In this course, you will explore a variety of open-source technologies for working with geosptial data, performing spatial analysis, and undertaking general data science. The first component of the class focuses on the use of QGIS and associated technologies (GDAL, PROJ, GRASS, SAGA, and Orfeo Toolbox). The second component of the class introduces Python and associated open-source libraries and modules (NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Seaborn, GeoPandas, Rasterio, WhiteboxTools, and Scikit-Learn) used by geospatial scientists and data scientists. We also provide an introduction to Structured Query Language (SQL) for performing table and spatial queries. This course is designed for individuals that have a background in GIS, such as working in the ArcGIS environment, but no prior experience using open-source software and/or coding. You will be asked to work through a series of lecture modules and videos broken into several topic areas, as outlined below. Fourteen assignments and the required data have been provided as hands-on opportunites to work with data and the discussed technologies and methods. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to contact us. We hope to continue to update and improve this course. This course was produced by West Virginia View (http://www.wvview.org/) with support from AmericaView (https://americaview.org/). This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Geological Survey under Grant/Cooperative Agreement No. G18AP00077. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies of the U.S. Geological Survey. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey. After completing this course you will be able to: apply QGIS to visualize, query, and analyze vector and raster spatial data. use available resources to further expand your knowledge of open-source technologies. describe and use a variety of open data formats. code in Python at an intermediate-level. read, summarize, visualize, and analyze data using open Python libraries. create spatial predictive models using Python and associated libraries. use SQL to perform table and spatial queries at an intermediate-level.

In this course, you will learn to work within the free and open-source R environment with a specific focus on working with and analyzing geospatial data. We will cover a wide variety of data and spatial data analytics topics, and you will learn how to code in R along the way. The Introduction module provides more background info about the course and course set up. This course is designed for someone with some prior GIS knowledge. For example, you should know the basics of working with maps, map projections, and vector and raster data. You should be able to perform common spatial analysis tasks and make map layouts. If you do not have a GIS background, we would recommend checking out the West Virginia View GIScience class. We do not assume that you have any prior experience with R or with coding. So, don't worry if you haven't developed these skill sets yet. That is a major goal in this course. Background material will be provided using code examples, videos, and presentations. We have provided assignments to offer hands-on learning opportunities. Data links for the lecture modules are provided within each module while data for the assignments are linked to the assignment buttons below. Please see the sequencing document for our suggested order in which to work through the material. After completing this course you will be able to: prepare, manipulate, query, and generally work with data in R. perform data summarization, comparisons, and statistical tests. create quality graphs, map layouts, and interactive web maps to visualize data and findings. present your research, methods, results, and code as web pages to foster reproducible research. work with spatial data in R. analyze vector and raster geospatial data to answer a question with a spatial component. make spatial models and predictions using regression and machine learning. code in the R language at an intermediate level.