Lab 1

Lab 1

INTRODUCTION:

oWhat are the problems and challenges facing Hadlyville cemetery?
All original records and maps of the Hadleyville Cemetery have been lost. There are multiple burials with out any identification markings, and stones dating back to 1800 that are difficult to read. Our 336 class has to figure out a way to map the headstones and burial plots.

o Why is the loss of original maps and records a particular challenge for this project.
We do not know for sure if there are any actual open land plots. There might be some headstones that are so overgrown we might not even seen them. This is a problem because there could be a buried person we do not know about and it would not get marked on the map. One land plot could potentially be occupied by two permanent residents if we are not careful.

o How will GIS provide a solution to this problem?
GIS allows us to join together the aerial shot of the cemetery and the GPS coordinates of grave sites to the raster.

o What makes this a GIS project, and not a simple map?
It incorporates the field attribute data gathered in multiple forms joined together to create a map.

o What equipment are you going to use to gather the data needed to construct the GIS?
A cellphone for pictures, a drone for the aerial picture, and a surveying GPS unit.

o What are the overall objectives of your proposal?
The goal of the proposal is to identify as many stones and burial sites as possible.



METHODS:

o What is the sampling technique you chose to use? Why?
As a class we split up duties and took pictures of the headstones and wrote down the information on each headstone. We needed to keep a hard copy of the data for a backup of the digital data.

o What is the accuracy of the equipment you are intending to use?
Drone: ~1 meter
Surveying GPS: ~10 cm

o How was the data entered/recorded? Why did you choose this data entry method?
The UAS took aerial pictures of the cemetary. We all took pictures and wrote down the data.
Most of the class took notes in their field notebooks. A few students took pictures, and two students took the surveying GPS and took points for four rows of headstones. We wanted to make sure we had more than just virtual corrdinate points. We took pictures in case something was not right with the written data or the virtual data got lost or destroyed.

o How will you transfer the data you gather into a GIS
All of the hand written information can be put into an excel document and that can be expored and joined spatially to the aerial image in a GIS.

o What drawbacks are there to the method you propose? How to the pros outweigh the cons of this method?
The major drawback is that multiple people have only bits and pieces of the written data. It took very little time to retrieve a row or two of data, and the plot of land is not very big, so the numbers should not get too confusing.



CONCLUSION:
o How do your methods transfer to the overall objectives of your proposal?