This course introduces the concepts and components of a geographic information system (GIS). It also teaches the essential skills of spatial data management, analysis, and visualization through the use of the ArcGIS software package. Upon completion of this course, students understand the fundamental concepts of a GIS including spatial data models, spatial analysis, and cartographic principles. They also gain hands-on training in spatial data collection, editing, transformation, and mapping, as well as spatial analysis operations such as location-based query, address geocoding, terrain...

Read more about ISMT E-150 - Introduction to GIS

Maps and empires have entangled histories. In this course we will examine the evolution of geographic information technology and the way imperial states and subjects used atlases, boundary surveys, town plans, and topographical maps to manage information flows and generate political and cultural capital. We will learn to speak the language of maps: particularly maps of the Russian Empire. Through units devoted to Siberia, the Black Sea, and European Russia, we will reconstruct the history of an empire through maps held right here at Harvard.

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Read more about HIST 1947 - The Imperial Map: Geographic Information in the Age of Empire

This seminar will use mapping as a methodological technique to examine social and environmental issues. Students will be expected to use mapping software to examine spatial data for a location and topic of their choice for their final paper. Weekly discussions will be conducted in class on various mapping related topics. References will range from books like "How to lie with Maps" to current journal articles examining the use of GIS in social science.

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Read more about GOV 94DN - Mapping Social and Environmental Space

This courses teaches the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a collection of hardware and software tools that allow users to visualize and analyze geographic data in its spatial configuration. Students will learn the theory of geospatial analysis alongside practical methods for acquiring, manipulating, displaying, and analyzing cartographic data.

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Read more about GOV 1008 - Introduction to Geographic Information Systems

From Mexico to India, San Francisco to Tokyo, natural disasters have shaped both the surface of our planet and the development of civilizations. These catastrophes claim thousands of lives and cause tens of billions of dollars in damage each year, and the impact of natural disasters is only increasing as a result of human population growth and urbanization. This course uses the methods and skills associated with earth science to help you to develop an understanding of both the causes and impacts of these events. By the end of this course, then, you will be able to understand the ways in...

Read more about GENED 1098 - Natural Disasters

The purpose of field methods in humanitarian crisis II expands research methods to include network sampling of difficult to reach populations. Use of remote sensing and GIS for sampling, mixed methods and interdisciplinary approaches that involve epidemiology with other methodologies, such as climate modeling and big data analysis will be reviewed. Integrated into the course will be the use of digital tools for sampling, data management and analysis.

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Read more about GHP 538 - Field Methods in Humanitarian Crises II

This is an introductory level course in the conceptual and analytic tools used to understand how spatial distributions of exposure impact on processes and patterns of disease. It covers methods that allow: (i) examination of patterns of health and disease in place and time, (ii) application of geospatial technologies and methods for epidemiology, (iii) analysis of time-space relations, (iv) identification of clusters and diffusion of disease, and (v) study of geographical epidemiology of selected infectious and noninfectious diseases.

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Read more about GHP 534 - Introduction to Spatial Methods for Public Health

This seminar will use mapping as a methodological technique to examine social and environmental issues. Students will be expected to use mapping software to examine spatial data for a location and topic of their choice for their final paper. Weekly discussions will be conducted in class on various mapping related topics. References will range from books like "How to lie with Maps" to current journal articles examining the use of GIS in social science.

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Read more about GOV 94DN - Mapping Social and Environmental Space

This course is a workshop for students who have taken the introductory Geographical Information Systems course and want to explore detailed applications. The course will meet two times a week for a lecture and a laboratory exercise.

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Instructor: Jill Kelly

Read more about GOV 1009 - Advanced Geographical Information Systems Workshop

Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods, claim thousands of lives and cause tens of billions of dollars in damage each year. Moreover, changes in Earth's climate are raising sea level, changing precipitation patterns, and likely causing an increase in the occurrence of damaging storms, putting more of our increasing exposed global population at risk. In this course we develop an understanding of these natural hazards from an earth science perspective, and examine several case studies to assess their catastrophic impacts. Given our scientific understanding of these...

Read more about GENED 1098 - Natural Disasters

This course introduces the basic principles of tourism master planning, enabling students to learn how communities, governments, business, and civil society can take a more inclusive and sustainable approach to planning tourism destinations worldwide. Students learn to present quantitative and qualitative economic, sociocultural, and environmental data to determine the best management of vital natural and social resources, and to build scenarios that include the impacts of climate change, including approaches to mitigation and adaptation, over the next 20-30 years. A live interactive...

Read more about ENVR E-118B - Sustainable Tourism, Regional Planning, and Geodesign

Web GIS, the combination of the web and geographic information systems (GIS), is a new and promising field. It has extended the power of GIS from local servers to the cloud, and put online maps and geospatial intelligence in the offices of millions and the hands of billions. This course aims to provide students with the essential knowledge needed for managing web GIS projects, teach students the latest geospatial cloud technologies needed for building modern web GIS applications, and inspire students with real world case studies. This course focuses on Esri's web GIS platform, the most...

Read more about CSCI E-8 - Web GIS: Technologies and Applications

An introduction to the GIS and remote sensing methods used by archaeologists to document and analyze datasets at the scale of the site and the region. This class will involve the hands-on use of printed maps, aerial photography, satellite imagery, digital terrain models, GPS-based observations, and UAV (drone) photogrammetry to approach archaeological research questions. Students will gain competence in creating spatial data for fieldwork, print publication, and online visualization (web maps and 3D modeling), and in basic spatial analysis of archaeological datasets.  Labs will use...

Read more about ANTHRO 2020 - GIS & Spatial Analysis In Archaeology

Urban planners engage in many complex processes that defy easy representation. This course provides first-semester urban planning students with the graphic and technical skills needed to reason, design and communicate these processes with geospatial data. This knowledge will be embedded within a larger critical framework that addresses the cultural history of categorization, data collection and cartography as tools of persuasion for organizing space.Visual expression is one of the most compelling methods to describe the physical environment, and students will learn techniques...

Read more about VIS 2129 - Spatial Analysis and the Built Environment

Maps do not represent reality, they create it. As a fundamental part of the design process, the act of mapping results in highly authored views of a site. By choosing what features, forces, and flows to highlight—and implicitly, which to exclude—the designer first creates the reality into which their intervention will be situated and discussed. Furthermore, the usage and materiality of space is increasingly measured, categorized, and circulated by all manners of institutions; these competing data representations often become the primary way of understanding and responding to a site....

Read more about SCI 6322 - Mapping: Geographic Representation and Speculation