The minor consists of a series of courses that will satisfy a new minor in Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing.  Majors in the sciences, business & economics, sociology, criminal justice and others are encouraged to take the introductory courses and preferably to minor in GIS & Remote Sensing as it is and will be a very important state of the art tool for many such diverse discipline.

WHAT IS GIS?  GIS or Geographic Information System is a computer based system that can input, manage, manipulate, analyze, and output (maps, tables, etc.) georeferenced data.  Georeferenced data is one that can be tied to a particular location, for example, the location of banks, home improvement stores, wetlands area, city blocks that have lead contaminated soils, stands of redwood, city blocks with the highest crime rate, crime type and frequency, etc.  In short, it is a way to present vast amounts of information in a way people can quickly and comfortably absorb (data visualization).

A GIS is a fast and powerful tool for handling spatial (space) or locational data.  The ability to perform high speed analyses of different types of information integrated together provides a qualitative and quantitative advantage for planning scenarios, developing decision models, and change detection i.e. changes in wetland distribution to determine whether wetlands are being lost, analyses and other types of planning activities.

APPLICATIONS:  Applications are varied and include:
 
 

SCIENCES  wetlands inventory & detection in wetland degradation  soil type, vegetation type analyses map/data  pollutant distribution  wildlife inventory, migration patterns & distribution  monitoring of coastal environment  hazard assessment and management  change and time series analysis environmental monitoring and analysis  multi-criteria and multi-objective decision making variable rate fertilizer application (precision farming) yield monitoring (precision farming)

BUSINESS/ECONOMIC/BANKING/MARKETING

• marketing analysis & planning
• ZIP code map/data for business mailing & telephone solicitation
• trade area analytical study
• site selection
• environmental impact study
• portfolio analysis
• sales forecasting & planning
•  operations assessment

FEDERAL/STATE/CITY/COUNTY OPERATIONS

• land registration, land use for tax rate purposes
• street, water & sewer lines, power lines, lamp posts, manhole, etc.
• land use regulations, zoning and planning
• emergency response (911) and best routing
• transportation planning and maintenance
• water resource & other natural resource management
• park management plans & maintenance

SOCIOLOGY/CRIMINAL JUSTICE/HEALTH SCIENCES

• crime statistics map distribution for police departments
• mapping of crime types/location/frequency/timing/concentration
• epidemiological map/data/analyses
• geographic access to rural health care
• flood and other disaster relief effort
• urban planning & analyses
• 911 emergency routing

These are just some of the applications that GIS is capable of.  Please contact the Department of Geosciences for more information regarding this course and/or minor.

CSC   111	Introduction to Computing	3
GEOL 332	Geomorphology/Aerial Photo Interpretation	3
GEOG 221	Cartography	3
GEOL 360	Introduction to GIS	4
GEOL 365	Introduction to Remote Sensing	4
GEOL 461	Advance GIS	4
	TOTAL	21  Semester Credit Hours

 

For more information, contact the

Department of Geosciences
Elizabeth City State University
Elizabeth City, NC 27909
Tel:      (252) 335-3375
FAX:    (252) 335-3465
EMail: sinharp@alpha.ecsu.edu
            juanfs@alpha.ecsu.edu

Or see the ECSU GIS WEBSITE