Introduction to GIS

The following materials were drawn from two introductory GIS workshops given at MIT during IAP 2016 . They cover the basics of GIS, including data types, metadata, data sources, various GIS software options, multi-step GIS analysis, and automation.

Note: QGIS is a free and open source Geographic Information System maintained by the QGIS Project and is available to OCW users. ArcGIS is paid software available to the MIT community but not freely available to OCW users.

WORKSHOP PRESENTATION ARCGIS EXERCISE QGIS EXERCISE SAMPLE DATA
Introduction to GIS I (PDF - 4.7MB) ArcGIS Exercise I (PDF - 1.1MB) QGIS Exercise I (PDF - 1.3MB) Sample Data I (ZIP - 33.4MB) (This zip file contains 2.cts, 6.dbf, 6.prj, 8.shp, 4.xml, 6.shx, 4.sbn and .4sbx file.)
Introduction to GIS II (PDF - 1.4MB) ArcGIS Exercise II (PDF - 1.1MB) QGIS Exercise II (PDF - 1.4MB)

Sample Data IIa (ZIP - 11.6MB) (This zip files contains 3.cpj, 4.dbf, 4.prj, 3.sbn, 3.sbx, 4.shp, 3.xml, , 3.shx, 2.cpg and 1 Microsoft Excel Comma SperatedValue file.)

Sample Data IIb (ZIP - 2.4MB) (This zip file contains 2.dbf, 2.prj, 3.shp, 2.shx, 1.sbn, 1.sbx. file.)