CEE5984 ASSIGNMENTS

General guidelines

Submissions should be posted or emailed by the Sunday before class, 23:59 Eastern Time.

If you submit a document your file should be named as follows:

flname_n.ext, where
f = your first initial,
lname = your last name,
n = the assignment number, and
.ext = the file extension (e.g. .doc, .pdf, .ppt, .zip, etc).

You are welcome to create an HTML document and post in on the web, sending me the URL.

Assignment 1 – Non-spatial analysis of Meuse environmental data.

Produce a descriptive analysis of the Meuse point data. Submit or post a 3-page report describing the data spatially and statistically, including datagraphics and a 'map'. The analysis should be statistical rather than spatial, and the datagraphics should be well-designed and insights should be discussed. See references below.

Here are the first steps you need to follow - please let me know via scholar > forum if this doesn't work or is unclear!

1. Run R, which gives you access to the basic commands and default 'packages.'
2. Install the sp package by typing install.packages('sp'); you only need to do this once as the package will be installed on your computer for future use.
3. Make the package available via library(sp).
4. Make the data visible via data(meuse).
5. Use some of the R statistics descriptive functions to explore the data and to create datagraphics.
6. Carefully design a few relationship datagraphics.
7. Produce a map of some aspect of the data (this need not use the sp objects).
8. Write up a report explaining your descriptive analysis.

References

• Run and experiment with my meuse_stat.R script that does a statistical (non-spatial) analysis of the meuse data frame.
• See ?meuse.
• Bivand et al 2008 Chapter 3.
• Rossiter 2011 "A minimal introduction to geostatistics with R/gstat."
• Edzer J. Pebesma 2010 "The meuse data set: a tutorial for the gstat R package."

Assignment 2 – Analysis of grid data

Produce a descriptive analysis of either the Bivand Auckland LIDAR or Baltimore landsat data.

...steps you need to follow - please let me know via scholar > forum if this doesn't work or is unclear!

1. Make a map of the data with basic cartographic elements (scale bar, axes, legend, etc.)
2. Experiment with different color palettes.
3. Provide and discuss statistics, histogram(s), etc.
4. Discuss geometry (data structure) and geography (actual representation).
5. Provide some kind of analysis relating space and measurement.
6. Find the region in GoogleMaps and provide a screenshot with locational information.

References

• See ?volcano for the basics of R grid (array) data.
• The relevant Auckland shoreline and SRTM code for Bivand et al chapters 2 and 5.
• Landsat data from http://ldecola.net/files/ - make sure you download both files!

Assignment 3 – Proposal for a final project

Begin by studying the research report outline that I've developed for a typical research narrative, and pay particular attention to the items listed under Introduction, Methods, and Literature and sources.

Next, explore a few topics of interest to you, and consider the following:

• You may analyze a dataset from the ASDAR book, but only one that we've not significantly explored in class.
• The research can explore a topic you're investigating or have investigated for another class, but of course the work will have to be more elaborate and spatially analytical.
• It's often interesting to look deeper into data you're already familiar with from prior work; browse your computer and old reports and see what you can come up with.
• Do some searching using keywords of interest plus e.g. "data, dataset, download, spreadsheet, shapefile" etc.
• You are urged to talk to me about topics - my past work covers a lot of territory!

Please communicate with me at least twice before submitting the report. You're urged to share your ideas with me and others as you work on the project. Post or submit it by the usual deadline.