CMSC 725:  GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND SPATIAL DATABASES

Fall 2013

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course will cover 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 and location-based services.  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, and data structures.  Some related material in image
databases and similarity searching will also be discussed, as will be
some recent work in spatial networks and spatiotextual databases.    
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):

Principles of cartography
Projections (on your own but responsible for it)
The raster vs. vector debate
Cartographic modeling
Geomtric operations and algorithms
Database principles (on your own but responsible for it)
Object representations
Region quadtree algorithms
Representations of topology
Point representations
Line segment representations
Rectangle representations
Digital terrain models and triangulations
Plane-sweep methods
Nearest neighbor finding
Embedding methods
Distance-based indexing
Spatial networks
Spatiotextual databases and geotagging
Mapping Apps with a focus on smartphone form factor

PREREQUISITES:

CMSC 420 and CMSC 424 or consent of the instructor.

WORKLOAD:

Occasional homework problems

One individual project/paper and writeup (generally one person/project)

Class participation in discussions

Occasional pop quizzes at the start of the class spanning the material
to be discussed in class in the following lecture

A midterm may be given depending on the frequency of the quizzes in
which case the date will be announced some time in advance.

Final Exam 

Grading:

Midterm and Quizzes and Homework:  Between 25 and 33%
Final:  Between 25 and 33%
Project:  Between 33 and 50%
The weights will be adjusted according to which one gives you the
highest score.

MS Comp Requirement:  Final exam grade for credit in Databases and
Geometric Computing Fields.


Required Texts:

1.  Copy of lecture note slides titled ``GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
    SYSTEMS (GIS):  A TECHNICAL APPROACH'' which will be available on
    the class web site in segments.  You should print them out in
    advance of class and review them before the appropriate lecture.
 
2.  H. Samet.  "Foundations of Multidimensional and Metric Data
    Structures".  Morgan-Kaufman.  San Francisco, CA, 2006.

    You can purchase it at the University Book Center, at Amazon.com
    or possibly for as low as $47.97 at the Elsevier web site.  Also
    enter the promotion code 85511 and you may even get a 20%
    discount.  You can also try the Elsevier web site with the discount
    code "MKFRIEND" to get a 30% discount. In any case, when buying at
    this site, the shipping is free.  

     http://store.elsevier.com/searchResults.jsp?_sbterm=Samet&_requestid=167291&_requestid=167298


3.  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 an updated spiral-bound version of
    the most recent version is available for sale at the Engineering
    Copy Center.  Used or slightly used copies may be available from
    some vendors on the web but the version at the Engineering copy
    center is the latest.  You may want to call (301) 405-3875 to make
    sure that a copy is available for you when you go there.

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

Recommended Texts:

1.  K. C. Clarke, ``Analytical and Computer Cartography''
    Second Edition, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1995.

2.  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 note slides cover
    the relevant material in sufficient detail; so there is no need to
    purchase this book although you may want to look at it for
    historical reasons.