GEOG 463Geospatial Information Management

3 credits · Geography · Penn State

Geospatial information management provides a fundamental support for various kinds of functions and web applications associated with Geographic Information Systems/Science (GIS). This course introduces the basic knowledge and techniques to design information management systems (usually in a database format) in non-spatial environments and further explores the spatial components while designing and implementing a spatial database to solve GIS problems. The course will cover the basic concepts, techniques and methodologies for designing and implementing a spatial database. The main content of this course will include: 1) fundamental database concepts, benefits of using databases, functions of database management systems; 2) data modeling and database design: Entity-Relationship diagrams, relational model, object-oriented database design, object-relational database, geo-relational model; 3) Structured Query Language (SQL) for database creation, query and manipulation; 4) spatial database design and implementation, and spatial query; 5) use of modern spatial databases products; 6) understanding of databases for big spatial data management; 7) other topics related to spatial database optimization, e.g., spatial indexing and cloud-based data management.