Landscape Lines 11: Global Positioning Systems
Landscape Lines 11: Global Positioning Systems. Cultural Landscape Guidance Documents. Landscape Lines 11. NPS Park Cultural Landscapes Program. Washington, D.C.
A guide to Global Positioning Systems, part of the Landscape Lines series from the Park Cultural Landscapes Program. The Global Positioning System (GPS) has revolutionized the surveying and mapping sciences. With relatively little training, a novice GPS user can record a location with a high degree of accuracy. GPS was developed by the United States Department of Defense for military purposes, and it was not long before civilian use of the system surpassed defense use in volume and diversity. The system operates using an array of satellites, which continually send out signals that are picked up by GPS receivers and used to calculate the receiver's position in three-dimensional space. This information can be translated into any of several geographic coordinate systems. In association with a Geographic Information System (GIS), GPS is an expedient and accurate tool for verifying the location of landscape characteristics and associated features. The coordinates from this process can be used to verify georeferenced spatial data in GIS and aerial photographs, which aids in identifying resource locations for treatment, interpretation, and other management objectives. This guidance document addresses how GPS can be used in cultural landscape management, including technical considerations.
- Type
- Published Report
- Publisher
- NPS Park Cultural Landscapes Program
- Units
- CRPS
- Keywords
- coordinate systems, CRGIS, CRSS, data dictionary, GIS, GPS, Mapping, NAVSTAR, Spatial data, Survey, technical considerations