Field Activity #7: Development of a Field Navigation Map

Introduction

Figure 1: Map showing the location of the
   Priory in relation to the University.

The purpose of the following lab was to create two navigation maps using ArcMap. Basic navigation skills are very important to have within today’s world. Like last lab, this lab emphasizes the unpredictability of technology today that many of us rely on. Using basic tools, and the maps created, our task for next lab is to navigate through an area and collect points therefore, this lab’s results are crucial and must be accurate. The two maps created will use different coordinate systems than most maps one sees today which is Latitude and Longitude. Rather, the maps will use a Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinate system and a Geographic Coordinate System of Decimal Degrees. UTM coordinate systems are often used in maps of a small geographic scale, therefore, more detail can be viewed.  

Study Area

The location the site in question is the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire Children’s Nature Academy. For this project, the location will be referred to as the Priory because Priory Hall is located adjacent to it and it is located on Priory Road. The Priory is located roughly 3 miles south of the University (roughly an 10 minute drive) (Figure 1).

Methodology

The creation of the two maps was completed through the use of ArcMap, a computer mapping software produced by the almighty ESRI. All of the data could be found in the class share folder within the Priory geodatabase (Priory.gdb) The first step was to copy and paste these folder into a folder designated to this lab within a personal folder. This ensures that the entire class can make changes to the data without compromising other's.

To create these various maps, it is important to have a refresher on what makes a map, a map. In order for a map to be usable in the field and be considered a map it must include: 

• Title
• North Arrow
• Scale Bar
• Representative fraction 
• Projection
• Coordinate System
• Labeled grid
• Data sources
• Cartographer's names

When creating the first map, the UAV imagery of the site was uploaded first. This ensured for the entire layer would be in the same projection,Transverse Mercator. The first map created contained a UTM coordinate system. A grid of the coordinate system was added to the map with a 50 meter spacing. This spacing was chosen to allow for a detailed grid to make accurate interpretations from the map. The imagery was then set to a 50% transparency to allow the grid to become easier to see.  The final map included the various components listed above (Figure 2). 

When creating the second map, the UAV imagery of the site was uploaded first just as before. This made it so that the projection for the entire layer and all data added would be the same one,Transverse Mercator. This map was to have a grid showing the geographic coordinate system in decimal degrees.  A grid of the decimal degree coordinate system was added to the map with a  1 second spacing.  This spacing was chosen to allow for a detailed grid to make accurate interpretations from the map. Because the geographic area is so small, the values were edited to only show to the hundredths of the degree as seen in (figure 3). The imagery was also set to a 50% transparency to allow the grid to become easier to see.  The final map included the various components listed above. 

Results

UTM Map

The final product of the first map created, the UTM map, is seen below.As one can see, the 50 meter line spacing allows one to navigate more accurately but also does not over-crowd the map (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Resulting map using the UTM grid 

Decimal Degrees Map

The results of the second map (Figure 3) shows a detailed image of the priory area along with a grid in decimal degrees for navigation.

Figure 3: Results of the second navigation map using a decimal degree grid.

Conclusion

The resulting maps created in this lab will be of good use in the lab to come. The navigation lab is crucial because technology is not always available or reliable. The maps were created with the soul purpose to aid in the navigation process. Therefore, certain aspects of the map are added such as the grid, or contour lines to help visualize the landscape. However, the contours tried in this lab caused the maps to be very cluttered. Future work would be to figure out this tool to add wider interval contour lines.