Hadleyville Cemetery Map- Field Activity #2

Geog 336
Charlie Krueger
Hadleyville Cemetery Map- Field Activity #2

Introduction

o Provide background to the problem at hand. What are the problems and challenges facing Hadlyville cemetery?
The University of Eau Claire was contacted by Deputy Clerk / Treasurer Dale Welke and Clerk / Treasurer Jennifer Meyer of the Town of Pleasant Valley with a problem at the Hadlyville cemetery. This issue was that are no documents of the burial plots of the cemetery and also the town is missing the information about the individuals who are buried in those particular plots. Some of the headstone are worn from weathering and some are even dating back to the 1800’s.

o Why is building a GIS of this project better than a simple map and/or spreadsheet?
With GIS technology the class will be able to build an interactive map that the town can then use to plan out burial plots in a more efficient way. With GIS equipment the class will be able to locate burial plot that are already taken but cannot be seen by the naked eye. Missing these plot would lead to problems in the future and GIS equipment can help eliminate these issues.

o What equipment are you going to use to gather the data needed to construct the GIS; ie what is the overall approach?
The equipment that will be used in the data gathering is a cell phone for taking pictures of the headstones. A survey GPS for getting accurate positions of where the burial plots are and allowing for the creation of the most accurate map. A drone will also be used to create a flyover of the cemetery allowing for pictures to be taken at an angle a human cannot achieve. This drone also has a very precise camera that can also take photos in different settings like higher and lower light

o What are the overall objectives of the method being employed to gather the data.
The overall objectives of the cellphone being used to get pictures of the headstone that have the name of the person who is buried there on them. These pictures will be placed on the interactive GIS map. The survey GPS unit is to gain exact locations of burial plots that are visible to the eye. This will also help with the layout of the map when pairing it with the images that are gathered from the drone flight. The drone will help get a layout of the cemetery and help uncover some burial plots that may have been missed in the survey process.

Methods

o What combination of geospatial tools did the class to use in order to conduct the survey? Why?
The class used different brands of cellphones like Apple and Samsung to take pictures of the headstones. Along with survey grade GPS units and a drone that was able to take pictures during the flight. Each one of these tools does something that was needed to create the map with GIS. Each will aid during the process of map creation. Also by using a couple of different tool it will help in the accuracy of the map.

o What is the accuracy of the equipment you are intending to use? (Be sure to cover each piece of equipment)
The accuracy of the cellphone is going to be the least accurate when using the GPS of the pictures, but this will not be necessary because of the survey GPS. The cellphone will be only for the picture records. The survey GPS will be accurate to under a meter and probably will be better than that. The drone used will be very accurate with pictures that it produces. This pictures will tell where each and every burial plot is in the cemetery

o 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?
The survey data was recorded in several different ways. One way was by taking notes about the headstones, writing down the names, dates, and any other information that was on them. Another method was by taking pictures on a cellphone that documented the headstone. The next method was using the GPS to plot the coordinates of the burial sites and save them in the GPS unit. Finally, the method of the drone was used to record an aerial view of the cemetery and to gain valuable pictures that show the plot sites of the cemetery. A pure digital approach can always run into issues when trying to get all of the data to flow together. Sometimes certain data can only be used in a program that is not available or some data does not work in certain programs. Digital data can also be lost when trying to add it into programs. The media types being used are pictures, GPS location points, and plain note book paper.
o How will you transfer the data you gather into a GIS


o What equipment failures occurred if any? What was done to remedy the situation?
There were no equipment failures that occurred out in the field. Some learning curves while dealing with the survey GPS but not failures.

o What might have been done to facilitate data collection in terms of equipment and refining the method?
If every group was given a survey grade GPS this would have sped the data collection up quite a bit. This would have also helped with gaining more accurate data points of where the burial plots were. Other than that data collection went smoothly.

Conclusion

o How did the methods transfer to the overall objectives of the project?

The pictures were easily added to a share folder so that every member of the class could excess them.

o How did the mixed formats of data collection relate to the accuracy and expediency of the survey?

The mixed formats will be difficult to get together because of how they were obtained but will be possible in GIS software that the University possess.  

o Describe the overall success of the survey, and speculate on the outcome of the data.