Introduction
Deputy Clerk / Treasurer Dale Welke and Clerk /
Treasurer Jennifer Meyer of the Town of Pleasant Valley contacted the
University of Wisconsin Eau Claire Geography Department in the summer of 2016 to
request assistance with mapping the headstones at the Hadleyville Cemetery. Records about the cemetery were lacking, and
the town desired to have a map made that would indicate the burial plots, the
condition of the markers, and as much information about the individuals as
possible. This responsibility was relegated to the students of the Geographic
Field Methods course, UWEC Geog336.
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| Figure 1 The Hadleyville Cemetery is located on County Road HH (Section 04, Twn 25N Range 9W). It is 1.5 acres and 120 lots. |
This project encompassed many data collection challenges. Many of the headstones date back to the 1800’s and several of them are in bad disrepair; either eroded or broken. One of the concerns about the cemetery was that the messages on the stones would be lost as the stones weather. Also, the cemetery is not laid out in clear rows and not all of the stones are clearly visible from aerial photos.
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Figure 2 Some examples of headstones in Hadleyville
Cemetery and the complications associated with them.
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GIS Solutions
Using GIS tools, an interactive map of the Hadleyville
Cemetery was created that addresses all of these data collection problems. The
final GIS product contains locations of all known burial plots (those denoted
by headstones), photos of each headstone and monument, and whatever information
about the individuals was available. The photos and information are linked as
attributes of the grave. This GIS provides a digital copy of the inscriptions
on the stones that cannot be erased by erosion and can be accessed from
anywhere. This is the best and easiest
method to convey clear and accurate information to the public and the Town of
Pleasant Valley, and the applications and functions of this product extend far
beyond that of a simple map.
Objectives
·
Use the UAVs to record
aerial imagery of the Hadleyville Cemetery.
·
Gather photos of each feature.
·
Record whether it is a
headstone for a grave or a monument with no grave associated.
·
Record information
about each headstone as availability dictates: First name, last name, middle
initial, marker type (marble, limestone, or granite), year of birth, year of death,
legible (yes or no), and whether the marker is standing (yes or no).
Equipment used:
Three drones, property of the UW Eau Claire Department of Geography, were flown over the cemetery with 95% overlap to provide base imagery.
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*Inspire UAV
·
Rededge UAV
·
Phantom UAV
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*Dual frequency survey grade GPS by Topcon
·
Photos of the
headstones and monuments were taken on site by students using phones or Nikon
digital cameras
·
ESRI ArcMap 10.4.1.
*Data from the Inspire UAV and the Garmin GPS
was rendered unusable and was not included in the final project.
Collection Details
Methods
Data was collected by flying the Phantom and RedLine UAVs over the area of interest. Field notes were recorded manually in notebooks so that inscriptions from stones that were illegible in photos could be deciphered and recorded. Digital photos were collected. Ideally, the survey grade GPS was to be used to collect location data for each feature, but the GPS malfunctioned. The class split up and took notes on different areas of the cemetery, though there was ambiguity as to which stones were in which row.
All of the notes and photos were later compiled into a google spreadsheet and standardized by the class. A system was drawn up retroactively to designate each feature with a unique alphanumeric “PointID” (see Figure 4). This was used in the master spreadsheet to ensure that groups that had recorded info on the same features would not enter that feature twice. An aerial map was used to ensure that the class was not missing data on any features.
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| Figure 4 This image was used by the class to assign each feature with an individual alphanumeric code. This code was entered into the “PointID” field of the spreadsheet. |
The photos and drone imagery were uploaded and shared in the class folder on the University’s geography server. The class decided, through discussion, which attributes were to be recorded and how they were to be standardized in the master spreadsheet (see Figure 5a). Every individual entered the attributes for the headstones they had recorded. Problems were encountered when it became apparent that not every headstone visible on the UAV imagery had had attributes recorded, so a second trip was made to the Hadleyville Cemetery by certain benevolent class members to collect the missing data. It became necessary for each student to download the spreadsheet and further edit it to a higher level of organization and accuracy (see Figure5b).
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| Figure 5a The master spreadsheet was created using
google docs so that everyone would have access to it. Having numerous editors
making changes simultaneously made for a chaotic time, however, and mistakes were made. 5b These mistakes were remedied to the best of my ability in my own copy of the spreadsheet, which I downloaded and modified further. |
The UAS (drone) imagery was downloaded into ArcMap 10.4.1. Each headstone was digitized as a point feature and saved to a “Graves” feature class. The Point ID was entered as an attribute for each headstone. Photos of the headstones were added into the attribute table as raster fields. ArcMap encountered problems with the process of downloading the photos (see Figure 6) and the final GIS was modified to only include photos that downloaded successfully. A table join was enacted, using the Point ID field, to join the personal modified excel copy of the master spreadsheet to the attribute table of the Graves feature class.
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| Figure 6 The error message above was displayed each time a photo was added to the Graves feature class. |
A third feature class was created to denote the location of the ground control points.
Results and Discussion
The final GIS map (see Figure 7 for a staionary version supplemented with locator maps) includes three feature classes; Graves, Monuments, and GCPs. The monument features contain photos that will appear when the user clicks on the monument icon. The interactive version of the final product is available as an ArcMap file. The full attribute table is available here.
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| Figure 7 This is a snapshot of the interactive GIS product. Each grave feature includes attribute information about the individual buried there. The monument features contain photos that will open when clicked on. |
Conclusion
Overall, this survey was an excellent learning experience. The class needed to work together to organize data collection with little guidance and few directions beforehand, standardize the disorganized data that was collected in the field, and work together to remedy mistakes. Creativity was required to devise solutions and many lessons were learned.
Unfortunately, the lack of planning and numerous equipment failures also resulted in a mediocre product. The level of accuracy of the data that was collected is questionable, and the amount of attributes that were pushed into categories retroactively means a high probability of mistakes. The photo points intended to go with every grave feature did not work, and the final interactive map is not upload-able to this blog. Still, this GIS product does provide the user with more information about the Hadleyville Cemetery than was previously available, and the attributes it provides are a good place for the township to begin when they make a more thorough record in the future.
Sources
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadleyville,_Wisconsin
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadleyville,_Wisconsin
