Navigation Map

Introduction
For the final lab exercise of the year, the GEOG 336 course used navigation maps that were created in a previous lab of Priory Hall, a residence hall belonging to the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The class was divided into groups of three and the task was to locate given coordinates that lay within the vicinity of Priory Hall using the previously-made maps, a GPS app for iPhones and GPS devices to track the trail each group took to find these coordinates. The priory (Figure 1) lies nestled in a heavy wood which make it tough to navigate based on intuition alone. Once the coordinates were found, each group marked the tree with paint (Figure 2), detailing the point number and which group had found it. In this blog Group 3's trail had been tracked.

Results
The resulting map shows the coordinates that Group 3 found along with the trail they tool to get there (Figure 3).

Community Garden Soil Survey

Introduction
A soil survey was conducted on a community garden near South Middle School in Eau Claire, WI. The tools used for this survey were a Topcon survey grade GPS, a pH level reader, a volumetric water meter and a thermometer. The goal of this lab was to gain experience gather data in a geospatial sense.

Methods

Figure 1. The pH of the soil was collected using a small handheld device.

Only a portion of the community garden was surveyed. Flags were placed at spots where samples were taken. One group of students gathered location data using the GPS. Next, another group went to each sample point and used the volumetric water meter to find the amount of water in the soil at that point. That tool also gathered temperature data in Fahrenheit. Two groups of students collected the pH (Figure 1) of the soil at that flagged spots. Maps of these attributes were created and are shown in the results portion. Also, a drone was used to create a mosaic of the study area. To prepare for the flight, ground control points were laid down and their location was captured by the GPS unit to ensure a photogrammetrically correct mosaic.

Figure 2. The locations of the GCPs needed to be recorded to serve as tie down points for the drone.

Results
The data were massaged and collated so that it could be created into maps. This first map (Figure) displays the pH data that was collected in the garden.