Activity 5: Land Nav Intro

Introduction
This short report is covering a brief intro to our upcoming land navigation activity. The point of this class' activity was to create a topographic map that would be needed to navigate the terrain at the University's Priory. We also completed a test to measure how many paces each student takes over 100 meters. Because this activity was so brief, the report will not be very extensive though a more detailed report will be completed for next week.

Methods
First, the entire class was required to test for their paces at a distance of 100 meters. To do this, a rangefinder was used to accurately measure out a 100 meter stretch. The beginning and end of this distance were then marked and it was possible to begin taking our paces. Each student walked at a steady pace while counting the number of times we make a step with our right foot.

After this was complete, the class headed in to the lab to work on our topo maps. We were encouraged to make two maps: one map with a very high detail of the topography, and one map with slightly less detailed topography but with an aerial map as a backdrop. The aerial map will be good to find a general location when navigating, while the detailed topographic map will enable us to precisely find our location. Each of these maps had a grid to help us to plot points on the map accurately.

The aerial map has contour lines at intervals of 5 meters, creating a very basic topographic map. The grid for this map is in intervals of 20 meters. The data for the 5 meter contour lines were accessed via USGS. The detailed topographic map has contour lines at intervals of 2 feet, displaying much more detailed elevation data. The grid for this map is in intervals of 25 meters (it has a larger value to decrease clutter).

Results
After finishing the pace test, I gathered results of 62.5, 61, 61.5 and 61 paces, in that order. With these results, I determined that a suitable pace for me is 61.

I am satisfied with the topographic maps that were created (Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1: Topographic map with contour lines at 2 foot intervals

Figure 2: Topographic map with an aerial and contour lines at 5 meter intervals

Discussion
This was a very simple activity, but we did encounter several problems when it came to the maps. The data for the 2 foot contour lines wasn't projected in the same coordinate system as the rest of the map data. This small setback was solved by importing the same coordinate system as the rest of the data (we decided to use NAD83 UTM Zone 15N), and viewing the entire map in that projection. We learned that it was vital to make sure that all of our data was using the correct projection, to help with the development of the map, and to ensure an accurate display. Overall, this activity was very simple yet quite informative.