PPOL 6805 / DSAN 6750
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Spatial Data Science
Welcome to the Fall 2025 version of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Spatial Data Science at Georgetown University! Please note that the most up-to-date version of this syllabus will always be available at jjacobs.me/ppol6805
- For Public Policy students (McCourt): the course number is PPOL 6805
- For Data Science and Analytics students: the course number is DSAN 6750
Course Staff and Office Hours
- Prof. Jeff Jacobs,
jj1088@georgetown.edu:
Schedule office hour slots atjjacobs.me/meet- Tuesdays 3:30-6:00pm
- (Please try to schedule at least 8 hours in advance, and let me know briefly what you’d like to discuss, so I have time to prepare! For example, you can provide links to anything you’d like me to read beforehand, via the “Additional Info” portion of the signup form)
- TA Christy Hsu, [
th1010@georgetown.edu]- Coding Workshop Coordinator (Fridays, 2-3pm in Car Barn 230)
- TA Yumi Li, [
xl794@georgetown.edu]- Office hours by appointment
Course Description
This course provides students with an overview of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), encompassing both general principles of geospatial data analysis and their applications for studying important issues of climate change, international conflict, economic development, and urban planning, among other areas of application.
The beginning of the course emphasizes fundamentals of GIS design and use, such as projection systems, raster and vector data, and efficient representation and storage of geospatial data. As students become more comfortable with these foundations, the course will shift to a greater emphasis on applications during the second half of the semester. Particular emphasis will be placed on effective visualization of spatial data, through creation of static publication-quality maps as well as interactive maps for web applications and data dashboards.
The course will utilize libraries from R, Python, and JavaScript as needed, so experience using any of these languages will be helpful, but is not required.
Assignment Structure
On the basis of the guidelines we’ve developed for courses offered through DSAN, this course will have one in-class midterm but no final exam! Instead, you will work on a final project throughout the second half of the course. Each of the four units will involve a homework assignment, and final grades will be determined using the following weighting scheme:
| Category | Percent of Final Grade |
|---|---|
| In-Class Midterm (Nov 5) | 25% |
| Final Project | 30% |
| Homeworks | 45% |
| HW1: GIS Concepts: Fun with Vectors and Rasters | 9% |
| HW2: Unary and Binary Operations, Spatial Joins | 9% |
| HW3: Autocorrelation and Clustering | 9% |
| HW4: Point Hypothesis Evaluation | 9% |
| HW5: Spatial Regression | 9% |
The course does not have any “official” prerequisites, but a general comfort with R and/or Python is helpful: most of the code shown on slides is in R, but we will also discuss equivalent Python libraries you can use if you prefer!
If you have never used R or Python before, however (or if you haven’t used it in a while and feel like your skills are rusty), you can:
- First browse the materials on the Resources page, and then
- Attend the weekly coding workshops led by TA Christy Hsu!
Course Topics / Calendar
The following is a rough map of what we will work through together throughout the semester; given that everyone learns at a different pace, my aim is to leave us with a good amount of flexibility in terms of how much time we spend on each topic.
If I find that it takes me longer than a week to convey a certain topic in sufficient depth, for example, then I view it as a strength rather than a weakness of the course that we can then rearrange the calendar below by adding an extra week on that particular topic! Similarly, if it seems like I am spending too much time on a topic, to the point that students seem bored or impatient to move onto the next topic, we can move a topic intended for the next week to the current week!
If you find any discrepancies between this schedule and Georgetown’s official calendar, please let me know.
| Unit | Week | Date | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1: GIS Concepts | 1 | Aug 27 | Introduction to GIS |
| 2 | Sep 3 | How Do Maps Work? | |
| 3 | Sep 10 | Vector and Raster Representations HW1 Released |
|
| Unit 2: Geospatial Operations | 4 | Sep 17 | Unary and Binary Operations |
| 5 | Sep 24 | Spatial Joins [Deliverable] HW1 due 11:59pm EDT; HW2 Release |
|
| Unit 3: Spatial Data Science I: Foundations | 6 | Oct 1 | Spatial Data Science: Random Fields and Spatial Autocorrelation |
| 7 | Oct 8 | Point Processes, Clustering, and Regularity [Deliverable] HW2 due 11:59pm EDT; HW3 Release |
|
| Unit 4: Spatial Data Science II: Methods | 8 | Oct 15 | Null Models and Marked Point Processes |
| 9 | Oct 22 | Evaluating Spatial Hypotheses I: Point Data [Deliverable] HW3 due 11:59pm EDT; Midterm Guide Release |
|
| 10 | Oct 29 | Evaluating Spatial Hypotheses II: Areal Data |
|
| 11 | Nov 5 | In-Class Midterm HW4 Release |
|
| Unit 5: Final Projects | 12 | Nov 12 | Tools for Final Projects |
| 13 | Nov 19 | In-Class Office Hours [Deliverable] HW4 due 11:59pm EDT; HW5 Release |
|
| Nov 26 | No Class (Fall Break) | ||
| 14 | Dec 3 | Final Project Poster Session | |
| Dec 5 (Friday), 5:59pm | [Deliverable] Final Project, HW5 |
Assignment Distribution, Submission, and Grading
The programming assignments for the course will be managed through a JupyterHub server, which you will connect to in order to work on assignments with more computing power than is possible on your laptops (and with the necessary GIS libraries pre-installed)! This means that, to work on and submit the assignments, you will use the workflow described in the Positron connection guide, which you can always find within the “Writeups” section linked in the sidebar.
Late Policy
After the due date, for each homework assignment, you will have a grace period of 24 hours to submit the assignment without a lateness penalty. After this 24 hour grace period, late penalties will be applied up until 66 hours after the due date. Specifically, late penalties will be applied based on the following scale (unless you obtain an excused lateness from one of the instructional staff!):
- 0 to 24 hours after due date: no penalty
- 24 to 30 hours after due date: 2.5% penalty
- 30 to 42 hours after due date: 5% penalty
- 42 to 54 hours after due date: 10% penalty
- 54 to 66 hours after due date: 20% penalty
- More than 66 hours after due date: Assignment submissions no longer accepted (without instructor approval)
Final Letter Grade Determination
Once all assignments have been graded, we will compute your final numeric grade according to the above weighting, rounded to two decimal places. The letter grade that we report to Georgetown on the basis of this numeric grade will then follow the DSAN letter grade policy as follows, where the start and end points for each range are inclusive:
| Range Start | Range End | Letter Grade |
|---|---|---|
| 92.50 | 100.00 | A |
| 89.50 | 92.49 | A- |
| 87.99 | 89.49 | B+ |
| 81.50 | 87.98 | B |
| 79.50 | 81.49 | B- |
| 69.50 | 79.49 | C |
| 59.50 | 69.49 | D |
| 0.00 | 59.49 | F |
Title IX/Sexual Misconduct Statement
Georgetown University and its faculty are committed to supporting survivors and those impacted by sexual misconduct, which includes sexual assault, sexual harassment, relationship violence, and stalking. Georgetown requires faculty members, unless otherwise designated as confidential, to report all disclosures of sexual misconduct to the University Title IX Coordinator or a Deputy Title IX Coordinator.
If you disclose an incident of sexual misconduct to a professor in or outside of the classroom (with the exception of disclosures in papers), that faculty member must report the incident to the Title IX Coordinator, or Deputy Title IX Coordinator. The coordinator will, in turn, reach out to the student to provide support, resources, and the option to meet. [Please note that the student is not required to meet with the Title IX coordinator.]. More information about reporting options and resources can be found in the Sexual Misconduct Resource Center.
If you would prefer to speak to someone confidentially, Georgetown has a number of fully confidential professional resources that can provide support and assistance. These resources include:
- Health Education Services for Sexual Assault Response and Prevention: Confidential email
sarp@georgetown.edu - Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS): 202-687-6985
- After hours you can call 833-960-3006 to reach Fonemed, a telehealth service, and ask for the on-call CAPS clinician
GSAS and McCourt Resources and Policies
You can find a collection of relevant resources and policies for students on the GSAS website, and the Provost’s policy on accommodating students’ religious observances on the Campus Ministry website.
You can also make use of the Student Academic Resource Center. In particular, within the Resource Center there is a link to Georgetown’s Disability Support page. If you believe you have a disability, you can contact the Academic Resource Center (arc@georgetown.edu) for further information. The ARC is located in the Leavey Center, Suite 335 (202-687-8354), and it is the campus office responsible for reviewing documentation provided by students with disabilities and for determining reasonable accommodations in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and University policies.
McCourt Academic Integrity Policy
McCourt School students are expected to uphold the academic policies set forth by Georgetown University and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Students should therefore familiarize themselves with all the rules, regulations, and procedures relevant to their pursuit of a Graduate School degree. The relevant policies are listed at this link.