Spring 2018 GIS Workshops

Introduction to ArcGIS (offered twice a semester)

February 13

March 5

A Geographic Information System (GIS) combines software and digital geographic data to generate maps, tables and interactive analyses of spatial information. Princeton faculty, students and staff use GIS technology to manage resources, explore spatial relationships, and visualize change. The class, intended for those with no previous GIS experience, describes the technology and includes simple exercises to introduce its capabilities.

How to Create and Collect Geographic Data (offered twice a semester)

February 15

March 6

In this class, students will learn how to collect geographic data from Google maps and Google Earth, how to add GPS data to GIS software, and how to georeference a scanned map. The exercise will also show how to extract points, lines, and areas from the georeferenced map.

How to Select and Analyze Geographic Features and Data (offered twice a semester)

February 19

March 8

ArcGIS has a powerful set of software tools to visually explore and analyze spatial information. Point, line and area features (vector data) are both geographic objects on a map and records in a table. Such features can be selected by location or by the values stored in a feature’s record. These simple capabilities allow the GIS user to conduct complex analyses.  The session uses data for central New Jersey to calculate the area of land use types near streams, the extent of paved surfaces and other measures.

Finding the Best Location using GIS (offered twice a semester)

February 20

March 12

GIS software allows the user to treat the Earth’s surface as a continuous array of numbers. Images and raster datasets can be used to rank suitable locations, estimate change and display phenomena such as elevation, precipitation or temperature. The session uses land use, distance from streams and elevation to rank the relative suitability of different areas. This ‘weighted overlay’ method is useful in a variety of contexts.

Using Tables and Maps together in ArcGIS (offered twice a semester)

February 22

March 13

ArcGIS has many different ways to access data sets, display them in a map, and analyze relationships over time and space. US Census data can be integrated with GIS boundary files to analyze the spatial relationships of poverty, ethnicity, environmental risk, and other parameters. Hands-on examples will show how to find and download demographic data, how to combine the data with GIS files, and how to view the data in ArcMap. The session will assist any GIS user who wants to include tabular data in a spatial analysis.

Making Maps and Presentations using ArcMap in ArcGIS (offered twice a semester)

February 26

March 15

Maps can be extremely effective in communicating knowledge about an area. ArcGIS ArcMap has a variety of tools and techniques to design maps. Hands-on exercises will show how to use map-making tools within the software, and introduce common cartographic techniques. The session will discuss how to design maps for a variety of presentation formats.

Introduction to QGIS (offered twice a semester)

February 27

March 19

QGIS is an open-source GIS desktop software package. It has many features found in other desktop GIS software, runs on Linux/Unix, MacOS and Windows operating systems, and is available at no cost. Intended for anyone new to GIS technology, this training uses QGIS on Windows to show how to load geospatial data, add on-line map services, extract selected data, and make simple maps. The training may also be useful to users of other desktop GIS software.

Essential GIS tools for research 

March 1

In this class, students will learn how to use GIS tools to calculate distances between two features, road and river lengths within administrative units, the percentage of shared boundaries between two areas, extract information on polygon neighbors between two areas, and will explore many other analysis tools.

Supervised Image Classification using ArcGIS 

March 20

ArcGIS has many tools to classify satellite images and air photos into land use and land cover categories. This session will introduce the Image Analysis window and the Image Classification toolbar, and work with Landsat images of New Jersey to conduct a supervised land use/land cover classification.

Using ModelBuilder in ArcGIS 

March 22

GIS users often want to run a process multiple times, changing the inputs, parameters or summaries generated. ArcGIS has many ways to help users automate processes. The exercises show users how to use graphic tools in ModelBuilder, how to run models iteratively, and how to export models to Python scripts.

The classes will be held in the Lewis Library Electronic Classroom 225 from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m.

For more information, please contact:

Tsering Wangyal Shawa
Geographic Information Systems and Map Librarian
Head, Map and Geospatial Information Center