Clark University for Geographic Information Science

Geographic Information Science Programs

Clark offers four closely linked programs of study in GIS:

In all programs a strong emphasis is placed on the use of GIS as an analytical tool for responsible environmental management and as a primary medium of geographic investigation. Special expertise exists within the department on applications related to land use change modeling, vegetation monitoring, vulnerability analysis, fire modeling, decision making, uncertainty management, and international development.

A broad range of courses is offered in each of the following subareas: Key faculty in this area are professors Ron Eastman, Gil Pontius, Sam Ratick, and John Rogan.

In addition, the Department of Economics makes active use of GIS and has research strengths in the subfield of spatial econometrics. Similarly, students in the Ecology program with the Department of Biology commonly include Geography courses in GIS in their program of study, with the option of taking a minor in Geography or a dual major.

Why Choose Clark?

The Graduate School of Geography is affiliated with Clark Labs, a research center within Clark's George Perkins Marsh Institute that specializes in the analytical development of GIS and cartographic technology for environmental management. The primary venue for this activity is the IDRISI GIS and Image Processing software system, developed and distributed by Professor of Geography J. Ronald Eastman, Director of Clark Labs. First released 1987, IDRISI has grown to become one of the most widely distributed raster GIS software systems, with over 35,000 registered users world-wide. Users are primarily from the research sector, but also include educational and government institutions. Development of the IDRISI system is ongoing and provides many opportunities for students to become involved in system support and software research and development, customer service and technical support.

In addition to IDRISI, ongoing research and development projects at Clark Labs include Cartalinx, a spatial database builder software system; technology transfer for international development; GIS Training; and educational materials development.

Clark University is a Charter Member of the University Consortium on Geographic Information Science (UCGIS). Clark faculty are very active in GIS research, and faculty and students regularly participate in national and international conferences and workshops on GIS. In addition, Clark is home to the Central Massachusetts Human-Environment Regional Observatory (HERO). The HERO project examines human/environment relations in the Central Massachusetts, using GIS as a primary vehicle for research.

Click for information on current research projects.

Geographic Information Science Research at Clark

Primary research areas and key faculty and staff engaged on these projects include:

Decision Support Systems
Principal investigators: Eastman, Toledano, Crema, Ratick

Land Use / Land Cover Change Modeling
Turner, Eastman and Geoghegan: SYPR Project
Geoghegan: Patuxent River Basin Project
Pontius: GEOMOD / Ipswich
Eastman, Toledano, Crema: CA_MARKOV

Model Validation Tools
Principal investigator: Pontius

Classifiers for Image Processing
Principal investigators: Eastman, Zhu, Toledano

Uncertainty Management in Image Classification
Principal investigators: Eastman, Crema, Zhu, Toledano

Uncertainty Management in GIS
Principal investigators: Eastman, Toledano, Crema

Technology Transfer for International Development
Principal investigators: Toledano, Eastman

Spatial Econometrics
Principal investigator: Geoghegan

Dynamic Modeling
Principal Investigators: Lucena, Eastman, Toledano

Agent-based Modeling
Principal Investigators: Ratick, Eastman