CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Fenton, M.M.; Weiss, J.A.; Amer, Z.; Pawlowicz, J.G.; and Waters, J.E.
Date : 2002.
Title : Use of digital equipment to collect Quaternary field data: giving the Palm a hand.
Publication : Geological Association of Canada and Mineralogical Association of Canada Joint Annual Meeting, May 27 - 29, 2002. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Issue :
Page(s) :
Abstract
Last spring in St. John's the AGS Team presented on the use of Palm IIIs to collect field data. Last summer this approach was enhanced by an increased selection of software available on the Palm and a greater variety of other hardware and software. The Palm software now included an improved surficial geology data form and four new/draft forms for recording information on geochemical samples (till, soil, peat and vegetation). In addition to the "regular" GPS units and digital cameras new equipment tested included a field printer, capable of handling up to tabloid size paper, and conductivity and pH meters. The printer allowed up-to-date printing of site coverage maps for all field crews (using data downloaded, the previous evening, from the Palm and GPS to an Access database, and mapped with ArcView GIS). Daily access maps were also provided to each crew by selecting the appropriate segment of a Landsat 7 satellite image. The resolution available on these images allows the location of new trails, well sites and roads produced during the previous winters drilling or lumbering activities. The digital cameras (Nikon 990 CoolPix) were used for a variety of planned and unplanned tasks. They were used to take most of the field pictures, although we did not succeed in talking quality images out of a helicopter; the plexiglass confused the light and range finding meters in the camera. The only good pictures were taken by holding the entire camera outside the helicopter window. These cameras were also used to make, at the end of each day, a digital back up of each page of the field notebooks used to supplement the data recorded on the Palms. When the original digital Landsat 7 image became unusable the Nikon also photographed a "replacement" image from a clean paper plot. Conductivity and pH meters were used to make preliminary tests of wetland waters to help distinguish the various types such as bogs and fens. These data also proved useful in calibrating the various wetland "colours" shown on the Landsat 7 imagery. The draft geochem forms proved useful but will need a few revisions such as including upgrading the colour selections (these were made up by a person used to working in the USA and as a result lacked colours typical of the Boreal Forest) and the incorporation of a comments section.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology