| Title Mapping "The Ranch": A GIS class project |
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Author
Rick Foster American River College, Geography 350: Data Acquisition in GIS; Fall 2003 Contact Information: 4057 Bainbridge Drive, North Highlands, CA 95660 (916) 331-2208 email: fosterrick@juno.com |
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Abstract
The project describes the mapping of my friend's 60 acre ranch. My methods were to use my GPS for site-specific data and to acquire general data from the BLM. The results pleased my friend. He has since come up with more points to GPS. |
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Introduction
Many people dream of a place in country. And while many dream, few succeed. My dear friend . Al Stockton, is one of the few. "The Ranch" is what he calls his recently acquired 60 acres of rolling hills. Mostly pasture, it is bisected by a year-around stream. The vegetation ranges from grass to brush to trees. The land is in central coastal Humboldt county in northern California approximately 120 miles south of the Oregon border. It lays south of Loleta, just past the outskirts of town. Loleta lays south of Eureka, north of Fortuna, east of Ferndale, and west of the Headwaters Forest. As GIS student, I wanted a project that I could use my GPS to acquire site-specific spatial data and use it with general spatial data. Mapping "The Ranch" seemed perfect. I planned to GPS fence lines, springs, golf holes, the creek, gates, etc. The general data (HillShade, DOQs, 24k DRGs, Hydrography, Transportation, Headwaters Forest) I would get from my place of employment, the BLM. |
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Background
This section is empty as there was no known literature to review, and no previous similar work. |
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Methods
Twice or so a year, I make the six hour drive from Sacramento to Fortuna to visit. I brought my GPS unit (Magelan Sportrak Map), Notebook Computer (HP Pavilion xt565) loaded with ESRI's ArcGIS 8.3 and enough supporting data (HillShade, DOQs, 24k DRGs, Hydrography, Transportation, Headwaters Forest) to do the job of mapping The Ranch. |
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Results
The results were good. I chose four different views of "The Ranch":
Hillshade showing "The Ranch" and the Headwaters Forest. They are about 5.5 miles apart. DOQ showing "The Ranch" and the town of Loleta. Town is just to the north. DOQ showing "The Ranch" up close. To Show detail. DOQ showing "The Ranch" up close with waypoints. To show how the detail was obtained. |
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Figures and Maps
I have four beautiful maps as large, detailed JPEGs. Unfortunately, they are unaccessible on my crashed Notebook PC. |
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Analysis
Al liked the Maps that I sent to him. Walking the fence line, taking waypoints every 3 posts worked well. I
did have three flyers -- one was clear acrossed the freeway.
The only difficulties encountered were the abundance of brush along the creek. This was overcome by pushing my way thru it and then reaching out over the water to obtain the waypoint. Overlaying with 1:24,000 DOQs with 1:100,000 Highways show line-up problems. The closer you zoom in the further off they are. Maps shrunk down for a web page must be made coarser than a printed map for any writting to be legible. |
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Conclusions
Al was pleased. He says that the next time I come back up to his area I need to GPS some additional points.
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References
None. |
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Appendices
None. |
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