Development of a Field Navigation Map

Introduction:



In order to navigate you need two sets of tools, the first has to be something to navigate with. Items that you can navigate with can be as simple as the sun or the North Star and can be as complicated as GPS otherwise known as a Global Positioning Satellite. The second needed tool is a from of location. This second tool is usually a map and can be combined with some sort of coordinate system and projection. Instead of using Lattitude and Longitude which is commonly found on small scale maps and globes we will be using UTM otherwise known as Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system. We will also be using Geographic Coordinate System of Decimal Degrees. By using UTM and Decimal Degrees we will be able to create accurate maps for a large scale area.

UTM splits the world into a 2 dimensional cartesian coordinate system and divides the earth into sixy zones with a six degree band of longitude. This coordinate system was created by the US Army Corps. This is useful to use when original WGS 1984 becomes too large for the area. UTM can be used instead of WGS 1984 for a closer more in depth look at a specific area for our selected area we are using UTM zone 15.

Our second Coordinate system that was selected is NAD 1983 Wisconsin Transverse Mercator. This is similar to the UTM zone 15 but instead of having the longitudinal 90w to 96w it is specifically for the entire area of Wisconsin. With UTM zoning Wisconsin is split into zones 15 and 16 with NAD 1983 Wisconsin Transverse Mercator it is centered entirely in Wisconsin. This is useful when you need all of Wisconsin to be your area of study.


Methods:

To start the map we first had to create a pace count. With a pace count we can navigate a selected area using a map and compass. The pace will allow the user to measure 100 meters accurately by measuring how many paces it takes to traverse this distance, in my case it was 66 paces for 100 meters. This data will be used to map out and traverse the Priory study area

Creating a Map;

The project consisted of creating two functional maps for navigation. The first map consists of using the UTM System and the second will have the geographic coordinate system. To start we first had to import the data from the original source into a geodatabase of our own creation. In the data we have a topographic map, elevation data and a aerial photograph of the priory study area. I created a border around the priory area and extracted the elevation data by using the extract by mask tool. I then gave it a elevation scale that would be suitable for the project and used the clip tool to clip the 2ft contour lines to the area of study to create a map. for the grid I used a Degrees seconds map by 2 seconds for every tick in the grid. This map uses the Geographic coordinate system of NAD83



The second map was using the UTM zone 15 which is the zone where the priory falls under. to create this map I used the aerial photograph and the 5ft contour intervals. since this was not a raster I did not have to extract by Mask but instead used the clip tool to clip to the boundary with the aerial photograph. from this point I was able to use the 5ft contour interval lines to create a map. for the grid system I used a measured grid which uses meters instead of seconds. this grid system is set up with a tic every 75 meters.