GEOG 2053: Mapping a Changing World, Fall 2008


Schedule (subject to change).  Any changes of assignment deadlines will be announced in class and posted here.


This page contains the class schedule by week: August 25 | September 1 | September 8 | September 15 | September 22 | September 29 | October 6 | October 13 | October 20 | October 27 | November 3 | November 10 | November 17 | November 24 | December 1 | December 8 |


Related pages: General Information | Lecture and Discussion Notes | Assignments | GEOG 2053 Homepage | CU Geography Homepage |

August 25: Introduction: Where is your favorite place?

Topics: Overview of course and introduction to cartographic resources in the Web. Practice with Internet resources. Overview of file use, transfer, conversion, compression, and decompression. Discuss problems involved in navigating the Internet. Demonstrate how to access and use on-line class materials. Introduction to the KESDA lab.  
Readings and Work:

September 1: Why use maps? First principles of cartographic communication.

Topics: Introduction to thematic cartography applied to first maps. Overview of cartography as a form of visual communication. The importance of defining of audience and theme. Overview of general principles for composing a map and the essential elements of maps.
Readings and Work:

September 8: How do maps work? The semiotics of cartography and visual communication.

Topics: A careful examination of how visual resources (color, pattern, orientation, etc.) are used in map composition. Consider the visual hierarchy of maps, foreground and background relationships, and the use of visual resources to highlight particular information. Experiment with point symbols, color, and text.
Readings and Work:
  • Map of Your Favorite Place due on Friday by 5 pm.
  • Sections 5, 7, and 8 of Kenneth Foote and Shannon Crum, Cartographic Communication .
  • First two chapters of: Cynthia Brewer. 2005. Designing Better Maps: A Guide for GIS Users. Redlands, CA: ESRI Press.
  • Tufte, Edward.  2001. Graphical Excellence.  Chapter 1 in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, pp. 13-51.  Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.

September 15: Where would you campaign? Using maps and GIS to developing a strategy for the presidential race.

Topics: Introduction to US electoral and demographic dynamics and the way GIS and mapping systems are being used increasingly for campaigning and in elections.  Explore ways in spatial analysis can be applied in the next presidential election. Develop and series of maps that explore contemporary electoral trends. Introduction to ArcMap data handling and analysis functions. Contrast the advantages and disadvantages of cartographic versus database solutions.
Readings and Work:

September 22: Exploratory data analysis and effective demographic mapping: Issues of generalization, classification, and symbolization.

Topics: Consider how maps can be used to explore geospatial data. Explore different strategies for examining patterns using descriptive statistics and statistical mapping.. Overview of issues relating to demographic mapping: statistical generalization, classification, and symbolization. Overview of problems of data classification and of strengths and weaknesses of various methods. Perform experiments with area patterns and further tests with layout and color. Introduce new issues relating to verbal content and lettering. Review of descriptive statistics.
Readings and Work:
  • Section 6 of Ken Foote and Shannon Crum, Cartographic Communication, http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/cartocom/cartocom_f.html
  • Gersmehl, Philip.  1985.  The Data, the Reader, and the Innocent Bystander: A Parable for Map Users.  The Professional Geographer 37(3): 329-334.
  • (Optional) Coulson, Michael R.C. 1987. In the matter of class intervals for choropleth maps: With particular reference to the work of George F. Jenks. Cartographica 24 (2): 16-39.
  • (Optional) Evans, Ian S. 1977. The selection of class intervals. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers New Series 2: 98-124.

September 29: Issues in contemporary map design.

Topics: Overview of other ways in which maps are used in contemporary life. 

Readings and Work:
  • Holmberg, Molly O. and Kenneth E. Foote. 2008.  Journalistic Cartography on the Web: A Comparison of Print and Online Maps in Seven Major American Newspapers.  In International Perspectives on Maps and the Internet, eds. Michael P. Peterson, 323-340  Berlin: Springer.

We will look at a number of examples include these and others:
  • Suchan, Trudy A., Marc J. Perry, James D. Fitzsimmons, Anika E. Juhn, Alexander M. Tait, Cynthia A. Brewer.  2007.  Census Atlas of the United States.  Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/censusatlas/
  • Frerichs, Ralph R., 2000. Dr. John Snow: a Historical Giant in Epidemiology. (http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow.html)
  • National Cancer Institute, Estimated Exposures and Thyroid Doses Received by the American People from Iodine-131 in Fallout Following Nevada Atmospheric Nuclear Bomb Tests,
  • The Dartmouth Atlas of Healthcare : http://www.dartmouthatlas.org/
  • National Cancer Institute, Atlas of Cancer Mortality in the United States, 1950-1994, http://www.nci.nih.gov/atlas/mortality.html
  • Williams, Robert C., Max M. Howie, Carolyn V. Lee, and William D. Henriques, eds. 1998. Geographic Information Systems in Public Health: Proceedings of the Third National Conference . Atlanta, GA: Center for Disease Control, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. URL: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/GIS/conference98/

October 6: How do we record location? The basics of locational reference and coordinate systems.

Topics: Raise issue of establishing and measuring location. Address issue of how and why coordinate systems differ. Survey major issues and terms. Introduce principle land survey and coordinate systems employed in Colorado. Raise issues of accuracy and precision. Raise further issues in cartographic design and composition.
Readings and Work:

October 13: Map Projections Overview

Topics: Overview basic issue of map projections and compromises involved in transferring 3-dimensional positions to 2-dimensional surfaces. Introduce basic terminology. Consider widely used methods, why and when they are applied, and the compromises involved in employing each one.
Readings and Work:

October 20: Map Projections & GPS

Topics: Practice using map projections to solve cartographic problems.  Discuss principles of GPS positioning and navigation.  Consider strengths and weakness of GPS for improving location accuracy and precision.
Readings and Work:

October 27:  Error and accuracy in maps and geospatial data

Topics: Consider how accuracy and precision effect spatial datasets. Examine major sources and how they can propagate and cascade in cartographic databases.
Readings and Work:

November 3: Modeling patterns and processes using animation and terrain modeling

Topics: Focus on how animation and terrain and contour mapping can be used to model environmental processes.  Introduce Adobe Photoshop/ImageReady software for animation and ArcView options for contour mapping. Discuss data types used for such mapping, including DEMs available from the USGS.
Readings and Work:

November 10: Cartography in history and across cultures

Topics: A brief overview of the history of cartography and the role maps have played in various world cultures. Touch on interrelationships between cartography and economic, social, political, technological and cultural processes and patterns through time.
Readings and Work:

November 17: Economic, legal, political and social issues

Topics: Examine situations in which maps, GIS and information technology intersect the law. Consider some of the ethical problems that arise from the use and misuse of information technology, including the issue of privacy.
Readings and Work:

November 24: Thanksgiving break.



December 1: How can maps be used to lie and mislead? Ethical issues in cartography and GIS

Topics: Consider how maps can be used to mislead readers either unintentionally or intentionally. Examine how maps are sometimes used for propaganda and how they express the values and motives of the map makers themselves. 
Readings and Work:
  • Finish Boulder County Flooding by Friday at 5 pm.
  • Harley, J.B.. 1988. Maps, knowledge and power.  In Cosgrove, D. and Daniels, S., eds, The iconography of landscape.  Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 277-312.
  • (Optional) Monmonier, Mark. 1991. How to Lie with Maps . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

December 8: Frontiers of cartography: WebGIS, mapservers, virtual reality, multimedia and interactive mapping

Topics: Consider current trends in cartography and some of the exciting recent developments that link cartography, GIS, GPS, the Internet and other information technologies. Presentations of last project in Monday and Wednesday labs. Course debriefing and evaluation on Friday.
Readings and Work:

Second exam: Saturday, December 13th, 7:30 to 10:00 pm. Exam is non-cumulative and covers only lecture material since first exam.

Last revised 2008.7.28. KEF.