Week 5: Development of a Field Navigation Map

Introduction:
 Getting somewhere new to you can be quite difficult if your are without some sort of navigation tool. And a handful of tools are useless unless you have a map of some sort to work with. This week in class we created a map of the UW - Eau Claire Priory. The created map will be used in next weeks Field Methods class as we travel to the priory and are sent out with a list of way-points and their associated coordinates and are required to map them out on foot.

Methods:
 The activity of the week is finding our own pace while walking and making a proper and accurate navigation map. First was the finding of our pace, this included each person in the class to walk 100 meters and keep count of our steps. Being the tallest person in the class I had the smallest pace with 58 strides per 100 meters. This is important to know for when we are out navigating in the woods with no instruments but a compass and map.
 After we all were done determining the proper number for our pace we headed back inside to work on the maps we were tasked to create. We had a good choice of things to include on our maps, 2 ft contours, 5 ft contours, Raster images and DEM's. The map was to be printed off for use in the field so we had them fairly large at 11x17 inches. The map needed to include which way was north, the projection, the coordinate system, a UTM grid, list of data sources and a watermark with your name.
 After creating the map it was time to decide on the best maps for use in the field for the next weeks activity, our group concluded on using my map with the 2 ft contours and we used another members, Phil, for one with imagery and 5 ft contours. The maps were printed on both sides of the paper.

Discussion:
 When the data was brought into ArcGIS it wasn't as easy as choosing what parts you wanted to include in the map, projections were different for almost every shapefile and raster. However, we were given a Point Boundary polygon shapefile that was, well the title of it, the boundary of which we were working in at the Priory. The coordinate system was set to NAD 1983 UTM 15N which gave us a great projection for the Eau Claire area, this gave our map a slight tilt for the UTM coordinates. I would have guessed the gridlines for the map would have been straight up and down the paper but when it was shown in layout view in ArcGIS the gridlines were 'slanted'.
 The next portion of the map I included was the DEM file, it was obtained and used from the USGS seamless server. I laid the DEM on the bottom layer of the map and gave it a color scheme that showed the elevation changes across the priory, as one can see the terrain is sloped fairly heavily in some parts.
 After adding the DEM I chose the 5 ft contours to put onto the map. I thought I had a nice looking map, until I found the 2 ft contour file. The 2 ft contour put the 5 ft to shame with the amount of detail it gave to the contours of the terrain. But of course something had to go wrong, the 2 ft contour was a .dwg file and we were unable to project it properly into the UTM so when it was on the map it would not show up where it was supposed to be. I had mostly been doing 'on the fly' projections where everything essentially falls into place, but the 2 ft contour file was difficult to get into place. To work around this I brought the 2 ft contour into a blank ArcGIS map, then added. The other files with their proper UTM 15N projection. This left the 2 ft contour in the proper place and worked with the DEM in unison to give the map near 3D features. (see Figure 5-1)
 After making the 2 ft contour map I worked on another with the 5 ft contours and an aerial image of the Priory to help us with the navigation aspect of the activity for next week. (see Figure 5-2) This map was simple to make with only 3 files, there were no projection issues as it was pieced together.

Conclusion:
 This week was a good opportunity to give us a chance to create our own map for actual use, the first of which for me. Next week will be very interesting to see how well something that was made from scratch would work in the field. The week was built on the idea of preparing us for the task set forth for us for the next activity, we found our pace count to help prepare us for finding our distances with nothing but a map and compass and created a map to guide our way. The map is the most important piece to any navigation activity and we will see if it has been made accurately enough to keep us from getting lost.