Geographic Information Systems

The University of Oregon has a number of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) resources available to present students and faculty.

GIS based classes are available through the Department of Geography and the School of Planning, Public Policy, and Management.​ The ArcGIS software suite is commonly used in teaching classes in these departments. This page describes how to access ArcGIS on campus computers and provides links where ArcGIS can be downloaded to a personal computer. This page also contains links to Geographic Information Systems help and tutorials available on the University of Oregon campus from the Social Science Instructional Labs (SSIL).

The ArcGIS software suite is available on many University of Oregon main campus computers. To determine if a computer has ArcGIS software installed, log in to the computer and search for a folder named ArcGIS. Programs such as ArcMap should be in this folder if they are installed on the computer.

You can learn more about the steps to download ArcGIS software onto your own personal computer at the link below.

When following the steps to download ESRI GIS software from the UO software website, note that there will be different software packages available for you to download. Specifically, you will see multiple versions of ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Pro. You likely will want the most recent version available (usually the one containing the highest number). While ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Pro are different software packages, they have many of the same capabilities. At present, ArcGIS Desktop (with individual applications such as ArcMap and ArcCatalog) is the software many introductory GIS courses at the University of Oregon use, and is the recommended software for use by campus Information Technology. ArcGIS Pro is a relatively new product that in coming years will be replacing ArcGIS Desktop. However, at present UO only has a limited number ArcGIS Online console licenses, which are required to operate ArcGIS Pro. If you will be performing more advanced GIS analyses and would like to create an ArcGIS Online account and be provisioned for ArcGIS Pro use, please contact Campus' Information Systems Through their Site License Request Form https://service.uoregon.edu/TDClient/Requests/ServiceDet?ID=21196.

 

The website links below connect to help resources and tutorials provided by the University of Oregon's Social Science Instructional Labs.

University of Oregon Libraries also has the following relevant books for learning more about using ArcGIS software and tools:

- GIS Tutorial 1 for ArcGIS Pro: A Platform Workbook by Gorr, Wilpen L., Kurland, Kristen Seamens (2017), ebook
- GIS tutorial 2: spatial analysis workbook by David W. Allen (2013), book at Knight Library Documents Reference (G70.212 .A434 2013)