Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been widely accepted as a standard information technology in a variety of fields. Training in GIS is advantageous to geography majors as well as non-majors for their future employment. This track is designed to meet the high demand for GIS professionals and at the same time emphasize its strong link to the department's tradition of applied geography. The track is in line with all existing requirements of the Masters of Science in Applied Geography (MSAG); all of the technical courses are offered within the Geography Department.

Minor

To complete an optional minor, two courses may be selected that have a single prefix other than GEOG/GEOL.

Required Core Courses

• GEOG 5160 Foundations of Geographic Thought (3)
• GEOG 5190 Advanced Quantitative Techniques (3)
• GEOG 5800 Research Design and Geographic Applications (3)

GEOG 5190 is the department's primary course to fulfill our MS program's analytical methods requirement. However, where individual student interests warrant, an alternative methods course may be selected by the major professor and must be approved by the Geography Graduate Committee.

Required Geographic Information Technology Courses

• GEOG 5520 Intermediate GIS* (3)
• GEOG 5550 Advanced GIS (3)
• GEOG 5960 Introduction to Remote Sensing (3)
• GEOG 5560 Application Development with Python Programming (3)

*The department assumes GIS track students have already taken an introduction to GIS course that includes exposure to ARCGIS. If not, then GEOG 5510 must be taken first.

Applications of GIS

(choose two courses, 3 hours each)

• GEOG 5060 Applied GIS: MapInfo Professional (3)
• GEOG 5140 Medical Geography (3)
• GEOG 5170 Map-Air Photo Analysis and Remote Sensing (3)
• GEOG 5400 Environmental Modeling (3)
• GEOG 5410 Location-Allocation Modeling (3)
• GEOG 5570 Special Topics in GIS (3)
• GEOG 5590 Advanced GIS Programming (3)
• GEOG 5960 Health GIS (3)
• BIOL 6320 Remote Sensing (4)

Topics / Cognate Courses

(choose one course)

Geography

• GEOG 5130 Research in Human Geography (3)
• GEOG 5150 Water Resources Seminar (3)
• GEOG 5210 Seminar in Urban Geography (3)
• GEOG 5850 Introduction to Groundwater Hydrology (3)
• ARCH 5260 Topics in Archaeology (3)

Real Estate / Marketing

• REAL 5350 Introduction to Real Estate and Investment Analysis (3)
• REAL 5750 Real Estate Market and Feasibility Analysis (3)

Public Health and Administration

• PADM 5300 Introduction to Planning (3)
• PADM 5310 Economic and Community Development (3)
• PADM 5610 Disaster Preparedness and Management (3)
• PADM 5615 Environmental Planning and Hazards (3)

Environmental Science / Biology

• BIOL 5100 Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment (3)
• BIOL 5200 Environmental Health (3)
• BIOL 5400 Wetland Ecology and Management (3)
• BIOL 5820 Computational Epidemiology (3)
• BIOL 6400 Ecological Risk Assessment (3)

Applied Economics

• AECO 5050 Seminar in Contemporary Applied Economic Problems (3) (may be repeated)

Thesis Option

• GEOG 5950 Master's Thesis (6)

Non-Thesis Option*

• GEOG 5900 Internship (3)
• GEOG 5920 Research Problems in Lieu of Thesis (3)

* Students will conduct two major projects in these last two courses. Each project should be formalized with a proposal and a final report.