Field Activity #2: Hadleyville Cemetery Data Collection

 Introduction

Provide background to the problem at hand. What are the problems and challenges facing Hadlyville cemetery?
        The Hadleyville Cemetery is located in Eau Claire County off of County Road HH (Figure 1). This cemetery contains 120 lots with burials dated back to 1865 and is a total of 1.5 acres. The major challenge faced for the county is the lack of original records and maps of the cemetery. Other issues include the chemical weathering that has occurred to multiple gravestones, the removal of gravestones, and destruction to a large portion of multiple stones. Lack of identifying markings of grave sites is a major issue in the cemetery and creates a risk of disturbing a grave during a future burial. The overall goal of this project is to use various geospatial techniques to accurately map out the cemetery, particularly the occupied grave sites and create a detailed spreadsheet of important information regarding each grave.

Figure 1: Hadleyville Cemetery; located South of the City of  Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Why is building a GIS of this project better than a simple map and/or spreadsheet?
 The reason this will not just be a simple map or spreadsheet is because there is a lot of other information that should be known regarding the graves. Information can be stored in GIS and tied to a specific location and feature (in this case the feature is the grave sites) and used by management of the cemetery. This information will help in record keeping and buying and selling of plots within the Hadleyville Cemetery
What equipment are you going to use to gather the data needed to construct the GIS; ie what is the     overall approach?
  Information needed would be a highly accurate survey grade GPS system. The accuracy is important because the scale of the area is not very large and therefore accurate locations are critical to ensure that issues do not arise (such as the buying and selling of occupied graves or the accidental exhumation of a body). GPS combined with the study of aerial imagery of the area will allow the gravestones and  obvious graves to be accurately mapped. As mentioned, a major issue is the absence or destruction of headstones.

What are the overall objectives of the method being employed to gather the data.
Overall, the objective of using GPS along with aerial imagery would be to georeference the aerial image and locate the gravesites based on the image. Using the GPS, we would then be able to just upload the points into GIS and not have to manually place the grave site locations.

 Methods

What combination of geospatial tools did the class to use in order to conduct the survey? Why?
              As a class, we used various geospatial tools to mark the locations of grave sites. These tools include a survey grade GPS to pinpoint the exact location of the grave sites within the cemetery. This allows for precise locations. Another tool used was a UAS (unmanned aerial system) drone. With this technology, the entirety of the cemetery was imaged. This allows for the class to manually analyze the image and mark the location of each grave. Further on in the project the use of GIS will be necessary to georeference the image and upload supplemental imagery and information regarding each grave site.

What is the accuracy of the equipment you are intending to use? (Be sure to cover each piece of equipment)
               The accuracy of the GPS unit, as mentioned, is very important because with such a small area in question the bigger the consequences of an error in location.
               It will be important to get multiple imagery of the area from as far back as possible (at least 1865). This is important because it will be up to date and many stones will be destroyed at this point in time.

How was data recorded? List the different methods and state why a pure digital approach is not always best. What media types are being used for data collection? Formats?
                 Data was collected and recorded both digitally and manually. For the digital aspect, the survey grade GPS system used allowed us to input various attributes regarding each site and also attach a  picture of the stone. Attributes included in the data collection process include if the grave stone was readable, the birth and death date listed on the stone, and finally the name of the individual buried a that location. This was very important to have. Manually, much of the class went through and took detailed notes about the following along with a picture to match each grave. This worked much faster than the survey grade GPS system because we did not have to wait on location to be marked.

How will you transfer the data you gather into a GIS
              Data will be transferred from the GPS unit to ArcMap through a USB port. The additional information will have to be added as an attribute under various fields. This, together, will create an accurate map of the area.
What equipment failures occurred if any? What was done to remedy the situation?
            There were several issues that occurred while using the survey grade GPS system. While a section or two of the cemetery was under tree coverage, the system had a hard time pinpointing the location and communicating with the satellites. This caused a large time issue because only 10 or so grave stones were collected in the 3 hours the class was there. Out of over 50 grave sites, we did not get very far in the cemetery. To fix this issue, the class decided to manually take notes and analyze the aerial imagery to find the locations of the stones.

What might have been done to facilitate data collection in terms of equipment and refining the method?
             In retrospect, it might have been better to only work on the sites out in the open that did not have any tree coverage. This would have made the GPS software a lot more efficient and the overall project move more fluidly. For the stones under the tree the use of manual note taking and pictures would have worked much better.

 Conclusion

How did the methods transfer to the overall objectives of the project?
             The methods of this project allow for the completion of an accurate map containing pertinent information regarding the cemetery. through the use of GIS, GPS, and aerial imagery locations of grave sites can be mapped. This work can help future management of the cemetery and provide historic record of the area.
How did the mixed formats of data collection relate to the accuracy and expediency of the survey?
              Because the class collaborated, the majority of us had a similar format for how to collect data. However, there was a large amount of frustration toward the beginning while deciding the best way to go about note taking and formatting.
Describe the overall success of the survey, and speculate on the outcome of the data.
               Due to the issues with the survey grade GPS a majority of the cemetery still needs to be marked and noted. The attributes of these sites are important for the later records of the cemetery and can help aid the management determine open and closed grave sites.