Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Department of Urban Studies and
Planning
| 11.521 |
Spatial
Database Management and Advanced Geographic Information Systems |
| 11.523 |
Fundamentals
of Spatial Database Management (1st half, before Spring Break) |
| 11.524 |
Advanced
Geographic Information System Project (2nd half, after Spring Break) |
Syllabus
- Spring 2010
Lectures & Labs
To accomodate class conflicts, we have adjusted the class times as follows:
Tuesday, Lab: 3-6 PM (4-5:00 is the important part) in Room 37-312
Thursday, Lecture: 4-5:30 PM in Room 9-251
Room 37-312 is the MIT computing lab in building 37
Room 9-251 is the SA+P School computing lab in building 9
NOTE #1: The 4-5:00 PM portion of the Tuesday lab is the important part when the lab introduction and lab tips are presented. The first hour is open lab time to work on exercises and ask questions. Students with conflicts during the first or last hour of lab 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 all Tuesday and Thursday times devoted to class project work.
Instruction Staff
|
Prof. Joseph
Ferreira |
|
Room 9-532 |
|
x3-7410 |
|
|
|
Admin: Sue
Delaney |
|
Room 9-530 |
|
x3-0779 |
|
|
Office
Hours
Joseph Ferreira: Mon
2:30-4:00
, Thursday 10:30-noon
Description
This semester
long subject (11.521) is divided into two halves. The first half focuses on
learning spatial database management techniques and methods 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.
In order to help shape and utilize the information infrastructure that will
support the management and development of our metropolitan areas, planners need
a basic understanding of the tools and technology for designing, querying, analyzing, and
sharing complex databases and maps. Managing online access to large and constantly-changing
spatial datasets can be a powerful aid to planning and can facilitate inter-agency
cooperation and collaboration in an increasingly decentralized world. But it
requires the use of knowledge representation methods, client-server technologies
and access control issues that are quite different from what are needed to model
and visualize standalone datasets on a personal computer. Hence, planners should
acquire basic skills in database management, digital spatial data analysis,
and geospatial services.
The 11.523
portion of the semester addresses these issues while retaining a focus on
planning (rather than on computer science).
This is an intensive, hands-on class that stresses learning by doing.
Exercises and examples involving real-world data, maps, and images are used
to develop skills with database query languages and the design, development, and
use of structured databases. Class work
utilizes web tools, GIS, and database software with lab exercises primarily
in the high-performance PC computing cluster in Room 37-312.
Specifically, we will work with database servers (Oracle 11g) using SQL (structured query
language) and we will use ArcGIS (including ArcSDE, ArcScene, and Model Builder) for spatial analysis and modeling. We will also use MS-Access, Excel, Google Maps and Google Earth for desktop data manipulation and map mashups. Each week
there is one ninety-minute lecture plus another 90 to 180 minute
hands-on lab in the electronic classroom. Class
lectures will focus on concepts and case discussion, the scheduled lab time
focuses on computer mechanics and skill building.
Specific topics during the 11.523 half of the semester include:
- finding, understanding and structuring digital spatial data that are
available on the Internet using various browsing, visualization, and data
management tools
- considerable work with relational database technologies and the Structured
Query Language (SQL) to design, construct, query, and update urban planning
databases
- some experience with so-called 'client/server' and 'enterprise GIS'
technologies for facilitating distributed access to complex spatial data and
urban planning applications
- advanced
GIS topics such as 3D visualizations and geospatial web services.
The 11.524 portion of the semester will begin after Spring Break and
will work with Boston's Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), the State GIS Office (MassGIS), and local agencies on a group project related to measuring the land use and environmental impacts of transportation infrastructure investment and zoning regulations along inner city transportation corridors. The class
project will work with parcel-level data about ownership, land use, building characteristics, assessed value, and transportation accessibility. We will also use the MAPC's regional growth planning model (developed used Community Viz and ArcGIS) to estimate the spatial pattern of development under alternative growth scenarios and to provide performance indicators for local agencies and municipalities. 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.
Choosing 11.521 versus 11.523 or 11.524
- 11.521 = 11.523 + 11.524 and you can register for 11.521
or (11.523 plus 11.524) or either one of the half semester modules.
- 11.521 is a full-semester class that earns 12 units (
3-3-6) of H-level
graduate credit
- 11.523 includes classes 1-13 of 11.521 (plus labs) and
earns 6 units (2-2-2) of H-level graduate credit. This subject covers the
spatial database management portion of 11.521
- 11.524 includes classes 14-26 of 11.521 (plus labs) and
earns units to be arranged (generally
1-1-4 ). This subject covers the advanced GIS project
portion of 11.521.
- 11.521 cannot be taken for credit together with 11.523 or 11.524
in the same semester.
- 11.524 can be taken more than once for credit. This option allows advanced students to obtain additional credit for additional advanced project work in subsequent semesters.
- Students choosing between 11.521 (full semester) and 11.523 (first half-semester only) should sign up for
both and then drop by the drop date.
Prerequisites
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 at least the 11.523 half of the semester if they have time to do a few extra online GIS and database lab exercises at the start of the semester.
Requirements
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, tabular data, and digital orthophotos along with land use, wetland, and other enviornmental planning datasets for the state; and detailed information about the neighborhoods
being studied for the project.
The full course includes seven lab exercises (11.523 students complete the first six 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, these assignments will be evaluated on a three-point 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 more realistic
context. The project concludes with an oral presentation to the client and a written
report. In addition to preparing paper maps, the group will use a wiki for project collaboration and will build
a web site to showcase their work.
Grading
11.521:
Grade is the average of 11.523 and 11.524 grades
| 11.523
|
- 6 Lab Exercises (collectively) (25%)
- 2 Problem Sets (collectively) (35%)
- Examination (35%)
- Class Participation (5%)
|
| 11.524
|
- Lab 7 (10%)
- Project Proposal and lab work (35%)
- Final Project Presentation (35%)
- Final Project Writeup (20%)
|
Lateness Policy
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, Thursday, May 13. However,
students always ask for extra time to turn in these
writeups. They will be accepted without penalty until Monday,
May 17. Writeups turned in later will lose
5 points per day. No project writeups will
be accepted after Thursday, May 20.
Disabilities
If you have a documented disability, or any other problem you think may affect your ability
to perform
in class, please see me early in the semester so that arrangements may be made to
accommodate you.
Academic Misconduct
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 the 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.
Texts
There are no required texts and most readings will be available online. Recommended papers and books will be on reserve at Rotch
Library.
- Oracle 11g Documentation
Available online at http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/index.html
The documentation is generally available both in HTML format (good for viewing
online in a browser) and PDF format (better for printing). You will be prompted
to set up a (free) account* before you can access these documents on the Oracle
site. This semester, we will be using Oracle 10g release 2 (specifically, release
10.2.0.3.0). Some particularly useful references are:
- Oracle 10g SQL Reference. This is the authoritative reference for Oracle's
flavor of SQL.
- SQL*Plus Quick Reference. A concise guide to SQL*Plus commands.
- SQL*Plus Reference. The full SQL*Plus manual.
- Oracle 8i Designing and Tuning for Performance. Suggests ways to tune
queries and database designs to improve performance. Offers insights into
how Oracle operates.
- Oracle 8i Error Messages. Provides extra information about Oracle's sometimes
cryptic error messages.
However, the Oracle documentation site is so cluttered that I find it quite
hard to locate Oracle reference documents for these basic SQL queries. Accordingly,
we have placed copies of the Oracle
SQL Reference and SQL*PLUS
Reference in the class locker:
- Worboys
, Michael F. GIS: A Computing Perspective. London: Taylor & Francis,
1995. ISBN: 0748400656 (paperback).
Note:
The book is a good introduction to what's under the covers of GIS software.
It appears to have been repackaged in 1998 or 1999, but this appears to be the
same book regardless as they have the same ISBN.
- Loney
, Kevin. Oracle 11g: The Complete Reference. Berkeley:
Osborne ORACLE Press Series, 2004. ISBN-10: 0071598758 and ISBN-13: 978-0071598750
This is a 1300+ page hardcover
that is bulky but a very handy reference. (It is available at Amazon for about $50.) Rotch Library has an older version (Oracle
8i I believe). The older 8i version is still very useful since the basic SQL
query language is essentially unchanged.
- Ormsby, Tim, et at. Getting
to Know ArcGIS Desktop. ESRI Press, Redlands, CA, 2001.(ISBN: 1-879102-89-7).
- O'Sullivan, David and David J. Unwin. Geographic Information Analysis.
John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey, 2003 (ISBN: 0-47121176-1, cloth)
- Trimble, J. Harvey, Jr., and David Chappell. A Visual Introduction
to SQL. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1989. (ISBN: 0471616842).
Schedule
Part I: Spatial
Information and Database Management
Tuesday, 2
February
Class 1: Introduction the Course
Lab 1: Lab Introduction using ArcGIS, Oracle, MS-Access and Excel
Topics:
- Check
that everyone has an Athena account and can log into WinAthena PCs.
- Run lab exercise using 'toy' parcel database with MS-Access, Excel, and Oracle
- Run introductory ArcMap exercises from 11.520/11.188
- Brief
description of the course
Class 2: Relational database management, geospatial data (
jf)
Readings
:
- Worboys,
pp. 45-67.
- Trimble
and Chappell, Chapters 1, 3, and 4.
Topics
- Data
models; Structured and unstructured data:
- Planning
vs. IT professional views of DBMS
- Beyond
text: Multidimensional data, geospatial data, metadata, web services
- Mapping Massachusetts population density when the map is too good to make it easy
- Spatial
reference systems, coordinates, and projections
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 Oracle and SQL
Out: Lab Exercise 2
Due: Lab Exercise 1
Reading:
Trimble and Chappell, Chapters
5, 7, and 8.
Topics:
- Joins:
multiple table queries
- Creating/Dropping
a table: CREATE TABLE, DROP TABLE
-
Aggregration
: GROUP BY, group functions
- Adding/Changing/Deleting
rows: INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE
- Boston datasets: Parcels, Assessing, Zoning variances
Thursday, 11
February
Class 4: Advanced SQL Subqueries and
Complex joins (jf)
Reading:
Trimble and Chappell, Chapter 6.
- More
SELECTs with GROUP BY and HAVING clauses
- Outer
Joins, Self joins, Subqueries
- Boston parcel data examples
Tuesday, 16 February
NO CLASS (use Monday Schedule this day)
Thursday,
18 February
Class 5: The Zoning Variance
Database & Advanced Query Construction
(jf)
Out: Problem Set A (expansion of Lab 3): More SQL -- The Zoning Variance Database & Categorization via Lookup Tables
Due: Lab 2
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
Tuesday, 23
February:
Class 6: Model Builder and Community Viz (jf)
Lab 4: Mapping
Boston
Parcels and Zoning Variances
Reading:
- ArcGIS Model Builder documentation
- MetroFuture and Community Viz documentation
Thursday, 25 February:
Class 7: Advanced SQL, Referential Integrity and Relational Database Design (jf)
Due: Lab 3 exercises (first part of Problem Set A)
Reading:Worboys
, pp. 68-84 (Optional: pp. 84-95).
Topics:
- Review
of relational database design
- Enforcing
referential integrity in the database
Part II:
Integrating Mapping and DBMS
Class 8: Distributed Databases and Map mashups
(jf)
Lab 5:
Raster Modeling with ArcGIS's
Spatial Analyst and Model Builder
Due: Lab Exercise 4
Topics:
- Exercise of client/server concepts
- Using
a graphical tools to query/map Oracle data
- Map mashups and distributed databases
Class 9: Database Design, Distributed GIS, and Urban Modeling
Due: Problem Set A (extension of Lab 3)
Readings:
- Flowerdew
, R. "Spatial data integration," Vol. I, Chapter 24 in Geographical Information
Systems: Principles and Applications, D. J. Maguire, M. F.
Goodchild, and D. W. Rhind (eds.),
1991.
- Craig,
"Why we couldn't get the data we wanted," Journal of the Urban and Regional
Information Systems Association (URISA), Vol. 4 No. 2. 1992.
Tuesday,
9 March
Class 10: In-Lab Examination
Thursday,
11 March
Class 11: Integrating Mapping with RDBMS Tools II ( jf)
Tuesday,
16 March
Class 12: Using ArcGIS Spatial Analyst
(jf)
Lab 6: Community Viz and Boston's MetroFuture planning model
(using Community Viz)
Due: Lab
Exercise 5
Thursday, 18 March
Class 13: Using ArcGIS 3D Spatial Analyst
and Geospatial Services (jf)
Due:
Problem Set B (Referential Integrity and Relational Database Design)
11.523 Ends
Tuesday, 23 March: NO CLASS (Spring Break)
Thursday, 25 March: NO CLASS (Spring
Break)
11.524 Begins -
GIS Project
Tuesday, 30 March
Class 14: Spatial Analysis Modeling Tools
Lab 7: ArcGIS Model Builder Exercise
(jf)
Due: Lab Exercise 6 (for 11.521 and 11.523 but not 11.524)
Thursday, 1 April - Class 15: Introduction to Project
and Meeting with Clients ( jf)
Tuesday,
6 April - Class 16:
Project Work
Due:
Lab Exercise 7
Thursday,89 April - Class 17: Project Work
Tuesday, 13 April: Class 18: NO CLASS Patriots Day--Vacation
Thursday, 16 April - Class 19:
Project work
Tuesday, 20 April: Class 20: NO CLASS Patriots Day--Vacation
Thursday, 22 April - Class 21: Project Work
Tuesday, 27 April - Class
22: Project Work
Thursday, 29 AprilMay - Class 23: Project Work
Tuesday, 4 May - Class
24: Project Work
Thursday, 6 May
- Class 23: Internal Project Presentation
Tuesday, 11 May - Class
24: Project Writeup and Class Wrapup
Thursday, 13 May - Class
25: Project Presentation
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Last modified: 1 Feb 2010 [jf ]