| 11.521 |
Spatial Database Management and
Advanced Geographic Information Systems
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| 11.523 |
Fundamentals of Spatial Database
Management (1st half, before Spring Break)
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| 11.524 |
Advanced Geographic Information
System Project (2nd half, after Spring Break)
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Tuesday, Lab: 4-7 PM (4-5:00 is the most important part) in Room W31-301
Thursday, Lecture: 5-6:30 PM in Room 9-450A
Friday, (optional) supervised Lab Time: 1-3 PM in 9-554 (the fifth floor computing lab)Room W31-301, is on the 3rd floor of the Armory across the street from DUSP.
NOTE #1: The 4-5:00 PM portion of the Tuesday lab is the most important part when the lab introduction and lab tips are presented. Students with conflicts after 5 can finish the lab exercises on their own at other times.
NOTE #2: After Spring Break, the 11.523 portion of the class ends and the 11.524 portion begins. The 11.524 portion is run as a workshop with most Tuesday and Thursday times devoted to class project work.
Room 9-532
Joseph Ferreira Room 9-532 Tues. 2:00-3:00, Thursday 10:30-noon Rounaq Basu Room 9-554 Friday 1:00-3:00 in lab or book by e-mail Eric Huntley Room 9-528 As the Department's GIS specialist, Eric has posted office hours in the Building 9 fifth floor lab and willl provide assistance with web mapping and geoprocessing services during the second half of the semester.
This semester long subject
(11.521) is divided into two halves. The first half focuses on
learning spatial database management techniques and methods for urban
analytics and the second half focuses on using these skills to address
a ‘real world,’ client-oriented planning problem. The first half of
the semester may be taken separately using the class number 11.523 and
the second half may be taken separately as 11.524.
GIS and urban sensing have greatly expanded the volume and availability
of spatially detailed data about urban activities, land use patterns,
and mobility. Taking advantage of these new 'big data' requires a basic
understanding of the tools and technology for designing, querying,
analyzing, and sharing complex, constantly-changing spatial databases
and maps that are distributed among data repositories and local
machines. The requisite knowledge representation methods, client-server
technologies and access control issues are quite different from what are
needed to model and visualize standalone datasets on a personal
computer.
The 11.524 portion of the semester will begin after Spring
Break. This project portion of the semester focuses on spatial analyses
and urban analytics of land use and transportation patterns and planning
options related to sustainability and mobility in two metro areas,
Boston and Singapore. We will explore ways of developing indicators and
visualizations that can facilitate regional/local planning dialog
through the use of State and Local government GIS data layers together
with metropolitan planning models. For Boston, we will work with the
Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) and the State GIS Office
(MassGIS). For Singapore, we will work with the "future urban mobility"
program within the Singapore/MIT Alliance for Research and Technology.
In both cases, we will use block and building-scale data about land use,
demographics, building characteristics, real estate prices, and
transportation accessibility to build urban performance indicators and
model spatial interactions. The 11.524 portion of the class will be
organized as a workshop and the lab exercises and lecture/lab schedule
for that part will be adjusted weekly to match the project work
schedule. 11.524 will also offer optional labs and exercises for those
who want to utilize web mapping and geoprocessing services (using
CartoDB and PostGIS) in their project work (in addition to the ArcGIS
and Postgres tools and methods learned during the 11.523 portion of the
semester.
The prerequisites for 11.521 (or 11.523) are (a) sufficient understanding of analytic methods, and (b) some background in GIS and database management. For MCP students the analytic methods are covered in 11.220: Quantitative Reasoning and Statistical Analysis I (which may be taken concurrently in the same Spring semester). For most undergraduates the general Institute requirements are sufficient. The introductory GIS and database management are covered in 11.520: A Workshop on Geographic Information Systems, or 11.188 Urban Planning and Social Science Lab (the undergraduate version of 11.520). However, we have designed 11.521 (and 11.523) to be accessible to students with only the half-semester Fall introduction to GIS: in 11.205 - Introduction to Sptatial Analysis (see http://stellar.mit.edu/11.205). Students eager to learn more GIS whose only GIS and database management experience is 11.205 can take 11.523 (or the full-semester 11.521) if they have a little extra time to do a few additional online GIS and database lab exercises during the first few weeks of the semester.
Exercises, class discussions, and projects use real databases and problems taken from current Urban Information Systems work in MIT's Urban Studies and Planning Department and involving local and regional planning agencies. These data include parcel-level maps, digital orthophotos, and spatially detailed real estate and transportation transactions, along with land use, wetland, and other enviornmental and demographic datasets from state and local sources.
The full course includes two homework exercises and six lab exercises (11.523 students complete the first five labs, and 11.524 students do the last one). Each lab includes an assignment to be turned in. To facilitate a quick turnaround on grading, the lab assignments will be evaluated on a three-mark scale: check-minus, check, check-plus. Students in 11.521 and 11.523 will complete two homework sets and have one in-lab test before Spring Break. Students in 11.521 and 11.524 will complete a half-semester group project during the second half of the term that provides an opportunity to apply GIS and database concepts in a 'real world' context. The project concludes with an oral presentation to the clients and a written report. In addition to preparing paper maps, the group will have the option to use a wiki for project collaboration and to build a web site to showcase their work.
| 11.523 |
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| 11.524 |
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Turning in assignments promptly is important both for keeping current with the subject matter, which is cumulative, and to keep all students on a level playing field. Lab exercises are typically due one week after the lab is scheduled. A late lab exercise will be accepted up until one week after the original due date for a loss of one grade (e.g., a "check" becomes a "check-minus"). After that, late assignments will receive no credit and will not be accepted. Late problem sets will have two points deducted for each weekday or weekend after the due date. Final project writeups are due on the last day of classes. However, students always ask for extra time to turn in these writeups. They will be accepted without penalty until the following Monday. Writeups turned in later will lose 5 points per day. No project writeups will be accepted for grading purposes beyond one week after the last class.
Plagiarism and cheating are both academic crimes. Never (1) turn in an assignment that you did not write yourself, (2) turn in an assignment for this class that you previously turned in for another class, or (3) cheat on an exam. If you do so, it may result in a failing grade for the class, and possibly even suspension from college. Please see me if you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism. Anyone caught cheating on an exam will be reported to the provost in line with recognized university procedures.
Introduction the Course +
Lab 1: Lab Introduction using ArcGIS, Postgres, MS-Access and Excel
Topics:
Class 2: Relational database management, geospatial data ( jf)
Readings :
Class 3: Land Use and Land
Value Patterns in East Boston: Getting Comfortable with Relational
Queries and Map-Database-Spreadsheet Interaction (Handling One-to-Many
Relations - Grouping & Aggregation)
Lab 2: Intermediate SQL queries to study land use and land value patterns in East Boston
Out:
Lab Exercise 2
Due: Lab Exercise 1
Reading: Trimble and Chappell, Chapters 1-5, 7, and 8.
Reading:
Trimble and Chappell, Chapter 6.
Out:
Problem Set A (in lieu of Lab 3): More SQL -- The Zoning
Variance Database & Categorization via Lookup Tables
Topics:
Tuesday | February 20: NO CLASS (use Monday Schedule this day)
Class 5: The Zoning Variance Database & Advanced Query Construction (jf)
Due: Lab Exercise 2
Out: Problem Set B (Referential Integrity and Relational Database Design)
Readings:
· Zoning variance database help pages
· Ferreira, Joseph Jr., "Information Technologies that Change Relationships between Low-Income Communities and the Public and Non-profit Agencies that Serve Them," Chapter 7 in MIT Press Book, High Technology and Low-Income Communities, D. Schon, et al. (editors), 1997. This Chapter 7 is online at: http://mit.edu/11.521/papers/techcity_7ferreira.pdf.
Topics:
· Top-down and bottom-up strategies for ‘cleaning’ official administrative databases
· Using lookup tables to interpret read-only city data
· Strategies for encoding, accumulating, and utilizing local knowlege
Class 6: Linking ArcGIS with Postgres and MS-Access databases
Lab 4: Mapping Boston Parcels and Zoning Variances
Out: Lab Exercise 4
Reading:Worboys , pp. 68-84 (Optional: pp. 84-95).
Due: Lab Exercise 4
Lab 5: Raster Modeling with ArcGIS's Spatial Analyst and Model Builder - Developing a Land Value Surface for Boston suing Spatial Analyst and Model Builder
Topics:
Due: Problem Set A
Readings:
Class 10: Metro Boston Modeling using TINs, Model Builder and Community Viz
Due: Lab Exercise 5 (Part I)
Lab 6: Community Viz and Boston's MetroFuture planning model
Due: Lab Exercise 5 (Part II)
Class 14: Intro to web mapping and Geoprocessing Services
Due: Lab Exercise 6 (for 11.521 and 11.523 but not 11.524)
Tuesday | April 10 - Class 16: Introduction to Project ( jf)
Due: Problem Set B (Referential Integrity and Relational Database Design)
Thursday | April 12 - Class 17: Project planning with Clients
Tuesday | April 17: NO CLASS Patriots Day--Vacation
Thursday | April 19 - Class 18: Project work
Tuesday | April 24 - Class 19: Projct work
Thursday | April 26 - Class 20: Project Work
Tuesday | May 1 - Class 21: Project Work
Thursday | May 3 - Class 22: Project Work
Tuesday | May 8 - Class 23: Project Work
Thursday | May 10 - Class 24: Internal Project Presentation
Tuesday | May 15 - Class 25: Project Writeup and Class Wrapup
Thursday | May 17 - Class 26: Project
Presentation
Last modified: 20 January 2018 [rb ]