Teaching Geographic Information Systems In Civil Engineering/Surveying Technology Curricula

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are becoming the norm in engineering, designing and building activities. In the Civil Engineering Technology program at Pennsylvania College of Technology emphasizing surveying, we think GIS provides an excellent example of the use of some basic tools. We teach the GIS "tool" during the second semester, in CET122, Topographic Drawing and Cartography, using Intergraph because of its flexibility in acceptance of data in a number of differing formats. First, we used a part of a municipal database from Knoxville, TN, that supports a project to widen a downtown street, for which there is a unique solution. Students were told one of their clients would like to take advantage of the increased traffic flow from the road widening by opening a convenience market of about 1.25 acres in size, in downtown Knoxville. A number of different criteria govern the choice of site. Students realize that there is no unique answer to this set of conditions. They must use judgment to identify possible solutions, rate the solutions against the criteria, such as space and cost, and then justify a first and second choice to the developer.