Unit information: Geographic Information Retrieval and Integration in 2024/25

Unit name	Geographic Information Retrieval and Integration
Unit code	GEOGM0068
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Zhu
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	None.
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	None.
Units you may not take alongside this one	None.
School/department	School of Geographical Sciences
Faculty	Faculty of Science

Unit Information

This unit introduces core principles of geographic information retrieval and integration by covering basic concepts of spatial indexing and ranking, spatial query, spatial data conflation, as well as data-driven techniques for geo-text mining. Applications on urban structures and smart city will be applied to assist the learning process.

The unit aims to:

• Teach students the fundamental concepts behind accessing and managing geographic information
• Raise the awareness of how geographic (spatial) data is different from non-geographic (spatial) data with respect to retrieving and integrating information
• Encourage students to design more efficient geographic (non-spatial) data management strategies in their projects
• Facilitate students using state-of-the-art techniques to extract and integrate geographic information, especially from unstructured data (e.g., tweets, newspapers, etc.)

Your learning on this unit

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Describe and discuss how spatial indexing and ranking are computed in popular geographic information retrieval techniques
2. Describe and discuss different strategies and tools of organizing geographic data, and be able to identify their advantages and disadvantages
3. Be able to write programs to automatically conduct toponym resolution from unstructured data, and to execute basic analysis
4. Describe and discuss how “spatial is special”, particularly in the context of data science

How you will learn

Computer-lab based lectures (mixture of computer practicals and lectures)

How you will be assessed

Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):

Throughout the course students will receive formative feedback on code development during the unit seminars.

Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):

Report (100%). The assessment tests all the ILOs.

This will elaborate the process of designing, retrieving, managing and analysing structures datasets and/or unstructured geo-text from the Web. This report will be written in a reproducible manner and will include the necessary code for the data analysis and the outputs.

When assessment does not go to plan

Students will be offered an alternative assessment for completion in the summer reassessment period, of a similar format to that of the original submission.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. GEOGM0068).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.