Mapping for muppets

[Meat Market]

Hi, due in part to suddenly getting a wee bit more time to do fun stuff like orienteering while im working on shift in SW Romania, I am keen to try and map a few of the local areas around where I live/work - just for my own use at the moment.

Does anyone know of any good guides on how to do this? As well as good quality satellite photos I've got 20 year old 1:25000 maps similar to OS. If in the future I would go further and use the areas for events I would of course get a qualified mapper to come out and do it properly - this is just for myself.

Thanks,
Duncan

[Kitch]

MM no suggestions on how to start. Dunno what Romania is like these days but I think it might be wise to check with a local orienteering club what the rules/permissions are around making maps.

[graeme]

Best advice I got was to make sure that your main reference points (track junctions, buildings etc) are absolutely right. Don't rely on the 20 years old OS-type survey for that, use GPS if possible.

[Meat Market]

thanks for the advice, Kitch - the land is actually owned by my company (there are oil wells on the map!) so the guy I have to ask is 4m away (through a wall)...

I thought of mapping all the big line features using my GPS and then attempt some kind of contouring with GPS to get approximate shape of the land. If anyone can recommend a good book on it or internet guide i can order that as well.

Cheers

[AndyC]

I was tempted to suggest the use of Google Earth to give you an aerial picture but the definition there seems to be very low

[Sloop]

I once tried using GPS for height when planning a contouring exercise and found it didn't work well in trees. You might do better by taking spot heights along all the roads / open areas, and then joining them up by feel. After all, what matters to the passing orienteer is what the ground feels like, so mapping what it feels like to you can't be too far off.

[Kitch]

Google Earth ...definition there seems to be very low

that will be due to the kind of "sensitivity" I was hinting at.

GPS mapped grid of the line features is a great place to start.

[Big Jon]

Best book to get is Robin Harvey's "Map making for orienteers". I have a copy and could lend it to you - let me know next time you're back in Deeside.

[ianandmonika]

When we mapped in S Africa/Swaziland in 80's, there were plenty of forestry/military aerial photo maps available, with contours and done before forests planted (forests grow fast out there in the heat) - all of S Africa was covered, so was a good base to start from. Guess Romanian forests may have a longer history but might be forestry maps around.

[Gnitworp]

Best book to get is Robin Harvey's "Map making for orienteers".

Nobody's dared to write anything since on surveying because this is definitive.

[Meat Market]

Best book to get is Robin Harvey's "Map making for orienteers". I have a copy and could lend it to you - let me know next time you're back in Deeside.

Just got myself a copy second hand on amazon for 10 quid! Guy in my office who deals with land ownership is worried that I discover that some of our oil wells are in the wrong place! I'll be back for the Scottish or Jubilee weekend... thanks for the help

[AndyC]

Most UK maps have been created by unpaid volunteers (I'm not calling them amateurs because they are professional in standard). I've been helping dustytoo work on a new small area of complexity that we used as part of our last event and we used; Google aerial photo, (I think) OS map as base, ultrasonic tape measure, compass, steel tape (50m I think) and poles and surveyors cord. Our wrist GPS's gave us spot locations to confirm things sometimes but they don't work too well through the canopy.
Seemed to be right in the event (although I'm discounting my strong performance as a result of local knowledge - I certainly passed a number of people in that area) with no complaints.
Did I miss anything Fred?