Terrain Analysis and Geodatabase Management

This unit advances students’ applied GIS skills by teaching cost-surface and terrain analysis, geodatabase design, data acquisition/conversion, and cartographic output using ArcGIS. Students will combine raster and vector workflows (cost distance, DEM/TIN/contours, hydrology) with data management and quality-assurance practices to produce usable GIS products.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze raster cost surfaces by constructing cost-distance, direction, and allocation rasters and calculate least-cost paths between specified locations using ArcGIS Spatial Analyst tools, producing reproducible outputs.
• Apply terrain and surface-analysis techniques (DEM comparison, TIN creation, contour generation, slope/aspect, flow accumulation and watershed delineation) to derive elevation-based products and interpret landscape processes.
• Demonstrate geodatabase design and data-management skills by creating and normalizing personal geodatabases, converting coverages and tabular data (e.g., spreadsheets to dBASE), defining feature shapes and nested polygons, and maintaining attribute integrity.
• Evaluate the suitability and provenance of external GIS data sources (Census/TIGER, soils, DRG, landcover), document metadata and transformations, and produce polished cartographic products and statistical summaries (maps, layouts, charts) with QA documentation.