to the course. Or since the installation has many dependencies and differs by OS, students may wish to install the software on the first day of class. They may also choose (if they have Windows or a Mac (dual-boot, Parallels, Fusion)) to install a 1 - year student version of ArcGIS (http://www.esri.com/landing-pages/software/arcgis/arcgis-desktop-student-trial).

MISC.

Links and Resources

Data Resources

USB drive(s)

For class: you'll need an empty USB drive of at least 8 GB, preferably 8-16 GB formatted as NTSF or FAT32. Mac-OSX Journaled devices must be reformatted.

Computers

If you'd like to bring your own computer for ArcGIS starting the 2nd or 3rd day feel free to bring it in. You must have at least 2 gigabytes of random access memory (RAM) devoted to your windows OS and 20 gigabytes of available disk space.