GEOG 386 - Special Topics

SPRING 2025

TOPIC SECTION 01: INTRO TO PYTHON PROGRAMMING FOR GIS - This course provides a comprehensive introduction to Python programming in GIS. Topics include the Python programming environment; basic data types, such as lists and dictionaries; classes and objects; and elements of the language, such as functions, conditionals, recursions, iterations, and file operations. The geospatial analysis and mapping focus on spatial analysis within the ArcGIS environment, and mapping within open-source platforms, such as the basics of Google Earth Engine. The course consists of technical lab exercises, tutorials, and group work around understanding user needs and prototyping ideas using Human Centered Design methods. Upon the completion of this course, students will be able to understand the concept of programming and will be able to design and develop Python programs for scientific computing. This course is open to both graduate and undergraduate students, and no programming background is required. Formerly IDCE 302 & IDCE 30274. Students who have already passed either IDCE 302 or IDCE 30274 cannot receive credit for SSJ 302 or SSJ 30274 and should not take this course.

TOPIC SECTION 02: ENERGY GEOGRAPHIES - Energy policy is climate policy:  we cannot hope to address the climate crisis unless we can understand how our energy systems evolved and function, and plan and enact transitions to profoundly different energy systems. As with climate change, transition to a sustainable energy system is at least as much a social challenge as a technical one. This course will examine energy from a distinctly geographical and social science perspective. We will examine the varied geographies of energy production, transmission, and consumption; their relationships with history and geopolitics; the landscapes created and contested by different energy systems and energy transition; and the role of energy in broader social geographies of development, sustainability, and justice and injustice. We will emphasize in particular the role of fossil fuels in the development of capitalism, and the promise and potential limitations of transition to mainly renewable energy sources. The course is open to undergraduate and graduate students, with requirements appropriate to each.

TOPIC SECTION 03: DIGITAL GEOGRAPHY - This class explores the emerging field of ‘digital geography,’ and interrogates the geography of digitally mediated spaces.  Themes covered include, but are not limited to: new ontologies, algorithmic epistemologies, digital environmentalism, digital tourism, videographic geographies, geopolitics of platforms, data feminism, platform capitalism, platform urbanism, digital agriculture, and technofeudalism.

TOPIC SECTION 04: WILDLIFE CONSERVATION PRACTICE - The course will follow a workshop-seminar and laboratory format. Students will work in small groups (i.e., no larger than three) for the semester on collaborative conservation projects in Rwanda, Guatemala, Cambodia, and other countries. Students will apply GIS and remote sensing skills to achieve explicit conservation goals related to land change assessment, hydrologic modeling, and ecosystem services valuation/modeling. Project results will be presented by student teams at the end of the semester. Open to doctoral and master’s students.

 

Anticipated Terms Offered: fall & spring