CMSC 725: GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND SPATIAL DATABASES

Fall 2004

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will go over topics in geographic information systems and spatial databases. The field of geographic information systems is becoming increasingly important as the basis of spatially-based decision systems. It overlaps many areas of computer science research. The aim of the course is to tie together related results from databases, cartography, geography, computer graphics, file access methods, computational geometry, image processing, data structures, and programming languages. The main topics to be discussed are cartographic modeling, principles of cartography, methods from computational geometry, principles of spatial databases, access methods, and spatial data structures. In addition, the architecture of some existing spatial databases and geographic information systems will be examined in greater detail. Some related work in image databases and similarity searching may be discussed if time permits.

TOPICS TO BE COVERED (not necessarily in this order or depth)

• Introduction to GIS (1 lecture)
• Principles of cartography (2 lectures)
• Projections (1 lecture)
• Sampling the world - errors, conversion, coordinate systems (1 lecture)
• Generalization (1 lecture)
• The raster vs. vector debate (1 lecture)
• Cartographic modeling (4 lectures)
  • Representations
  • Operations
  • Modeling
• Database issues (3 lectures - optional)
  • Review of hierarchical, network, and relational models
  • Integration of spatial and non-spatial data
  • Object-oriented methods
  • Image databases
• Review of existing geographic information systems (1 lecture)
• Spatial data structures (4 lectures)
• Representations of topology (1 lecture)
• Point databases (2 lectures)
• Line segment databases (1 lecture)
• Digital terrain models (1 lecture)
• Triangulated Irregular Networks (TINs) (1 lecture)
• Triangulations methods (1 lecture)
• Spatial interpolation (1 lecture)
• Nearest neighbor finding (1 lecture)

Prerquisites

• CMSC 420 and CMSC 424 or consent of the instructor.

Possible Workload

• Occasional homework problems
• One project
• Class participation in discussions
• Midterm and Final Exam. The date of the Midterm Exam will be announced in class.

Required Texts

1. Copy of lecture note slides titled Geographic Information Systems (GIS): A Technical Approach to be found at the University Book Center.
2. C. D. Tomlin. Geographic Information Systems and Cartographic Modeling, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1989.
3. H. Samet. Applications of Spatial Data Structures: Computer Graphics, Image Processing, and GIS, Addison Wesley, Reading, MA, 1990.

Recommended Texts:

1. K. C. Clarke, Analytical and Computer Cartography, Second Edition, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1995.
2. H. Samet. The Design and Analysis of Spatial Data Structures, Addison Wesley, Reading, MA, 1990.