That's all folks!

Here is the poster for Siena's Academic Celebration in the Spring.
And. SURPISE!, I added another new map to it.

It's been a pleasure to create these maps for my client and I hope they get put to good use.

 
Here is the new map. It is another view for the 3 way intersection at the northern end of Boice. It will be up to my client whether or not he wants to use this in the park.

Here They Are!!

After countless hours of hard work in the lab, I present to you...

THE FINAL MAPS!!

They include:

8.5x11 black and white with colored trails for the back of a pamphlet,
8.5x11 full color map,
24x18 large full color map for the information sites along the trail. (not posted here)

I hope you've enjoyed following my progress throughout this long process and I hope that they are worth the wait!

One more post to come with my poster design for the academic celebration at Siena, check back this week!

Preliminary Layout Designs

Starting to mess around with the layout. Legend and text box are arbitrary and will change.

Feedback is appreciated as always.

Here is the Black and White one... This map is still pretty rough but will be refined

Stay tuned for more updates as I get closer to finishing.

November 28, Nearly Done!

Almost finished!

Just have a few more things to decide on and a few more things to do.

I still need to label the roads and some of the points of interest such as the pioneer paper mill, visitor center, creek, and trails. After I label those it will be time to make a legend as well

Also, I need to decide on some of the symbology. I replaced the car symbol with a true parking symbol but it is hard to see the actual visitor center and parking lot polygons, so i need to figure that out.

The symbology of the residential property is up in the air as well. Right now I have it filled in with marker symbolgy, which you can see in the image below as little houses in a grid formation. I feel as though it may take some attention off of the other features and trails. I may just change that to a solid color and put the house points back in.

Finally, just need to add the other trails which I already have as GPS waypoints, all I need to do is connect them and then differentiate the color between the three trails, Red, Blue, Orange.

After the colored one is done, I will make a black and white one, as stated in my previous post.

Here it is! Still a little bit left to go but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

November 13, Update on Deliverables

The Client and I have decided that there will be two maps.

The first map will be a colored one with Bing Imagery as the basemap. This one will be put onto "kiosks" that are located around the trails for people to use as guidance.

The next will will be mostly black and white, used to put onto the backside of pamphlets with other information about Friends of the Kayaderosseras. The trails will be colored as orange, blue, and red.

You can find both images located below. Remember that these are very early phases just to show the direction I am heading. 

Week of 11/12 : Making Progress!

Hey All,

I've finally finished plotting the points by GPS and I'm in the editing phase now! I'm definitely making a ot of progress, but there are still some dilemmas. For one, some f the basempas provided by ArcGIS online show the features a bit off. Unfortunately I can no longer use those. So, there are a few options and I would love some feedback!

I could use the Bing Imagery which you have seen throughout some of my other posts, or I could make a polygon of the park outline and fill the polygon in. Below is an example of that. Just remember that I am still in the early phases of editing.

I hope to be nearly done with editing by the end of the week!

Here is what I have as of now. However, I am going to speak with the client and show him the wide array of color and basemap options that we have, that way, we can make a decision together.

None of the features on this map are permanent yet and I'm sure that they will nearly all be edited in some way. However, I still need to add the road names, more visible park boundary, orange trail, red trail, pioneer paper mill, visitor center and road to visitor center, trail to the red trail from the visitor center, and some of the roads/houses that are not currently built.

Let me know what you think so far!

-Jonathan

Change of Plans

I met with the client to discuss the basemap that was given to me. Collectively, we decided that the Bing Imagery would make for a more detailed basemap. However, now that we are going with that, I will have to edit all of the shapes in such as the housing units, creek, and roads. I was also given some autocad shapefiles that contain lines and polygons that may help.

Editing these shapes onto the Bing Imagery will be my objective for this week.
I will also have to go back to Boice Family Park to finish mapping the trails and parking lots. Apparently when i went last week there was an extremely large amount of error as I was trying to do the Blue Trail and Red Trail. The points were way off and need to be re-done. This will probably happen Wednesday

Here are my plans for the rest of the week:

Tuesday- Begin some of the editing (housing units, creek, park boundary)
Wednesday- Get to the Park to do more GPS work
Thursday- Have all of the GPS points placed onto the map
Friday- Edit more (housing units, roads, creek, park boundary, trails)
Saturday and Sunday- Try to catch up with my weekly work plan and begin to finalize the map

Below is an image of section of trail that I plotted recently, It is the orange section and the top half of the blue. It's also a quick comparison between adding or not adding a basemap.

I will eventually connect the points with a line once I begin to edit.

Look for another post later on in the week for a more finished product!

First Georeference

Hey Everyone,

I've been making some progress with the basemap that I was provided with. I'm still not sure if I'm actually going to use it in my final product though. The Bing Imagery basemap looks a bit more aesthetically pleasing, however it does not contain things like the housing units and roads which I feel are a vital part. I think I'm going to take a look at drawing those things in by editing.

I will present the client with two versions, the Bing Imagery one and the given basemap sometime this week so that we can decide together which one would be better. 
Here is a view of the basemap georeferenced onto the bing imagery that was in my previous post. The basemap by EDP, LLP is translucent so that the Bing Imagery can still be seen.

 I plan to get up to Boice Family Park this weekend to do some more work with the GPS. I need to plot out the orange, blue, and red trails and the perimeter of the parking areas.  I was going to go today but with the remnant wind of Hurricane Sandy still lingering I figured that I should probably wait until the end of the week.


Until next time!

Lets Get Started!

Hello All!

Today I started the very first portion of creating the Boice Family Parks Map. The client and I have been meeting to go over deliverables and logistics (see project proposal). Today we got out to Boice Family Park for my first time to do some field work with the GPS. It was mostly a day to begin to familiarize myself with the park, learn how to get there, and learn  about all of the hard work that the "Friends of the Kayaderosseras" and others have been doing to get this park up and running for others to enjoy.

I took a few rough waypoints with the Garmin etrex 20 GPS just so that I could put them on a map to get a better feel of the location. The conditions were a bit overcast so there may be a small margin of error (within a few feet) on the points. This should be OK though because I plan to go back there a few more times to do some of the actual GPS plotting (which is fine by me; it is a beautiful little park.)

So, just to give you guys a little bit of the feel of the park and where it is, I threw together a rough Draft Map. Just keep in mind that this map is very rough and contains only a few points that may or may not be added to the final map.

Hope this map with Bing Imagery can hold everyone over until I get the rest of the points with the GPS. I also have a basemap that was given to me by the client which will be georeferenced over the Bing Imagery.

NOTE: Here is the website for "Friends of the Kayaderosseras" For anyone who is interested: http://www.kayaderosseras.org/


Check back soon for updates!

Project Proposal

Introduction-

The town of Milton in Saratoga County, NY has just received a 100 acre parcel of land which will be used in the creation of Boice Family Park. With the partnership of the conservation group “Friends of the Kayaderosseras” and volunteer labor a 3 mile network of blazed trails along Kayaderosseras Creek and historical sites and railroads will be used for families, educational groups, and nature lovers alike for passive recreation. The opening of this park along with its trails raises the need for a comprehensive map system to allow hikers to navigate through the 100 acres to the Kayaderosseras Creek and other points of interest. A geographic information system, ArcGIS will be used to create a map system that can be posted along trails and on the “Friends of the Kayaderosseras” web page.

Objectives

• Create a comprehensive trail map
•  Clearly and Precisely label Points of Interest
•  Create “You are Here” Labels for easy navigation
•  Give Maps to Client to put up along trails

Methodology

In order to obtain the necessary info to create user friendly trail maps, GPS locations of trails and points of interest will need to be obtained manually. By hiking the trails and marking the points of interest, this data can then be loaded onto ArcGIS and overlayed onto a base map which will be provided by “Friends of the Kayaderrosseras” (obtained from donor). Once in ArcGIS, labels and legends can be added to create an easy to read comprehensive map of the park.

Deliverables 
Upon completion of the maps, the client will be given two sizes of maps. The first size will be large, to be blown up and placed at an information kiosk at the visitor center as well as strategically placed intersections along the trails. The next type will be small, pamphlet sized maps to be available as a portable trail map to hikers. All maps will be in color and also sent to the client as a .pdf file for future re-printing.

Components and Data Sources

•   Basemap of Boice Family Park- Environmental Design Partnerships, LLP
• Subdivision Included ( future housing complex, water management systems, roads)
•   Trails - Trace in via basemap from EDPLLP or GPS
•   Historic Trolley Rail-GPS
• Parking Areas- GPS
• Unfinished Roads - Basemap
• Finished Roads- Basemap
•  “You are Here” – GPS
• Other Points of Interest (historic factory, NYS fishing access)- GPS

Weekly Work Plan 

October 9 - October 16 : Create blog and revise proposal with client

October 16- October 23: Confirm project contract with client, hike Boice Family Park and collect   GPS data with client to familiarize myself with the parcel and where it is

October 23-October 30:  In Lab - ArcGIS Mapping - Will get final exact sizes that maps will be. Will try to overlay basemap from Environmental Design Partnerships by georeferencing. Will go back to Boice Family Park to obtain more waypoints and hike the trails in their entirety (for GPS tracks if trails from basemap are not feasible).

October 30-November 6:  In Lab- ArcGIS Mapping - will begin to put all GPS points on map, start to create parking areas, visitor center, and other Points of Interest like historical sites and trails. Begin to label the points. Make another trip to Boice Family Park if more data is needed.

November 6-November 13: In Lab- ArcGIS Mapping - Try to get a more finished and revised product. Tweak the map for precision and accuracy. Write Historical Blurbs about railway and pioneer paper mill (historic building). Last chance to go to Boice Family Park if necessary.

November 13-November 20: Present draft maps to client for revisions. In Lab- ArcGIS Mapping based on whatever revisions the client would like to see. Also, begin to work on the final poster for the academic celebration at Siena College.

November 20-November 27: In Lab- ArcGIS Mapping. Revisions and Finalization of maps and poster.

November 27- December 4: Finalization and Presentation of the poster for Siena College and the maps for the client.