Fall 2002, Wednesday 4:30-7:10, Thompson Hall 114

Course Overview:
This is an advanced course designed for students who are interested in theory, standards, and implementation of Web-based interoperable geographic information systems for on-line data and information services. Students registered to this class should have previous knowledge of Geographic Information Systems and should have some Web-based programming experience.

Prerequisite: SCI 754, Geog 553, or permission of instructor

Text: None

Major References:
The standards and interoperability specifications discussed in this course can be found in the following websites:
1. Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC): http://www.fgdc.gov
2. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) TC 211: http://www.isotc211.org
3. Open GIS Consortium (OGC): http://www.opengis.org
The instructor will also provide some draft standards and specifications, which are not available through those websites, for discussions.

Course Work:
The work of the semester will consist of readings of selected interoperability standards and specifications. Each student is required to give two presentations of standard or specification reviews, each for about twenty to thirty minutes. There is no mid-term or final exam for this course. However, students have to turn in a paper of their selected topics related to interoperability of Geographic Information Systems at the end of the semester. Grades will be determined from daily work in the seminars, presentations of standard reviews, and the paper.

Grading:
Presentation and class discussions: 40%
Semester paper: 60%

Syllabus:

Week 1 (August 28): Introduction of the course; what is Geographic Information Systems; the definition of GIS interoperability.

Week 2 (September 4): The needs and level of interoperability; How to make the GIS interoperable (The roles of standards); Types of Geographic Information Standards, their definitions, and roles; Who are the major players in defining federal, national, and international standards on geographic information and their relationships.

Week 3 (September 11): Introduction to Federal Geographic Data Committee and their roles; Introduction to FGDC standards on geographic information.

Week 4 (September 18): Information on US national GIS standards; the International and National Committee on Information Technology Standards (INCITS) Technical Committee L1 and their roles; The ISO TC 211 organization; The ISO 191XX series of standards.

Week 5 (September 25): What is metadata? The FGDC Content Standard for Geosptial Metadata; the FGDC Remote Sensing Metadata Extensions; The ISO 19115 Geographic Information—Metadata; The relationship between those metadata standards; The ANSI adoption processes of ISO metadata standards.

Week 6 (October 2): ISO 191XX Standards on Imagery, and current ISO TC 211 projects on imagery and gridded data. Assign standards to students for review.

Week 7 (October 9): Presentation of standard reviews by each students and discussions.

Week 8 (October 16): Introduction to Open GIS Consortium, its organization, roles, and activities; OGC SP and IP programs; OGC Abstract Specifications on geographic information; OGC Implementation Specifications; The relationships between geographic information standards; The relationship between ISO standards and OGC specifications.

Week 9 (October 23): OGC Web Map Service Specification (WMS); OGC Web Coverage Service Specification (WCS); OGC Web Feature Service Specification (WFS); OGC Web Registries Service Specification (WRS).

Week 10 (October 30): Implementation considerations of the geographic information standards; NASA HDF-EOS Web GIS Software Suite (NWGISS).

Week 11 (November 6): Web-based interoperable Geographic Information Services; OGC Web service architecture and technology; assign OGC specifications to students for review.

Week 12 (November 13): ISO TC 211 Plenary; no class. Students should review the specifications and prepare the presentations.

Week 13 (November 20): Presentation of specification reviews by each students and discussions.

Week 14 (November 27): Thanksgiving Recess. No class. Please think about the topic of the semester paper.

Week 15 (December 4): Where are the interoperability technologies heading (Classroom discussions). Also each student should give a short presentation about the topic of his/her semester paper.

The last day for turning in the semester paper: December 18, 2002.