Using GIS in Anthropological research

Workshop 2012, no. 2 - Cartography and field data in Arcmap 10

Archaeological Research Facility at UC Berkeley
PRACTICAL WORKSHOP
Cartography with GPS-derived Field Data in Arcmap 10
Thursday Dec 6 2012
N. Tripcevich
If images are absent in the webpage below, please Reload the webpage and allow it to load completely. Make sure your computer has a current web connection.

Workshop 2009, No. 2 - Cartography with GPS field data in Arcmap 9.31

Archaeological Research Facility at UC Berkeley
PRACTICAL WORKSHOP
Cartography with GPS-derived Field Data in Arcmap 9.3.1
Friday Dec 4, 2009
N. Tripcevich
If images are absent in the webpage below, please Reload the webpage and allow it to load completely.

Data used in workshop (same datasets as used in previous workshops on this website):

I. Viewshed Analysis 2009


This exercise will demonstrate two types of viewshed analysis.The first is a single site Viewshed, and the second is a general measure of visibility or exposure.

To begin with, please download and unzip the following dataset: 2009_View_Cost.zip (2mb).
Place the data in a directory under C:\ (not in My Documents) so that the path is simple and has no spaces. You might use
C:\gis_data\

Workshop 2009, No. 1 - Viewshed and Cost Distance

Archaeological Research Facility at UC Berkeley
PRACTICAL WORKSHOP
Working with Archaeological data in Arcmap 9.2:
A brief tour of Viewshed and Cost distance functions
Friday Mar 5, 2009

Choose your North Arrow wisely; it implies Magentic or True North.

I always chose my north arrow based on style. However, my advisor reminded me to be more careful, as explained here: http://www.cavesurvey.com/north_arrows.htm

Basically, a north arrow with two sides indicates true north, while an arrow with one side indicates magnetic north. Choose wisely.

On a related topic, you can calculate the magnetic declination of your location here: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/

 

iTrek Z1 GPS datalogger precision test

The iTrek Z1 datalogger GPS with a solar panel is based on the MTK chipset produced beginning in Q1 2007. I brought this GPS data logger, along with three other GPS units, on an ethnoarchaeological research project in Peru in 2007 where we travelled with a traditional salt-bearing caravan for 14 days, and I gathered 9 days of data logging with the iTrek Z1. I conducted this test to evaluate the precision of the GPS in the southern hemiphere where there is no WAAS.

Workshop 2008 - Maps Linking GPS and Lab Results

Archaeological Research Facility at UC Berkeley
PRACTICAL WORKSHOP
Working with Archaeological survey data in Arcmap 9.2:
Making maps that link GPS point locations with artifact-level lab data
Friday Feb 22, 2008
N. Tripcevich
If images are absent in the webpage below, please Reload the webpage and allow it to load completely.

Data used in workshop:

Citing and Permission for use of ASTER data (and others from LP DAAC)

I just got a definitive email response on how to cite ASTER data (or other data from the same source), and that there are no restrictions on their use. I am publishing a paper in ESRI's ArcUser, whose the editor also got this email, so ESRI should now be aware (if they weren't before), that these data are acceptable for publication (you don't have to only use ESRI's data).

Thanks to Janice Wilson for clarifying this!

The Effects of the Curvature of the Earth, the Refraction of Light in Air, and Fuzzy Viewsheds in ArcGIS 9.2

In making viewshed calculations, the earth's curve and the refraction of light in air have an impact (albeit minor) on lines of sight. I this post, I provide some links describing how Arc calculates both variables. I would love to find out how to recalculate the "refractivity coefficient" of 0.13 to other situations. I also put a plug in for fuzzy viewsheds, a drastic improvement that was first suggested 15 years ago, to be mostly ignored in practice until very recently.

Corrections for the Curvature of the Earth

Syndicate content