Geog 303 - Introductory GIS

Lab 9

This is the dreaded GPS lab! Your task will be to get familiar with the Garmin ETrex GPS recievers - for collecting, downloading, importing, and mapping point data.

You will be handed a flyer which provides some information. This info can also be found here.

You will require for this lab - a gps reciever, instruction manual, lab printout, and a field notebook of some sort. PLEASE - when you get a GPS, immediately go out, collect the data, and get it into excel. Once it looks right in Excel, you can get the GPS back to your prof so he can get it to the next student. We only have 13 receivers these days, so speed is of the essence.

The tasks - which are fourfold:

  1. Map either outdoor sculptures or class treees around campus (UTM, NAD27). Store them as a series of waypoints. In your fieldnotebook, write down the x,y coordinates (this is your backup and reference) and the name/date of the tree/sculpture. Get at least a dozen trees and/or sculptures.
  2. Hike the Ganges, collecting waypoints every few steps. Remember, your reciever can only store 498 waypoints!
  3. Answer the question - what is at each of the following points:
    1. E 0686943, N 5208246
    2. E 0687063, N 5208312
    3. E 0687194, N 5208314
    4. E 0687112, N 5208217
  4. Pick somewhere on campus (describe the location). What are it's coordinates in the following Datums: NAD27, NAD83, WGS84 (write them down, don't store them)? What is the range of x and y values (minimum, maximum, max difference)? Having done this, answer the following question - why is setting your datum important?

OK - now you have a bunch of points stored in your GPS. Time to get them into ArcGIS. Follow the instructions in your pamphlet for downloading the data and moving it into an excel file. Prior to saving as a txt file, split that one excel file into three (representing tasks 1-3, or 3 different point coverages). You should now be able to directly import this excel file into arcmap using the tools - add x,y data (per the instruction manual, except minus the whole save as dbase IV stuff). However, if that doesn't work, open excel 2003 (NOT 2007) and go through the whole save as dbase stuff. Once your file is in Arc, convert the event file (temporary) into a shapefile (permanent).

Now, you should have 3 arcview point shapefiles: trees/sculptures, the ganges, and the located/named sites.

Find a digital map which includes the campus. There is a bunch of data and airphotos on the J drive - check both the CWU and \misc_data\kitco_data\campus_photos subdirectories. Make me a pretty map with some of the info as a backdrop - draw your 3 coverages on top. Label things. Make it look reasonably nice. Print out this map.

NOTE: if you didn't turn off the decimal points when downloading your data, your data won't show up anywhere near the right place. Re-import the data from your gps.

Hand in - answers to questions 3 and 4 and your final map.

3 points. Due date: the monday 7 December. Worth 3 points.