About the Program
Minor
The minor in Geospatial Information Science and Technology (GIST) has been approved by three departments at UC Berkeley. The Departments of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management in the College of Natural Resources, City and Regional Planning in the College of Environmental Design, Geography in the College of Letters and Science all offer minors in GIST which includes courses across campus. These programs serve students in geography and other social sciences, archeology, environmental science, policy and management, city and regional planning, humanities, architecture, landscape architecture and environmental planning, civil and environmental engineering, public policy, and environmental public health. The minor is open to all majors at UC Berkeley.
Declaring the Minor
The Geospatial Information Science and Technology minor is available to any current UC Berkeley student in good academic standing. The deadline to complete this minor program is before your degree at UC Berkeley has posted. For more information, please visit https://nature.berkeley.edu/advising/minors/gist
Minor Requirements
Students who have a strong interest in an area of study outside their major often decide to complete a minor program. These programs have set requirements and are noted officially on the transcript in the memoranda section, but they are not noted on diplomas.
General Guidelines
Completing the Geospatial Information Science and Technology Minor Program:
- Students must complete one required prerequisite and at least five upper division courses. At least three upper division courses must be selected from the restricted elective list.
- Students must check with their home college for overlap restrictions between majors and minors.
- All courses must be taken for a letter grade and the cumulative minor GPA must be 2.0 or higher.
Requirements
| Prerequisite, select 1 course from the following list. | ||
| Introduction to Geographic Information Systems | ||
| Digital Worlds: An Introduction to Geospatial Technologies | ||
| For additional preparation, students might consider optional prerequisites of COMPSCI 10 The Beauty and Joy of Computing or ENGIN 7 Introduction to Computer Programming for Scientists and Engineers. | ||
| Upper Division Courses - Restricted Elective Courses: Select at least 3 courses from the following list. | ||
| GIS and Environmental Science | ||
| Introduction to Ecological Data Analysis | ||
| Cartographic Representation | ||
| Earth System Remote Sensing | ||
| Geographic Information Analysis | ||
| GIS and Environmental Spatial Data Analysis | ||
| Geographic Information Systems | ||
| Upper Division Courses - Additional Elective Courses: Select final upper division courses from the lists above or below. | ||
| Undergraduate Courses | ||
| User Interface Design and Development | ||
| Introduction to City Planning | ||
| Field Geology and Digital Mapping | ||
| Landscape Ecology | ||
| Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing | ||
| Forest Ecosystem Management | ||
| Ecological Analysis | ||
| Sustainable Landscapes and Cities | ||
| Graduate Courses (Graduate courses may be used with consent of instructor and with completion of necessary prerequisites.) | ||
| Analytic and Research Methods for Planners: Introduction to GIS and City Planning | ||
| Urban Planning Applications of Geographic Information Systems | ||
| Spatial Data Analysis for Natural Resources | ||
| Advanced Remote Sensing of Natural Resources | ||
| Special Topics in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (If topic is Applications in Remote Sensing. There may be other 290 courses, but this is the only one approved.) | ||
| Geographic Information Systems: Applications in Geographical Research | ||
| Quantitative Methods in Environmental Planning | ||
| Geographic Information Science for Public and Environmental Health | ||
| Special Topics in Public Policy (Special Topics in Public Policy: Spatial Data and Analysis (There may be other 290 courses, but this is the only one approved.)) | ||
Faculty and Instructors
Faculty
A. Roger Byrne, Associate Professor. Historical biogeography, vegetation change, prehistoric agriculture, pollen analysis, history of late-Pleistocene/Holocene environment, fossil pollen.
Research Profile
Jeffrey Q. Chambers, Associate Professor. Forests, climate change, trees, tropical forests, remote sensing, Drought.
Research Profile
John Chiang, Professor. Climate change, climate dynamics, ocean-atmosphere interactions, paleoclimate.
Research Profile
Kurt Cuffey, Professor. Continuum mechanics, climate, geomorphology, glaciers, glaciology, climate history, stable isotopes, geographical thought.
Research Profile
William E. Dietrich, Professor. Morphology, earth and planetary sciences, geomorphology, evolution of landscapes, geomorphic transport laws, landscape evolution modeling, high resolution laser altimetry, cosmogenic nuclide analysis.
Research Profile
Gillian P. Hart, Professor.
You-Tien Hsing, Professor. China, geography, political economy of development in East Asia, the process of international economic restructuring, cultural and institutional configuration in the processes of Taiwanese direct investment, growth in Chinese cities, business networks.
Research Profile
Lynn Ingram, Professor. Geophysics, geology, earth and planetary science, geography, stratigraphy with strontium isotopes, paleontological, paleoclimate, California climate change, paleosalinity, shellmounds, geochemical data, paleoclimatic and paleo-environmental reconstruction in aquatic environments using sedimentological.
Research Profile
Michael Johns, Professor. Latin America, development, geography, culture of cities.
Research Profile
G. Mathias Kondolf, Professor. Ecological restoration, landscape architecture, environmental planning, fluvial geomorphology, hydrology, environmental geology, environmental impact assessment, riparian zone management.
Research Profile
Jake Kosek, Associate Professor. Cultural politics of nature and difference; cultural geography, science and technology studies; critical race theory; critical cartography; biopolitics; human and the non-human; and environmental politics.
Laurel G. Larsen, Assistant Professor. Hydroecology, geomorphology, complex systems, restoration ecology, environmental modeling, wetlands, sediment transport, environmental fluid mechanics.
Research Profile
Jovan Scott Lewis, Assistant Professor. Jamaica and the USA; constructions and infrastructures of poverty, inequality, race (blackness), economy, and the market.
Research Profile
Beatriz Manz, Professor. Latin America, human rights, peasantry, migrations, social movements, political conflict, Mayan communities in Guatemala, issues of memory, grief.
Research Profile
Norman Miller, Adjunct Professor. Hydroclimate modeling and assimilation and analysis, climate change impacts to sociology-economic and ecological sectors.
Research Profile
David O'Sullivan, Associate Professor. Spatial analysis, complexity, spatial models.
Research Profile
Robert Rhew, Associate Professor. Geography, terrestrial-atmosphere exchange of trace gases, atmospheric chemistry and composition, halogen biogeochemistry, stratospheric ozone depletion issues, coastal salt marsh, chaparral, desert, tundra, boreal forest, grassland.
Research Profile
Nathan F. Sayre, Associate Professor. Climate change, endangered species, rangelands, political ecology, pastoralism, ranching, environmental history, suburbanization, human-environment interactions, environmental geography, range science and management, Southwestern US, scale, community-based conservation.
Research Profile
Harley Shaiken, Professor. Mexico, labor, globalization, education, United States, geography, work organization, issues of economic and political integration in the Americas, information technology, skill.
Research Profile
David B. Wahl, Assistant Adjunct Professor.
Michael J. Watts, Professor. Islam, development, Africa, social movements, political economy, political ecology, geography, South Asia, peasant societies, social and and cultural theory, US agriculture, Marxian political economy.
Research Profile
Lecturers
Alicia Cowart, Lecturer.
Seth R. Lunine, Lecturer.
John Stehlin, Lecturer.
Visiting Faculty
Melanie Feakins, Visiting Assistant Professor.
Emeritus Faculty
Orman E. Granger, Professor Emeritus.
Paul Groth, Professor Emeritus. Architecture, vernacular architecture, urban geography, suburban America, cultural landscape studies, housing (US).
Research Profile
Theodore M. Oberlander, Professor Emeritus.
Robert R. Reed, Professor Emeritus.
Richard Walker, Professor Emeritus. Race, environment, urbanism, politics, geography, resources, economic geography, regional development, capitalism, cities, California, class.
Research Profile