Snowbox Survey

Introduction:
A big part of the ‘geospatial revolution’ we are currently witnessing in the world today is the application of GIS to the real world. What people don’t have an appreciation for is the initial collection and survey work that is necessary to create the data to then plug into the GIS. Fieldwork is where we can collect this data to then observe and analyze later. This lab was focused specifically on the collection and surveying process that is part of any land analysis, and the creation of a coordinate system that would best fit our study area.

           

Methodology:
The first part to our project was to shape and create the landscape that we were to survey. We did this by creating a diverse topographical landscape in the snow that resided within our designated sandbox. The criterion was that this landscape had to include at least one of each of the following: A ridge, hill, depression, plain, and valley. (Below is a picture of Zach creating this landscape in the snow).

Next we had to devise a plan on how to survey this diverse landscape using only a few tools. The purpose of this task was to create a coordinate system that would be efficient and accurate at recording what was in real life (the sandbox) so that we could re-produce it in the digital world (inside a GIS).

My group devised a modified grid system that we created with a pair of meter sticks. The first meter stick was lined up along the Y axis, the other laid across the width of the sandbox, parallel with the X axis). From here we took a third meter stick and measured every 10cm along the second meter stick (parallel with the X-axis) to see how far below the meter stick our landscape was. The meter stick laid across the sandbox created an artificial zero elevation point from which we could measure the landscape beneath. After we would reach the end of the X-axis we moved the X-axis meter stick +10 cm higher on the Y-axis meter stick. Pictures are provided to further visually explain the process.

Once we had recorded our grid system in the field notebook, we moved indoors and plugged this recording into a Microsoft Excel table to provide further compatibility as we move forward with our next project.

Discussion:

I feel as though our methods in the field were successful in that we didn’t have to use too many materials (three meter sticks, a pencil and notebook). We didn’t have to use any excess materials which could be a burden. Although this time, we were only moving to the courtyard of Phillips, it’s important to plan your needed materials ahead of time so you do not take too many, or too few supplies into the field with you. In this case it was easy to run in a get anything we may have forgotten, but if we had been miles away from our research HQ, a forgotten item could be a bigger problem.

Our back-up ‘dumb’ method was to pick the extents of our designated features and measure their coordinates by simply saying they were (X,Y) away from the origin as well as (Z) elevation above a set zero. This would have provided similar data, but not as detailed about the terrain where there were no true features and would have been harder to create a natural zero for elevation.

One problem with our coordinate system was that it was only measured at 10cm intervals. It would have been far more accurate to measure at 5cm increments, but we did not have the daylight to measure at such a frequency. The group felt as though it would be best to measure at 10cm intervals with complete data accuracy than at 5cm intervals with data that might be misread or misreported because of the inability to see in the dark to record our data.

Conclusion:

I feel as though this was a valuable first exercise in the fact that it taught us the need for planning our survey method ahead of time. It also taught us that we didn’t have to use a coordinate system that was of someone else’s creation. I don’t believe any groups used a Trimble GPS or Garmin to record the Latitude and Longitude of their features, so it taught everyone a true coordinate system creation, even if it was just a modified X,Y,Z planar system. I think this project will be realized on a grander scale once we are able to import our data into a GIS and can begin to analyze our landscape area inside a program like ArcMap or ArcScene.