Outline for the Project Proposal
For this course, the purpose of the project proposal is to explore, collect and organize published literature pertaining to the project you will do towards the end of the semester. This has two benefits:
- one is to get an understanding of the research that has already been done in your area of interest. You may find that you can improve past techniques, or you want to apply a certain method in a different context. At the very least you will know what has been done and how it was done.
- the other is to see if the topic you have picked is too difficult to achieve in this class setting. By looking at the methods used and results from such studies, you will quickly appreciate what may be possible in the limited time you have available.
There is no need to be concerned about originality in this course but instead make use of the knowledge and skills you have acquired so far to exploit your ideas in GIS terms. The Projet Proposal is not meant to be the end-all reference guide for your project. You may change your topic as soon as you hand in the write up (although, clearly, that may not be a good use of your time). This exercise is intended to get you started on a topic and help you find direction from other sources.
The layout of the Project Proposal:
The review should be no more than 3 pages in length (double spaced) and consist of three parts:
1). Area of Research:
1-3 paragraphs expressing the direction of your project, why it is important and in brief terms how you would accomplish it.
2). Key documents:
These are the papers, or even websites, that contain the most relevant information about your project area. A brief description (2 – 4 lines) of each paper and how it relates to the study. These listings should be ordered from the more preferred document at the beginning to the lesser preferred one at the end of this section. You should also mention other supportive documents that may follow in part three of the proposal. These documents should be expressed in a bibliographic form matching a journal of your choice (bibliographic notation precedes the 2-4 line description). The specific line(s) with the bibliographic information should be single-spaced.
3). Lesser informative but supportive documents or web pages:
List these contributions in the same bibliographic format as your preferred journal. There is no need to attach any comments to these contributions and they should be sorted alphabetically.
Assignment Submission:
All sections, please submit your Project Proposal assignments to your respective TA by November 2, 2022.