Plotted GPS Points

Tuesday, November 26th, 2013

Hello Everybody,

Yesterday I finally finish entering all the GPS points and other data variables into Excel from my field notebook. After a couple hours here and there all the data has been entered into Excel sheets in a nicely organized format. Upon finishing that process I was able to finally plot/display the GPS points onto the basemap. Overall I took 613 pairs of GPS points. These are very rough versions of what are to coming in the following week. Check out the results below!

This map displays the camp/property driveways.

This map displays the full extent of the Otter Pond Property with property line and trails.

Georeferenced Map

Hello Everbody,

Here the product of georeferencing the Essex County Property survey to the NYGIS Clearinghouse orthoimages.

First Rough Draft Map with Georeferenced survey raster JPEG

Weekend of Data Collection

Monday, November 4th, 2013

Hello Everybody,

         Jonathan and I had a successful weekend collecting GPS points over the weekend. I believe that we collected points for all the needed trails and paths at the Otter Pond Club. In the next week or two I will be compiling all of the data points into excel along with other information that is pertinent to each coordinate pair. For the most part aside from the beginning of data collection I collected the data in four columns that consisted of; Degrees North, Degrees West, Error (in feet), and Notes. All of which are quite self explanatory. Aside from this I recorded the weather conditions and dates for both days. 

Jonathan Glueckert Reading off the GPS Coordinates

         The first day wasn't exactly the most favorable day for collecting points as it was a 40° F with a wind chill and intermittent periods of light rain. At first the light on and off drizzle was tolerable but then it began to rain heavily making it impossible to collect the points in the notebook. To avoid ruining the notebook and becoming sick we decided to call it a day to head back to the cabin early. This set us back in time and made us much more constrained with time on Sunday. Sunday was 30° F, a clear and sunny day. To get back save time we used ATVs to get back to the waypoint at which we stopped collecting points the day before. Moving as efficiently as possible we were able to collect all the points needed by the time the sun had set. Overall we collected just under 800 coordinate pairs. In the next two weeks I'll be compiling the hand written data into excel so that it can be then loaded into ArcMap to map out the trails and paths. 

Important points are:

East Network Trail Head
        North - 43° 54.929      West - 74° 12.348
West Network Trail Head
        North - 43° 54.573      West - 74° 12.952
Otter Pond Way Trail Head
        North - 43° 54.718     West - 74° 12.913
East and West Network Trail Intersection
        North - 43° 54.345      West - 74° 12.455
Split in Trail to Tree Farming Plot from Network Trail
        North - 43° 54.577      West - 74° 12.165

GeoReferencing and Strategic Planning

Tuesday, October 29th, 2013

Hello Everybody,

         Over the weekend I was able to georeference the raster basemap from the Essex County Clerk office to the orthoimages obtained from the NYSGIS Clearinghouse. I used the georeference tools to effectively lay the county map over the orthoimages.

         On top of this I have started to strategize and develop a detailed plan of how I plan to collect GPS points for the needed areas -trails, and cabin paths/driveways. I also did research on what the whether would be like to be prepared for the worst. The plan is to head up north to the Otter Pond Club on Saturday, Oct. 2nd at 7:00 am. ETA is around 9:00 - 9:30am. From here Jonathan Glueckert, a volunteer assistant, and I will drop off our stuff at the cabin the Club has offered as a place to stay. We will then set off to collect points for as long as the sunlight will let us. We will then return to the cabin for the night and then finish collecting points until we have collected all that we need. The first day will consist of starting collect points of the the hunting and network trails. Day two will consist of collecting he remainder of these points and the points that will represent the driveways. Upon completion Jonathan and I will return back to Siena College that evening.

Collecting Layers and Making a Basemap

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013

Hello Everybody,

          This week I have been working on a couple tasks. Mainly, finding data layers to add to my map, learning how to georeference a raster from a JPEG.

        I began with finding new basemaps and layer to use for the final product. After having some difficulty with importing basemaps from the internet through ArcMap I decided that it might be best to try some other sources. I began my search at the New York State GIS Clearinghouse. From hear I used NYS Orthos Online, an interactive map that allows the user to select the region they would like orthoimagery by using a tool similar to that of select by rectangle in ArcMap. An example of what the application look like can be found below. Once I had select the area of interest I was able to download the orthoimages, extract them, and then load them into Arc Map. This gave me a clear satellite view of the Otter Pond Club and surrounding properties. Following this I was able to get internet database to work from which I began to add and remove layers as to see what information they provided to judge whether they had any use or not. I was able to find some land usage layers along with a topographic layer. I need to do more research to find a layer that provides information about the watersheds, roads, and a more up-to-date map showing land ownership. 

           On top of this research I began reading up how on how to georeference a JPEG file to a base map. After reading though chapter 11 of the Mastering GIS ed.5 textbook and practice the tutorial from within chapter 11 I was able to understand how to georeference with the examples and practice files given. Within the next week I'm going to perform this I using the orthoimages obtained from the New York State GIS Clearinghouse.