Lab 5: GPS Data Field Collection

The purpose of this lab was to get experience collecting data in the field with a handheld GPS device.  

To begin, I first prepared the area I was going to be mapping in ArcMap, and then load it onto my handheld device, the Juno 3B, made by Trimble. 

The area on campus where I added data. 

The Juno 3B.

The data was added to the map through ArcPad, an ArcGIS program that works like ArcMap, but can be used on handheld GPS devices.  I added the shapes of several spots of grass, a few light poles and trees, and a footbridge. These spots were all added by physically walking up to them, and recording them on the Juno in the form of polygons, points, and a line, respectively.  

Working in the field had its challenges, it is very hard to get an accurate reading when it is cloudy and rainy, which it was when I was gathering data. Additionally, the Juno's touch screen kept getting out of calibration, and I had to reset it multiple times as it's very hard to control when you can't click exactly on what you want.  In the end however, I was able to get all the data I needed. 

The next step was importing the data from our Juno back into ArcMap, which was as simple as dragging the map off the Juno in file explorer.  I then pulled the lines, points and polygons and added them back onto the map in ArcMap.  With a little editing of the symbology, the added features were ready for a final map. 

The collected data. 

And of course, we have to add the legend, scale, title, and north arrow to make it a proper map.  I also added the source data for the aerial photo the data was plotted on. 

It's pretty obvious that the data is not as accurate as it should be.  The bottom most GPS polygon is actually a circle, but with the cloudy weather it was impossible to get a perfect signal.  GPS is a very useful tool but I think you can clearly see its limitations in this map, and it's important to know those limitations to retain accuracy. 

Lab 4

The purpose of this lab was to work with vector geoprocessing tools to determine suitable habitats for bears in a study area of Marquette County, Michigan. Additionally, I created a visual workflow so that others could replicate my process.

 

The first step was to get a better understating of the data I was going to be working with.  By looking at the files in ArcMap, I saw that I was working with databases, feature classes, and an excel table containing the coordinates of bear locations.  By making this table into a feature class and setting its coordinate system to the same as the other feature classes I should be able to plot them accurately and easily.

Creating a feature class from an excel table.

 

The next step was to start plotting and interpreting the data.  I added the feature classes as well as bear locations to make a simple map that showed me what type of land cover each bear was in when their position was recorded.  By intersecting these two features, I generated a new feature that was a combination of the two, a point showing where the bear was as well as what type of land cover it was in.

From this map, I determined the three most popular cover types for the bears to be mixed forest land, forested wetland, and evergreen forest land.

 

The next task was to find out how many bears were near streams, as biologists hypothesize they will be.  By creating a 500 meter zone around the streams using the buffer tool, and then intersecting that with our bear_cover layer, I determined that 49 of the bears were within 500 meters of a stream, the majority of our 67 bears in the area.

 

The next task was to find the most suitable habitat for bears based on our data thus far.  By intersecting the 500 meter stream buffer with a layer created from the three most popular habitats, I got my results.  Only areas that were within the popular habitat as well as within 500 meters of a stream appeared on the map. By running a dissolve on this final layer, I took care of the overlapping boundaries, giving a much cleaner final look.

 

The next step was to figure out which parts of the potential habitat was on DNR management lands.  By intersecting our potential habitat layer with the DNR management lands layer, we get our result.

 

 

 

The DNR likes my results but wants its management land to be 5km away from any urban or built up land. By creating a 5km buffer around these land use types and then using the erase tool to remove where this buffer intersects DNR land we get our final results.

I then created the final map in ArcMap.

 

Finally, I created a workflow diagraming the steps I took in making my map so my work could be replicated by someone else.