Academic Catalog

Geographic Information Science (BA or BS)

Geographic Information Science (GIScience) is the scientific discipline that conducts spatial analysis to examine economic, environmental, physical, and social phenomena. The study of spatial data structures and computational techniques to capture, represent, process, and analyze geographic information are essential to GIScience. GIScience overlaps with and draws from many research fields such as computer science, statistics, mathematics, and psychology, and contributes to progress in those fields. GIScience also supports research in many academic disciplines such as natural resource management, environmental science and engineering, geosciences, agriculture, marine sciences, sociology, history, public health, business, and anthropology.

Courses in GIScience enable students to develop capability in spatial thinking and gather in-depth knowledge in geospatial technology. Geospatial technology is a term used to describe the range of modern tools contributing to the geographic mapping and analysis of the Earth and human societies, e.g. geographic information systems (GISystems), remote sensing, the global positioning system (GPS), spatial statistics, web mapping and navigation technologies.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, graduates with skills in geospatial technology are in extremely high demand and are one of the highest growth areas in the federal government. Students have employment opportunities in many corporate and government entities. Students with an undergraduate degree in GIScience are also prepared to move on to graduate school to pursue M.A, M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in many fields that enable them to pursue academic jobs or to secure higher ranking positions in the public and private sectors.