All Topics

AM-57 - Data conversion
  • Identify the conceptual and practical difficulties associated with data model and format conversion
  • Convert a data set from the native format of one GIS product to another
  • Discuss the role of metadata in facilitating conversation of data models and data structures between systems
  • Describe a workflow for converting and implementing a data model in a GIS involving an Entity-Relationship (E-R) diagram and the Universal Modeling Language (UML)
AM-36 - Data mining approaches
  • Describe how data mining can be used for geospatial intelligence
  • Explain how the analytical reasoning techniques, visual representations, and interaction techniques that make up the domain of visual analytics have a strong spatial component
  • Demonstrate how cluster analysis can be used as a data mining tool
  • Interpret patterns in space and time using Dorling and Openshaw’s geographical analysis machine (GAM) demonstration of disease incidence diffusion
  • Differentiate between data mining approaches used for spatial and non-spatial applications
  • Explain how spatial statistics techniques are used in spatial data mining
  • Compare and contrast the primary types of data mining: summarization/characterization, clustering/categorization, feature extraction, and rule/relationships extraction
DM-02 - Data retrieval strategies
  • Analyze the relative performance of data retrieval strategies
  • Implement algorithms that retrieve geospatial data from a range of data structures
  • Describe the particular advantages of Morton addressing relative to geographic data representation
  • Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different data structures (e.g., arrays, linked lists, binary trees, hash tables, indexes) for retrieving geospatial data
  • Compare and contrast direct and indirect access search and retrieval methods
DM-59 - Data warehouses
  • Differentiate between a data warehouse and a database
  • Describe the functions that gazetteers support
  • Differentiate the retrieval mechanisms of data warehouses and databases
  • Discuss the appropriate use of a data warehouse versus a database
DM-62 - Database administration
  • Describe how using standards can affect implementation of a GIS
FC-24 - Definitions within a conceptual model of uncertainty
  • Describe a stochastic error model for a natural phenomenon
  • Differentiate between the following concepts: vagueness and ambiguity, well defined and poorly defined objects, and fields or discord and non-specificity
CV-29 - Design and Aesthetics

Design and aesthetics are fundamental to cartographic practice. Developing students’ skills in design and aesthetics is a critical part of cartography education, yet design is also one of the most difficult part of the cartographic process. The cartographic design process of planning, creating, critiquing, and revising maps provides a method for making maps with intentional design decisions, utilizing an understanding of aesthetics to promote clarity and cohesion to attract the user and facilitate an emotional response. In this entry, cartographic design and the cartographic design process are reviewed, and the concepts of aesthetics, style, and taste are explained in the context of cartographic design.

PD-03 - Development environments for geospatial applications
  • Develop a geospatial application using the most appropriate environment
DM-20 - Discrete entities
  • Describe the difficulties in modeling entities with ill-defined edges
  • Evaluate the influence of scale on the conceptualization of entities