CMSC 725:  GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND SPATIAL DATABASES

Fall 2006

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.  Some related work in image
databases and similarity searching will also be discussed.  In
addition, the architecture of some existing spatial databases and
geographic information systems  will be examined in greater detail.

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

Introduction to GIS (1 lecture)
Principles of cartography (2 lectures)
Projections (1 lecture - optional)
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)
Similarity Searching, neighbor finding, and distance-based indexing (3 lectures)

PREREQUISITES:

CMSC 420 and CMSC 424 or consent of the instructor.

POSSIBLE WORKLOAD:

Occasional homework problems
One project/paper and writeup
Class participation in discussions
Midterm and Final Exam

The date of the Midterm Exam will be announced in class.

The workload will depend on the number of students in the course.

Required Texts:

1.  Copy of lecture note slides titled ``GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS):
    A TECHNICAL APPROACH'' will be available for sale at the 
    Engineering Copy Center.

    http://www.eng.umd.edu/copycenter/index.html

2.  H. Samet.  "Applications of Spatial Data Structures:  Computer
    Graphics, Image Processing, and GIS". Addison Wesley, Reading, MA, 1990.
    This book is out of print, but a spiral-bound version of the most
    recent version is available for sale at the University Book Center.

3.  H. Samet. "Foundations of Multidimensional and Metric Data Structures",
    Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, CA, 2006.

    Copies of Reference 3 should be available for sale at the
    University Book Center.  Alternatively, Prof. Samet would be
    placing one bulk order for the book.  You are welcome to place an
    order for the book with him to get a substantial discount as
    announced in class.  This book lies somewhere between recommended
    and required in the sense that students who took CMSC420 will have
    much of the material covered in this book in the previously
    published book by Samet titled "The Design and Analysis of Spatial
    Data Structures".  If you don't have the "Design" book, then you
    should get the "Foundations" book.

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.  This book is out of print but
    a spiral-bound version of the most recent version is available for
    sale at the University Book Center.  If you purchase the
    "Foundations" book you will not need the "Design" book for this
    class.

3.  C. D. Tomlin.  "Geographic Information Systems and Cartographic
    Modeling", Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1989.  This book
    is out of print but the copies of the lecture notes cover the
    material in it quite thoroughly.