GEOG 415 – Special Topics

(Spatial Databases)

3 Credits

Spring 2008

Instructor: Dr. Arthur J. Lembo, Jr.

Office: Henson Hall 157H

Office Hours: M,W,F 8:00-10:00am; (also by appointment)

Phone: 410-677-0140

E-mail: ajlembo@salisbury.edu

Class Meetings: T 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.; Henson Hall 153

Text: Selected Internet readings on spatial databases:

IBM DB2 Express

SQLServer Express:

Oracle Express

PostGIS

Course Description: This course will operate as a seminar based course that will expose students to 4 different spatial databases. Spatial database technology is now introduced into leading desktop database vendor offerings, such as Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM. Additionally, open source spatial databases have gained popularity. However, few people have actually performed a comprehensive review of the different database implementations. In fact, the latest spatial database offering from Microsoft (SQLServer 2008) is still only in beta release. For this course, students will operate in teams to explore the usability and functionality of each spatial database. At the conclusion of the course, students will prepare a workbook illustrating the use of each spatial database.

The ultimate goal of this class is to create a user manual for publication that compares the different spatial databases. The instructor estimates that we should see over 15,000 readers of the document within a year of publication.

Grades: The course grade is distributed among the final report (50%), class participation and attendance (20%), and class presentations (30%). Because this is a seminar based course, the students will be expected to perform a significant amount of work outside of the class meeting times, performing tasks such as installing the spatial database, loading data, performing analysis tests, evaluating performance, in addition to creating the final report.

Letter Grade
A	90.00 – 100%
B	80.00 – 89.99%
C	70.00 – 79.99%
D	60.00 – 69.99%
F	0.00 – 59.99%

Attendance: Attending class is critical.  Students may not miss more than 1 class meeting without a written excuse. 

Classroom Environment: Students are expected to contribute to an environment appropriate for learning that considers and respects the needs and rights of others.  Any academic misconduct will be confronted and handled accordingly.  Please silence all electronic devices while in class.  Do not arrive late and do not leave early. The faculty instructor will be available to assist students as they work with spatial databases, however, the students themselves will be the experts in each spatial database.

Academic Integrity: Cheating, plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated in this course.  Students should pay special attention to the expectations discussed in the 2005-2006 Student Handbook and 2005-2007 University Catalog.  Violating these rules will result in significant grade penalties up to and including a failing grade for the course.  Extreme cases of academic misconduct can result in expulsion from the University.

Writing Across the Curriculum: All writing assignments, both formal and informal, are in support of Salisbury University’s Writing Across the Curriculum Program.

Important University Dates for Spring

Last day to drop/add –  February 1

Last day to withdraw from course to receive a “W” – April 4

Changes to Syllabus: This syllabus may be modified or changed by the instructor as necessary. Students will be notified of the changes in class.

Date	Topic	Assignment
Tuesday, January 29, 2008	Introduction to class; Goals and expectations; Tour of course resources Team assignments (2 students per database)*	Assignment 1: Read spatial database documentation by team, Powerpoint presentation of spatial database. Weblog discussion.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008	Discussion of weblog write-ups, discussion of Powerpoint outline (what it should contain).	Continue to work on assignment; Install spatial database
Tuesday, February 12, 2008	Presentation of each spatial database in Powerpoint	Assignment 2: Install spatial database; Powerpoint of spatial database installation
Tuesday, February 19, 2008	Discussion of spatial database installation; Develop outline of evaluation tests, data used, etc.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008	Presentation of spatial database installation in Powerpoint.	Assignment 3: Native loading of spatial data into spatial database – points, lines, areas; Powerpoint of native loading of spatial data
Tuesday, March 04, 2008	Discussion of issues with loading spatial data
Tuesday, March 11, 2008	Presentation of Native loading of spatial data; Discussion of 3^rd party loading of spatial data	Assignment 4: Load spatial data from FME (free version), Manifold; Powerpoint of 3^rd party loading of spatial data
Tuesday, March 18, 2008	No class	No class
Tuesday, March 25, 2008	Presentation of 3^rd party loading of spatial data; Discussion of very large spatial database tests	Assignment 5: Load very large amounts of spatial data into spatial database and run timing tests
Tuesday, April 01, 2008	Discussion of issues with large amounts of spatial data	Continue Assignment 5
Tuesday, April 08, 2008	Presentation of very large spatial data tests; discussion of multi-user tests	Assignment 6: create new users and assign different permissions to users.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008	Presentation of user management in spatial database; discussion of imagery in spatial databases	Assignment 7: load imagery in spatial database (if possible).
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008	Paper discussion
Tuesday, May 06, 2008	Final Powerpoint presentation; Paper discussion
* the instructor will assign two people to each database. Therefore, students only need to learn one spatial database, but will learn about the other three databases from student presentations.