Field Activity 7: Developing a Field Navigation Map

Introduction

Field Activity 7 is designed to facilitate the creation of field navigation maps. The class will be utilizing these field maps to conduct a survey at the Priory on the UW -Eau Claire land south of the campus the following week. The maps will be extremely important to navigate around the area, as the Priory is very wooded, so having topographic maps of the area is a very valuable resource when walking around the study area. Two field navigation maps are created for this activity, one being done with a UTM coordinate system, and one being done with a Geographic Coordinate System of Decimal Degrees. The coordinate system is very important, especially in conducting surveys, because one must have a reference to a global scale while conducting local surveys. Both maps will have grids overlaying them. The UTM coordinate system is based upon meters, so it's map has a meter based grid. The Geographic Coordinate System of Decimal Degrees is base upon degrees, so the map has a grid based upon decimal degrees. 

Methods

The first method is to open a blank map in ArcMap. The data is saved in the TEMP folder in the Q drive, so the Geodatabase for the Priory is copied over into individual student folders. The navigationboundary feature class and the priory_2ftcountours feature class are then added to the map. After this, the navigation feature class is changed to a hollow box, allowing the internal contents to be seen.The navigation maps are now ready to be created.

UTM Map

The contour must be projected to Transverse Mercator to properly line up with the navigation boundary for the UTM map. This allows a meter-based grid to be overlayed to help create a navigation map. The map is then changed from data view to layout view. This allows a grid and other map elements to be inserted into the map. Before anything else is done, the page setup must be changed to 11x17 inches to create a map that can be printed. The data frame is then fit to the new view. To create a new grid, one must right-click on the current data frame and got to properties. From there, Grids is selected. New Grid is selected to create an overlay. For UTM, Measured Grid is selected. Leave Grid and labels selected, and in the intervals, change the X Axis and Y Axis values to smaller values such as 50 and 50. Leave the next page as the defaults and click finish. Next re-open the Grid page within the data frame properties. Selected the measured grid just created and select properties from the right menu. Go to labels and make sure the Label Style Format is in Mixed Font. Change the font size to 6. From there, go to Additional Properties and select "Group by decimal point" and change the font color to light grey. Click okay on all boxes to exit out back to the map. After this, add other map elements such as: North Arrow, scale bar and reference scale, the projection, coordinate system, data source, watermark with the makers name, and a title.

Decimal Degrees Map

The decimal degrees map does not need to be projected, as the grid will be based upon the coordinate system. Change the map from data view to layout view, and change the page size to 11x17 within the page and print setup. Refit the data frame to the new size to begin. To create a new grid, one must right-click on the current data frame and got to properties. From there, Grids is selected. New Grid is selected to create an overlay. To create the Decimal Degrees map, Graticule is selected, as the grid will be based upon latitude and longitude. To create a navigation map for an area as small as the Priory, change the X Axis and Y Axis intervals to 5" each. Leave the next pages as the default and click finish on the last page. From there, select the graticule grid just created, and select properties. Select Labels, and ensure the Label Style Format is in Degrees Minutes Seconds. Once that is done, change the font size to 6. Then select Additional Properties and make sure the Label Type is Standard. Click okay to close out of all the boxes back to the map. After this, add other map elements such as: North Arrow, scale bar and reference scale, the projection, coordinate system, data source, watermark with the makers name, and a title.

Results

Figure 1: UTM based map.

Figure 2: Decimal Degrees map.