The objective of the class project is to address an open

CE608 - Spatial Analysis Techniques for Civil Engineering - Spring 2002

Syllabus

The objective of the class project is to address an open-ended problem and develop a creative solution using spatial analysis techniques learned in this course. You may select any application to formulate a design problem statement and criteria. You will conduct the project using digital terrain data. To evaluate the capability of GIS to solve your application problem, one should make use of general information available. This information would include items like soil surveys, on-site field visits, reference literature, thematic maps, remote sensing data, or any other additional sources of information.

Each project paper should contain the following headings: Title, Abstract, Introduction, Background, Methods, Results and Discussion, Conclusions, Recommendations, References Cited, and Appendices (if appropriate).

The project paper should be typewritten, double-spaced, 2000 words in length (about 6 pages), and will be due the last day of class – Friday, 7 June 2002. Include a word count at the end of your paper. Be sure to label your figures with captions (Figure 1. <figure caption>), number and title each table (Table 1. <table description>), and label any appendices (Appendix A. <appendix description>).

An oral presentation – 15 minutes in length – of your paper will occur during the last week of class (4, 5 and 6 June).

If you would like to work in teams of two people, I would encourage this collaboration. The team can hand in one report – both individuals will get the same grade.

References cited in the text are made by giving the author's name and date of publication, e.g. (Smith, 1999). Reference citations should conform to the following examples:

Adkins, K.F. and C.J. Merry, 1994. Accuracy assessment of elevation data sets using the Global Positioning System, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 60(2): 195-202.

Merry, C.J. and E.R. Levine, 1995. Methods to assess soil carbon using remote sensing techniques, in Advances in Soil Science, Soils and Global Change [eds. R. Lal, J. Kimble, E. Levine and B.A. Stewart], CRC Press, Inc.: Boca Raton, Florida, 265-274.

Merry, C.J., M.R. McCord, F. Jafar and L.A. Pérez, 1996. Feasibility of using simulated satellite data coordinated with traffic ground counts, Proceedings of the National Traffic Data Acquisition Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 5-9 May, I:493-497.

The projects will be graded based on the following elements:

• use of GIS and modeling technologies learned in class

• originality and technical correctness

• clarity and conciseness of the written and oral presentation