GIS Course at Sinte Gleska University:

Lakota Studies 400/600:  Special Topics:  Introduction to Geographic Information Systems and Science

Instructor:  Joseph J. Kerski, Geographer, USGS, jjkerski@usgs.gov, 303-202-4315 

Unit 1 Notes:  What is GIS?

Welcome to the online GIS course at Sinte Gleska University!  I look forward to working with you in your "GIS journey."  It is a privilege to do so and I look forward to learning from each of you.  I say that GIS is a "Journey" because geographic information systems is not  "plug-and-play."  It is also not just a technology or set of buttons.  It is a lifelong journey that involves a commitment to lifelong education.  GIS involves the following 4 components:

1)  Software - we'll be using ArcView 3.2, from ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) in this course.

2)  Hardware - we'll be using PCs in the SGU Technology Lab.  You're free to use your own computer, but you will need ArcView version 3.2 running on it and enough memory and hard disk space to complete the assignments.  GIS uses a variety of spatial data.

3)  Data.  GIS uses a particular kind of data known as spatial data.  Spatial data can be either vector data or raster data.  Vector data includes anything that can be represented as a point, a line, or a polygon (area).  Point data includes water wells, cities on a world map, sampling sites, cultural resource sites, telephone poles, and so on.  Line data includes rivers, streets, powerlines, boundaries, migration routes, and so on.  Polygons could be areas of land ownership, cultural resource management areas, police protection districts, water management districts, counties, and so on.  Raster data includes images and grids.  Images are digital aerial photographs or satellite imagery.  Grids are continuous surfaces such as elevations or rainfall.  Raster data are stored as grids of pixels--picture elements.  Each pixel has a unique value indicating a gray tone on a photograph, or an elevation on a surface, for example.

4)  The "Thinking Explorer"  (Term is thanks to ESRI).  The thinking explorer is YOU, the student and GIS researcher.  The GIS does not give the answers to tough issues about the Earth--climate change, agriculture, industrial development, aquifers, land use, watersheds, land status, and so on.  The GIS gives you the ability to quickly and easily process and analyze the spatial information, but it is still up to you to make the decisions about the land.  The GIS is just the tool to help you do it.

GIS is really about networks--developing networks of people and organizations that you can contact for data, for technical assistance, for training, and for support.  Oftentimes, the best place to start is right in your local area.  There are numerous organizations and people on the Rosebud Sioux lands that use GIS, such as professionals in the water resources program, the Tribal Land Enterprise, biology and ecology, and in cultural resource management.  Talk with them and find out how they use GIS.

Because GIS is a complex topic, and because we're working through the course via the Internet, it is essential that we maintain good communications at all times.  If you have concerns, questions, or comments at any time, feel free to email or call me.  It is possible that I might be able to visit the SGU campus again this semester as I did twice during the summer of 2002 if there is sufficient interest from the students.  But most of our work will be done via email.  As of this point, I do not have a listing of who is enrolled in the course, so please jot me an email indicating that you are enrolled.

Because of the nature of the Internet and email sometimes being down for certain periods, if you would like to make sure that I have received your assignments, I can place a table on the web site for you to easily check that I have received them.  If you are interested, send me an email with a code name or number for yourself, for web confidentiality, and I will use that name or number on a table that I will post online and keep up to date.  Then, you can check the table to make sure that I have received what you have turned in.  

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