Field Methods

INTRODUCTION Unmanned aerial surveillance photography is an efficient, affordable method in gathering data for small to medium-sized projects for a wide variety of uses. These platforms have a high-degree of customization with various attachments to achieve their goals. Besides controlling the flight and collecting data, the data processing can be an intensive process that involves careful attention to produce accurate results. Pix4D mapper is the most common software in UAS point cloud processing and is demonstrated in this report. Data was collected in the previous report UAS Platforms and GPS Units for Ground Control at the Litchfield mine located southwest of Eau Claire, WI.  METHODS Before processing UAS data in Pix4D, a basic understanding of the software and goal-specific requirements should be obtained. To produce a 3D model, the UAS collects overlapping images and calculates elevation based on these images. The distance of overlap should vary according to th...

INTRODUCTION This post is a continuation of the "Improvised Survey Techniques to Create a Digital Elevation Surface" report. The previous report included a method of sampling elevation points within a sandbox and recording the data to produce a digital elevation surface. For this report, the improvised survey data collected previously is normalized. As defined by ESRI, data normalization is the process of organizing, analyzing, and cleaning data to increase efficiency for data use and sharing. This included restructuring notes from the field journal into standardized columns of x,y, and z values for the sandbox grid to transfer into ArcMap. The elevation data was then modeled using various forms of interpolation. The systematic approach to surveying data points allowed a list of elevations to be made on a grid and left out all elevations between. Therefore, choosing the right interpolation method is important because it performs an estimate of elevations between each po...

INTRODUCTION A custom project was assigned to address a geographic question of the students' choosing. The objective chosen was to track beavers and their associated ecological impacts on a property in Ogema, WI to determine whether beaver genocide is justified. Beavers have frequented this property (see Figure 1) for the past couple years and through generations have migrated northwest, reshaping the landscape along the way. Figure 1: Area of Interest Although beavers can bring positives to the environment, their actions can often cause unwanted side-effects and diminishing value of the landscape. Many poplar, birch, and occasionally oak and maple trees are chewed down. Often times these fallen trees cause additional damage and prevent future growth to the nearby trees. Damming of ponds and digging trenches to transport wood causes directed flooding to otherwise dry property. This causes already established trees to die from being submerged in the new waterline.  ...

INTRODUCTION For this exercise, navigation of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire's Priory and Children's Nature Center was achieved using a GPS device and coordinates and then using a UTM map and compass. The purpose was to simulate accurate navigation in challenging conditions and terrain during field work. The priory is a wooded, hilly lot owned by the UW-Eau Claire on the Southwest side of Eau Claire, Wisconsin (see Figure 1). The fieldwork was performed on November 4th, 2007 on a rainy morning. Figure 1: The area of interest for the Field Navigation Exercise METHODS GPS and Coordinate Navigation The first round of navigation used a Bad Elf GPS unit and specified coordinates to find marked trees located in the Priory. The class was split into five groups, each with separate UTM coordinates. The coordinates listed below are for Group 1: 1. 617713, 4958075 2. 617767, 4958224 3. 617640, 4958159 4. 617553, 4958074 5. 617579, 4957938 Each group track...