Syllabus2016

Part I: GIS: Geography on Steroids 7

Chapter 1: Seeing the Scope of GIS 9
Chapter 2: Recognizing How Maps Show Information 23
Chapter 3: Reading, Analyzing, and Interpreting Maps 39

Part II: Geography Goes Digital 57

Chapter 4: Creating a Conceptual Model 59
Chapter 5: Understanding the GIS Data Models 73
Chapter 6: Keeping Track of Data Descriptions 93
Chapter 7: Managing Multiple Maps 109
Chapter 8: Gathering and Digitizing Geographic Data 117

Part III: Retrieving, Counting, and Characterizing Geography 135

Chapter 9: Finding Information in Raster Systems 137
Chapter 10: Finding Features in Vector Systems 147
Chapter 11: Searching for Geographic Objects, Distributions, and Groups 65

Part IV: Analyzing Geographic Patterns 181

Chapter 12: Measuring Distance 183
Chapter 13: Working with Statistical Surfaces 199
Chapter 14: Exploring Topographical Surfaces 213
Chapter 15: Working with Networks 225
Chapter 16: Comparing Multiple Maps 239
Chapter 17: Map Algebra and Model Building 253

Part V: GIS Output and Application 277

Chapter 18: Producing Cartographic Output 279
Chapter 19: Generating Non-Cartographic Output 293
Chapter 20: GIS in Organizations 301

Part VI: The Part of Tens 315

Chapter 21: Ten GIS Software Vendors 317
Chapter 22: Ten Questions to Ask Potential Vendors 329
Chapter 23: Ten GIS Data Sources 333
Chapter 1: Planning maps 1

Designing for map purpose 2

  • Audience 2
  • Visual hierarchy in layout 3

Planning a layout 6

  • Balancing empty spaces 6
  • Refining a layout 11
  • Experimentation and critique 15

Map projections in design 16

  • Shape within layout 16
  • Projections affect scale 18
  • Choosing projection properties 19
Chapter 2: Basemap basics 21

Landforms 22

  • Elevation 22
  • Terrain shading 24
  • Curvature 25

Land use 26

  • Imagery 26
  • Land cover 28
  • Property 30

Vector base 32

  • Water 32
  • Boundaries 33
  • Transportation 34
  • Point data 34

Customizing base to purpose 35
Mapping through scale 37

  • Terrain through scale 37
  • Hydro through scale 40
  • Place data through scale 40
  • Generalization recap 44
Chapter 3: Explaining maps 47

Map legends 48

  • Data legends 48
    • Choropleth 48
    • Qualitative area fills 48
    • Dot (density) 49
    • Isolines 49
    • Proportioned symbols 50
    • Segmented symbols 50
  • Basemap legends 50
  • Customized legends 51

Wise wording 52

  • Hierarchy in text content 53
  • Describing mapped calculations 57
  • Attending to line logic 60

Refining marginal elements 62

  • Scale indicators 62
  • Direction indicators 64
  • Overdoing decoration 64
Chapter 4: Publishing and sharing maps 67

Designing for map media 68

  • Resolution 68
  • Map size and viewing distance 70
  • Color quality 71

Choosing export options 73

  • Raster export formats 74
  • Vector export formats 76
  • Transparency 78

Map images on the web 79

  • Tiled maps and caching 79
  • Section 508 compliance 80

Copyright in cartography 80

  • Original work in cartography 80
  • Rights and permissions 81
  • Public licenses and open data 82
Chapter 5: Type basics 85

Fonts 86

  • Font anatomy 86
  • Categories of fonts 87
  • Font choice 90
  • Type styles and font families 91
  • Special characters 92
  • Font formats and permissions 93

Label size 94

  • Character size 94
  • Kerning, tracking, and character spacing 95
  • Line spacing 96

Type effects 98

  • Callouts 98
  • Shadows 99
  • Halos 100
Chapter 6: Labeling maps 103

Map text 104

  • Graphic map text 104
  • Dynamic labeling 106
  • Annotation 108

Labels as symbols 109

  • Indicators of feature category 109
  • Indicators of feature hierarchy 111
  • Ambiguity and contradiction in classification with type 113
  • Transparency and anti-aliasing 115
  • Label placement 116
  • Point label placement 116
  • Line label placement 121
  • Area label placement 124
  • Dense label placement and trade-offs between rules 127
Chapter 7: Color basics 129
  • Perceptual dimensions 130
  • Hue 130
  • Lightness 133
  • Saturation 134

Perceptual color systems 138

  • Three-dimensional color spaces 138
  • Not HSV 140
  • Color cubes 142

How to mix color 144

  • General guidelines 144
  • CMYK mixing 147
  • RGB mixing 149
Chapter 8: Color on maps 151

Color schemes for maps 152

  • Sequential schemes 152
  • Diverging schemes 154
  • Qualitative schemes 157

Bivariate color schemes 160

  • Transparent combinations 160
  • Sequential-sequential 161
  • Diverging-diverging 162
  • Qualitative-sequential 164

Adjusting color selections 165

  • Unexpected color changes 165
  • Colors for the color-blind 169
  • Custom color ramps 174
Chapter 9: Customizing symbols 179

Point symbols 180

  • Point symbol size 180
  • Point symbol shapes 183
  • Point symbol angle 185

Line and area symbols 187

  • Line symbol size 187
  • Line symbol patterns 189
  • Area patterns 192

Eight visual variables 194

  • Visual variables for ordered data 194
  • Visual variables for qualitative data 195

Multivariate map symbols 195

  • Overlaid symbols 196
  • Bivariate symbols 198
  • Visual variable pairs 200
  • Put it all together 204