Introduction to GIS
Course Flyer | Syllabus | Register | Frequency & credits: each Fall, 3 crs
Undergraduate: BIOL-417/EAS-417/SOC-465/UPD-435
Graduate: BIOL-517/EAS-501/IAS-517/SOC-565/UPD-535

This class introduces concepts, science and theory of GIS with hands-on experiences. After successful completion of the course, students will be able to demonstrate fundamental techniques of geospatial analysis and mapping.

Intermediate GIS
Course Flyer | Syllabus | Register | Frequency & credits: each Spring, 3 crs
Undergraduate: BIOL-418/EAS-418/SOC-466/
Graduate: BIOL-518/EAS-502/IAS-518/SOC-566

This course covers intermediate and advanced topics in GIS including remote sensing for GIS, geospatial statistics and GIS in biogeography. Each module is taught by a separate professor specialized in that particular area for 5 weeks during a semester.

UPD-537: Intermediate GIS
Course Flyer | Syllabus | Register | Frequency & credits: each Spring, 3 crs

Intermediate GIS relies on large, real world GIS projects to guide students through refining map design skills, learning advanced mapping and analysis tools in ArcGIS, downloading and manipulating data, and managing multiple data sets. Students learn to use and create metadata, manage map projections, and incorporate custom maps into written documents. This course often works in conjunction with an external partner or client.

EAS-217: GIS in Civil Engineering
Course Flyer | Syllabus | Register | Frequency & credits: each Spring, 3 crs

This course discusses the fundamental concepts of GIS, the methods and software used to solve civil engineering problems. The course also covers skills to deal with remote sensing data, basic and differential GPS surveying to prepare students for today’s growing business needs in civil engineering companies and government agencies. Students may only apply credits towards their graduation requirements from one of the following courses: EAS-217, BIOL-417, EAS-417, or SOC-465.

GIS matters...		infrastructure Modeling		Differential GPS

EAS-419/EAS-503/IAS-519: Geospatial Methods in Environmental Studies
Course Flyer | Syllabus | Register | Frequency & credits: each Spring, 3 crs

For students and professionals in Environmental Sciences, this course explores an integrated GIS and remote sensing approach to solve real-world environmental problems. Through hands-on projects, the course will also prepare students for today’s growing business needs in innovative server-based GIS solutions, relational databases and web mapping in an enterprise environment.

Geospatial methods to be discussed include: spatial analysis, web GIS, database design, management and data mining with integration of GIS, remote sensing and GPS, and varies applications of the techniques with special attention in environmental studies such as risk assessment and mitigation, environmental modeling, natural resource management, water/air pollution & control, forest fire mapping, health and environmental change analysis etc.

The course covers using GIS services in both Web mapping applications and ArcGIS Explorer. Students will acquire the skills needed to share GIS content on the Web or across the enterprise, and learn how to publish maps, geoprocessing models, and geodata services and create Web mapping applications using ArcGIS Server Manager.

BIOL-419/519: GIS in Biology
Course Flyer | Syllabus | Register | Frequency & credits: each Fall, 3 crs

The goal of this course is to introduce the application of GIS techniques to questions in ecology and evolutionary biology. The course explores the climate change effects on biodiversiy including the distribution of freshwater fish species. 

SOC-467/567: Spatial Demography - Applied statistics for spatial data
Course Flyer | Syllabus | Register | Frequency & credits: each Spring, 3 crs

This seminar will expose sociologists, anthropologists, demographers, environmental scholars, criminologist, economists and public health scholars to the vast array of spatial data that are available, encourage them to think critically and creatively about how different forms of spatial data can be integrated in the research, and introduce them to the spatial analytical methods that are increasingly encountered in statistical inquiry.
This course will examine the characteristics of spatial data and focus on methods appropriate for exploring and modeling such data. The emphasis in this course will be on lattice and spatial point data. Throughout the semester you will have plenty of opportunity to learn ArcGIS and GeoDA. We will discuss GIS in academic, government, and applied demographic settings; data collection strategies that facilitate fieldwork; and the new directions and challenges associated with GIS technologies. The course will use work from various disciplines. In the seminar and labs, this course will rely on Saint Louis as a social laboratory to illustrate the theoretical and methodological concepts.

UPD-538: Advanced Concepts in GIS
Course Flyer | Syllabus | Register | Frequency & credits: each Fall, 3 crs

This course is divided into three segments. In the first, students go in-depth to learn advanced features of ArcGIS such as Model Builder, advanced annotation tools, and geodatabase design and management. In the second segment, students will learn GIS applications beyond ArcGIS, such as HAZUS and current practices in online GIS. The final portion of the course includes an introduction to spatial statistical analysis and spatial statistics.

MOS-593: Programming for Remote Sensing/ GIS
Course Flyer | Syllabus | Register | Frequency & credits: each Fall, 3 crs

This course introduces introductory programming concepts in RS/GIS. By completing the course, students will be able to use and write scripts to customize RS/GIS applications. Students will choose one or more RS/GIS platform and explore some common functions, then use programming languages (IDL, Python, Java and PhP) to automate procedures, develop custom applications. Topics include ArcIDL, extending ENVI with IDL, designing program code to handle various coordinate systems, projections, and GIS web mapping applications.

EAS-448/EAS-558: Introduction to Remote Sensing
IAS-551: Remote Sensing of Environment & Reources
Course Flyer | Syllabus | Register | Frequency & credits: each Fall, 3 crs

Fundamental knowledge on the physics of remote sensing, photogrammetry, multispectral, hyperspectral, thermal imaging and RADAR and LIDAR principles are reviewed in lectures while lab assignments cover image processing, environmental modeling & analysis. Course objective is to demonstrate present applications of RS in environmental sciences with software training in ENVI+IDL, SARscape.

IAS-552: Digital Image Processing
Course Flyer | Syllabus | Register | Frequency & credits: each Fall, 2 crs

Course familiarizes students with state of the art digital image processing techniques and practice remote sensing applications in various fields. Course objective is to demonstrate present applications of remote sensing with software training in ENVI+IDL, SARscape, and provide students with the skills and knowledge to apply remote sensing to their own research problems.

Cross-registration is recommended for courses IAS 551 and IAS 552. A 3-credit digital image processing course generally covers remote sensing principles in addition to its major objective – introducing the image processing techniques. We combine two classes remote sensing (3 credits) and digital image processing (3 credits) in this 5-credit course, in which digital image processing part is set up as a lab course. Students may have adequate exposure to remote sensing fundamentals and theories in IAS 551 while they practice state-of-the-art image processing techniques in IAS 552.

Forest Health Estimation		Change Detection		Feature Extraction

EAS-449/EAS-549/IAS-555: Microwave Remote Sensing: SAR principles, data processing and Applications
Course Flyer | Syllabus | Register | Frequency & credits: each Summer, 2 crs; Fall, 3 crs

The course covers principles of synthetic aperture radar (SAR), SAR satellites and data sources, SAR image processing, interpretation and applications. Popular data processing techniques, including SAR intensity processing, InSAR and DInSAR techniques, polarimetry tools/classification methods, Persistent Scatterer Interferometry are discussed through detailed step-by-step lab work on the processing chain including measuring earthquake deformation, land subsidence, landslides, building sinking, and tree height/health estimation, DEM generation, and various environmental applications.

Students will have experience on ordering, processing and interpreting SAR data, and an opportunity to discuss advantages and limitations of SAR remote sensing for their specific research, and to explore RADAR w/ LiDAR for its common applications in vegetatation assessment and terarain characetrization.

EAS-456/EAS-556/IAS-556: InSAR - Syntheric Aperture Radar Interferometry
Course Flyer | Syllabus | Register | Frequency & credits: each Summer, 3 crs

This course focuses on providing application oriented forum on InSAR for geoscientists. Principles of InSAR, DInSAR, timeSAR are introduced through hands-on lab work on measuring earthquake deformation, volcanic unrest, land subsidence due to extraction of groundwater, oil, gas, and coal mining using both commercial and open-source software tools.

This course is taught for 5 days, Monday through Friday (8:00 AM - 5:00 PM) in the 1st session of Summer term started in May, and may be offered in evenings in normal semesters.

EAS-588: Advanced Remote Sensing/GIS - Independent Study
Course Flyer | Syllabus | Register | Credits, 3 crs