Construction of a Navigation Map

By: Joey Mandelko

 

            For this activity the instructions were to construct a map to be printed off for navigation for a later field project. The area of interest lies just south of Eau Claire Wisconsin at a University of Wisconsin Eau Claire owned piece of property called the Priory. The goal for the navigation maps is to be able to successfully use them in the field to follow a path. The things to include in the maps are the following: a direction indicator, a scale bar and a ratio scale, projection, coordinate system, labeled grid, background, list of data sources, name, and pace count.

            The first thing I did was create a geodatabase to transfer the pre-existence geodatabase contents in so I could easily access and edit them. The next step is to choose a projection and coordinate system that best matches the area of interest. I chose the Transverse Mercator as the coordinate system and three NAD 1983 Universal Transverse Mercator state plane projection system. These were the two best choices for a small area in western Wisconsin. The UTM projection is best for areas in North American so that the curved ellipsoid can be best represented flat at the mid-latitudes. As shown in the image below the western side of Wisconsin is in the 15 column and the specific projection used, in this case UTM 15N, is the northern section of section 15. The goal of this is to limit distortion as much as possible.  

                After the projection and coordinate system are chosen and applied in ArcMap you can begin to add files to the map to start making a map that is used for navigation. The layout chosen in this case is the landscape 11x17 because it fits the area of interest the best and is a nice size to have in the field. In order to use a map for navigation it is important to be able to have a continuous point of reference on the display surface so that navigation from point to point is possible. In order to do this a measured grid can be selected under the layers properties tab. For this map I chose a grid measured in meters from 0 degrees latitude and longitude. The point of using a grid measured in meters not degrees is that it is much easier to use meters in the field to measure distance than degrees. This grid can also be used as a reference to a pace of steps per 100 meters. To do this I went outside and counted how many steps I took in 100 meters. My number was 61 steps for every 100 meters. This number should be added to the map and can be used for distance measuring in the field across terrain.

            The first map I created used satellite imaging under the grid so that navigation could be used by using roads, buildings, tree stands, and general look of the land as a reference. The goal was to keep this side of the map as clean as possible to avoid any layers that, while they may look fancy, become too busy for simple navigation. I also added a layer showing in red the outline of the area of interest to make it clear for the map user where the boundaries were. I then added a panel on the side of the map to display the various map elements as listed previously. The second side of the map focused not on look of the land but the lay of the land in terms of topology. I made sure to create a copy of the first map so that both sides have the same image and grid reference system. I applied a 60% transparency to the satellite image so it was still visible for reference from the other side of the map but not over powering. I then added the 2 foot contour lines on top of the image to show where elevation changes occurred. I now had a map for a visual reference and a map for topologic reference. The maps shown below contain the needed information on creation and display of the map and can be used in tandem to travel cross country through the forest in the Priory area of interest.