A Geographer's Guide to Computing Fundamentals: Python in Arcgis Pro

This upper-undergraduate textbook teaches students programming in GIS using a mix of computer science theory and hands-on activities, with the aim of empowering students to understand fundamentals and apply their knowledge beyond the specific examples in the book. Each of the book’s twenty-one chapters integrates instructional material with exercises in ArcGIS Pro. In doing so, this book combines the strengths of workbooks and theoretical textbooks to provide a holistic and comprehensive text. Each chapter concludes with an unguided task that ensures students have learned the broader principles explained therein. In addition to its unique format, the book covers oft-neglected topics such as debugging, creating a program from scratch, and managing metadata.

Section I starts with the principles of scripting and programming with Python. Section II introduces the ArcPy module and elements specific to ArcGIS Pro. This section focuses on data structures, and how they are used andimplemented within Python. Section III uses the topic of algorithms to guide the student through creating tools to add functionality to ArcGIS Pro. The last section, Section IV, builds upon section III to guide the student to developing and sharing projects and Python packages to include external open-source code and share the Python code as an open-source package. 

Dr. Jamison Conley serves as an Associate Professor in West Virginia University's Department of Geology and Geography. He teaches courses in Geographic Information Science, with a focus on spatial analysis and programming. His research currently analyzes access to health care within West Virginia. This book is based on graduate and undergraduate courses he has taught at West Virginia University.