Comments on: Common Pitfalls to Successfully Integrating GPS & GIS

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By: robert young

robert young — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:41:14 +0000

In the above post, many “low end” GPS users are not aware that they have the ability to change to datum and projection in most handheld data collectors. It is not a version of software, as much as settings on the GPS device, no matter how small, that the user can control.
What this means is that a position can be almost 200 or more feet off, if you think you are in UTM METERS and someone has set your default to be NAD27 US Survey Feet. Knowing about datums and projections is a good thing, and even better, is that most all GIS software is very capable of handling data from different coordinate systems.
Point to make here is that GPS “out of the box” makes it appear you need little training to push the buttons and that is true.
You do need training to understand the answers and whether they are good or not for the project you are working on. I LOVE GPS, just scares the heck out of me, when I see property lines being “GPS’d” by folks walking around a neighborhood, and taking GPS positions on fence corners to determine the location of a property line. I am NEW to the Surveying profession in relation to my age. Therefore, I had the same “I don’t understand” expression when people would let me know the extreme value of having precise, accurate, and repeatable coordinates, and to get them, it has taken me years of study and surveying. I still attend conferences and learn all I can, and that is my challenge to anyone involved with this awesome tool for GIS, we call GPS.

By: Joseph Kerski

Joseph Kerski — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:22:10 +0000

Thanks Michele. You’re right on. I have a document that might be an additional useful resource to your CD entitled GPS To GIS–A More Perfect Union, on http://edcommunity.esri.com/arclessons. It strictly focuses on low-end tools that the educators I work with use, but even in that realm, there are oddities that occur with different systems, labs, operating systems, and so on.

By: Michele Mattix

Michele Mattix — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:12:05 +0000

Robert -
So true about using the ‘word’ GPS as a verb! I get a kick out of books and movies that have characters using GPS underground.
I’m glad to see you, as a surveyor, taking a shining to GIS. I’m sure you agree that one of the biggest pitfalls in GPS data collection and GIS integration is datum shift. I see it with the mapping grade GPS all the time.
Your website has a lot of good info — I look forward to more.

By: robert young

robert young — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:18:54 +0000

Great Post. One issue I see almost every day is the misuse and abuse of the three letters GPS. I hear people say, “I GPS’d the points and ……” The point is that GPS is a term with many many meanings to me. I own many GPS receivers, from a couple hundred dollars to my first two Survey Grade which the package deal was $122,000 back in 1992. My point is that saying “GPS” is like saying “Lunch”. Not sure what you had today for “lunch,” but we all probably had some form of “lunch” even if it was water and a package of cheese crackers. I applaud your training and desire to educate, not just newbies, but all of us. GPS is an awesome tool for all of us to use, and as Dr. Jan Van Sickle points out in a recent audio interview, we need to know how we get the answers. As a land surveyor, I want to add one more quote from a surveyor older than me. “You know the good thing about GPS? – You get a coordinate… You know the bad thing about GPS… You get a coordinate.”
Have a great weekend and keep the knowledge on-going. My focus is on training land surveyors as that is how I make a living using GPS and GIS in the private sector. Please add to my efforts at http://www.thegeoexperts.com. That is where the Dr. Jan Van Sickle audio interview is under the “interview” tab.