Get lost
A spatial cadet asks:
I need to be able to accurately record, to within 5 – 10 m, locations in both urban and rural environments. These need to be accurate as I, (and others), may need to go back to these locations (something about the need for repeat measurements that I do not get). It is easy in urban places as I have plenty reference points so I can identify locations as, say, close to the post box, George Street, or opposite the pub, Stockbridge. However, I struggle in rural locations as I have fewer landmarks. While 200 m upstream from a bridge, Weardale, sounds reasonable, elsewhere I am afraid that some of the sheep I used to take references from may move. Could you suggest a common sense solution to me ?
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:29 pm
In a rural environment please use a GPS unit to record your spatial location, in addition to any descriptive aspects of your location. A GPS is a piece of devilish wizardry that records your location remarkably accurately. The use of sheep for spatial referencing is deprecated. Please discontinue this practice in the future. when you interfere with them they tend to run away rendering them less useful. Also consider how good you are at recognising individual sheep - this can be quite a task.
In an urban environment you can also use a GPS, however if the information you are collecting is referenced to a building, then you should record its full and correct address, with reference to the Ordnance Survey’s Address Point database, for preference. This will ensure your location can be used by others, and that you can find it again.
For instance, a location recorded as
“Coffie Shop Duke St Glasgow” is considerably less useful than the same location recorded as “549, Duke Street, Glasgow, G31 1DL”.