Data Collection of the Hadlyville Cemetery

Methods
What combination of geospatial tools did the class to use in order to conduct the survey? Why?
- The class at first started out using a survey grade GPS unit to geocode the exact locations of each headstone, create an attribute table to record all legible information of the tombstones and finally to take pictures of each headstones. Others tools that were used included the Inspire, Rededge, and Phantom UAV drones. These UAV drone were able to take areal photos of the cemetery to be used as a base map. Lastly each group of students had a pen and note book that they used to create hard copies of all of the information on the headstones.  

What is the accuracy of the equipment you are intending to use?
- The UAV drones are accurate down to the centimeter as well as the Survey Grade GPS unit. The accuracy of the hard copy of the data depends solely on the legibility of each tombstone.

How was data recorded? List the different methods and state why a pure digital approach is not always best. What media types are being used for data collection? Formats?
- The Inspire drone used a camera to take pictures of the cemetery that would later be compiled into one image by use of the software Pix4DMapper. The Survey Grade GPS unit has the ability to compile a list of attributes for each point that was taken. The attributes included were name of the deceased, year born, year of death, and the legibility of the tombstone. This data would later be transformed over to ESRI's ArcMaps where it could be overlaid on the Inspire UAV imagery.

  This method of data retrieval at times can be the best and quickest way to gather the data that was missing, however there is one very large drawback to this method, signal interference. The class ran into this problem after an hour of data collection. In the southwest corner of the cemetery there are a few very large trees that are located directly over a a handful of tombstones. This prohibited the Survey Grade GPS from getting a strong enough signal to record the locations of those particular tombstones. This foliage also created problems for the UAV drone. When the data from the drone was being compiled into one image the program was unable to create a proper image of the data. The foliage in that southwest corner created large shadows, due to the collection occurring at 4:00PM in the afternoon, which put the sun directly behind these trees. These shadows lead to the software program being unable to compile the data correctly. The imagery from the Inspire was very distorted in the that same corner.

   Another issue that occurred in regards to the GPS unit was the time it took for each tombstone to be properly collect and have all of the attributes added. Each tombstone took three to four minutes to collect all of the data. Also before each group could get started the previous group had to show go through all of the steps to properly operate the GPS unit.

What equipment failures occurred if any? What was done to remedy the situation?
- The equipment failure was covered in the previous paragraph. The steps the class took to remedy the stated problems was to first create a hard copy diagram of the cemetery and give it a standard coding system that the class would use. The system was simple, the row furthest to the west was row one, the row second closest to the west was row to and so forth. To find the exact location of a particular tombstone in each row a letter system was added to each row. So the tombstone in the southern most point in each row was labeled as "A" and the further north down the row a tombstone was the further down the alphabet it was labeled. So Row 1 tombstone 5 was labeled as "1E". The class used this method to label all of the tombstones in the cemetery along with the attributes of each tombstone. With these location of each tombstone the class will be able to digitize the each of the tombstones and add the attribute data to each location.    

  The UAV issue was solved by going to the cemetery a second time on an overcast day at 12:00PM, to try and avoid the interference of shadows. Two different UAVs were flown, the Rededge and the Phantom drones. The data was collected and entered into Pix4DMapper where it was compiled correctly. Figure 1.1 shows the image from the Phantom Drone.

Figure 1.1: Phantom UAV Imagery

What might have been done to facilitate data collection in terms of equipment and refining the method?

- The best way to improve data collection for this problem would be to get another Survey Grade GPS unit and teach the groups how to operate before getting into the field to help streamline the process. Also collecting the data at low shadow points of the day would be very effective for improving data collection quality.  

   
 

Data Collection Proposal for the Hadlyville Cemetery

Introduction
What are the problems and challenges facing the Hadlyville cemetery?
The first problem that the cemetery faces is the loss of all records and maps that detail who is buried in the cemetery and where in the cemetery they are buried. Hadlyville has been in use since 1865 and many of the tombstones may be broken or eligible.

Why is the loss of original maps and records a particular challenge for this project?
The data must now be generated from scratch due to the fact that there is no background material to reference.
 
How will GIS provide a solution to this problem?
GIS allow the creation of an attribute table that will be attached to shapefiles that represent the individual plots located the cemetery. The attribute table will contain all of the information that can be gathered from the cemetery.

What makes this a GIS project, and not a simple map?
Due to the fact that the data will be entered into a geodatabase that can be view, analyzed and updated makes the project more than a simple map.

What equipment are you going to use to gather the data needed to construct the GIS?
A GPS units, field notebooks and a UAV Drone.

What are the overall objectives of your proposal? 
- To preserve community history by the development of a detailed and accurate map to define the burial lots of the cemetery.
- Eliminate the possibility of selling the same lot to multiple people.
- Identify as many stones and burials as possible and enter data into a geodatabase.

Methods
How was the data entered/recorded? Why did you choose this data entry method?
- We are going to use GPS units to first map out the boundaries of the cemetery by way of the tracks feature of the GPS unit. Secondly we are going to plot each lot with the GPS unit in an organized fashion. Starting in one corner and going row by row to the last row. For the field note book, data will be taken from each tombstone and recorded, to the best that can be deciphered, focusing mainly on these attributes, First and Last name, Gender, day, month and year born, day month and year of death, age, ligibility of tombstone, whether or not the tombstone is upright, condition of the tombstone, whether or not it is a shared stone, what religion is referenced, and finally what type of tombstone.
The UAV will take aerial images of the cemetery that will be used as the base layer for the map.

What is the accuracy of the equipment you are intending to use?
- The UAV uses a 16 megapixel camera that can show details down to the centimeter. The GPS unit is accurate to 3 meters.

What is the sampling technique you chose to use? Why?
- All tombstones were recorded to the best of the samplers abilities because the local county official needed a thorough record to replace the data that was lost. However due to age and weathering some tombstones were eligible and resulted in Null values in the database.

How will you transfer the data you gather into a GIS?
- All data that was recorded in the field notebook will be transferred over to an excel document. This document will be uploaded to ArcMaps as an attribute table and then joined to the waypoint shapefile that was created by the GPS unit. UAV image data will be transferred as a raster to ArcMaps to be used as the base layer. The waypoints and tracts will be loaded into the DNRGPS software program that can then be transferred to ArcMaps.

What drawbacks are there to the method you propose? How to the pros outweigh the cons of this method?
- The physical observations will be difficult to obtain in certain circumstances due to weathering, age and the material of the tombstones. Not all wanted attribute information will be available for each tombstone. The GPS unit is susceptible to bad reception due to cloudy weather and large amounts of tree cover. Some data will not be able to be collected as a result of human and equipment error. The data that can be recovered will be attached to the data points which represent the locations of each tombstone. The end product will result in an editable database and functional map that can be used by county government officials as well as the local community.

Conclusion
How do your methods transfer to the overall objectives of your proposal?
- This method will allow the creation of a manageable database containing both burial and plot information and a detailed map for the government records department. All current plots will be accounted for and documented which will help prevent the possibility of a single plot being sold to multiple parties.