ATS3259-APG4758: Geographical information systems (GIS) for environmental science

Practicals: 50%
Project : 25%
Exam: 25%

First off I want to say that I really liked this unit but it is not for everyone. If you are a technophobe I would recommend you pick another unit because you WILL spend a lot of time using ArcGIS, which is simultaneously a pain in the butt of a program to use and a miraculous godsend. I don't think I've ever had a subject that is so insanely content heavy and at times it did do my head in a little bit. Unfortunately GIS is a HUGE area and so there's a LOT of content in this unit.

It starts off by giving an overview of GIS and what you might use it for, and talks about different kinds of data and map projections. If you have done ATS2780 the stuff that you see in the first week or two of this unit shouldn't be new to you. After that you learn about different kinds of analysis, so spatial analysis, terrain analysis, interpolation and you finish off the unit with applications of GIS, so land suitability modelling, habitat mapping and the like. Having a good grasp of maths is useful for this unit, too by the way, especially when it comes to understanding some of the concepts with interpolation.

There are no real lectures, you are supposed to either read the notes or watch a pre-recorded video about the content before class. I can't speak for the videos because I never watched them (Xuan has a bit of an accent and I find it hard to follow if it's not irl) but his lecture notes were, uhm, dense. They are very thorough, but very content-heavy. There were weekly quizzes you could do to check your progress, which was good, but they're not graded so you don't have to do them if you don't want to.

The lectures were okay I guess. Some of the stuff he did was useful but I wouldn't say it's 100% necessary to go, but sometimes Xuan draws stuff on the whiteboard (usually flowcharts) so you won't get to see those. The practicals started off incredibly easy but they got difficult quickly. Each one builds off of the previous one in some way shape or form. I found them generally well thought-out. They're easy marks if you read the instructions carefully and answer the questions properly though. I really liked them but I know that the other people in my prac class thought differently!

The project was one of the better assessments I have done in Geography. It goes something like this: You have to do a site selection. Here are some maps. Here is a list of criteria, x, y, and z. Given these things, Find and present a solution using GIS and write it up in a 2500 word report. He has a rubric put up of how to do it and stuff and if you have been following the content and practicals you basically know how to do it. It's a little bit difficult though because in the practicals you have lots of instructions on how to move from step A to B, but in the project you don't have any more hand holding.

The only thing that kind of irked me was the exam. It was a bit of a bitch, to be honest. Thankfully it's only worth 25% and so most likely you will have already passed the unit by the time you actually DO the exam. I found that the practice questions were way easier than the actual exam itself, so I'd recommend finding a way to study everything as thoroughly as possible so you can make the content stick. If you are good at flow charts and explaining the difference between vector and raster data there are a few easy marks chucked in there too.

I docked some marks off of my rating because I didn't like the exam and I found the unit a little TOO content heavy. It's a pretty decent unit though, I would recommend it overall.

Xuan Zhu

Yes, in the exams database. But they're somewhat outdated so don't bother. In the review lecture there were slides that had sample questions. More detail in 'comments'.

3.5 out of 5

Yes

Erm probably, but to be honest I didn't bother.

ATS3259:
1 hour 'interactive class' per week (tbh it's really more like a lecture)
7 x 3 hour computer labs

APG4578: All classes are optional, as long as all assessment is handed in as required.

2014 semester 1

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