Mapping Hobbs State Park

Spring 2015 Luke Dye

Daryk Blackford

Introduction to Geographic Information Science

Northwest Arkansas Community College

Instructor Paul Lowrey

Arkansas's largest state park in land area,

Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area

covers a 12,056-acre tract of diverse

Ozark landscape along the southern

shore of Beaver Lake, stretching from

Beaver Lake to the north, to the War Eagle

Creek to the south. State Highway 12

bisects the property.

Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area

Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area

As students of the Introduction to

Geographic Information Science

and East/Empact Projects. We were

tasked with editing existing

mapping data and collecting,

plotting, and digitizing points of

interest.

Our Efforts

In an effort to enhance the communities

connections to this valuable resource we have:

❖Digitally recorded points of interest and

unique geological features on the various

trails; such as scenic views, natural water

sources, camping areas, and hitching

posts for equestrians using a camera and

handheld GPS.

❖Added those data points to existing maps

developing a more detailed, multi-level

map that anyone wanting more

information about Hobbs State Park can

access

Which communities benefit?

Equestrians

Hikers

Campers

Trail bikers

Conservancy Groups

Biologists

Students of the GIS

and EAST/Impacts

programs

Which unique communities benefit?

Anyone interested in

studying ‘Indian Marker

Trees’ or ‘Thong Trees’

in Arkansas

The Ozark Chinquapin

Foundation, as there

are a number of

chinquapin trees on the

Hobbs property

Special Thanks To:

Hobbs State Park Staff

Roland Goacachea

Hobbs State Park Superintendent

Al Knox

Hobbs State Park Trail Maintenance Supervisor

Jay Schnieder

Hobbs State Park Assistant Supervisor

Rebekah Penny

Hobbs State Park Interpreter

Special Thanks To:

NWACC Staff

Paul Lowrey

NWACC Arc GIS Instructor

Dianne Phillips

NWACC EAST/Empacts Lab Director

Students who Contributed To Empacts Project:

Karis Ragland

David Mortensen

Michael Wallen

Larry Winslow

Javier Gamboa

Andy Schroeder

Jennifer Watkins

Curriculum Objectives By completing this project we have met the learning objectives required of GEOS 2943 GIS students.

Import, store, and manage geographical data from a variety of sources.

Organize layers, including such tasks as layer activation, hierarchy, and manipulation of layer display properties to optimize visual effect.

Create and analyze new data by creating spatial relationships between multiple datasets.

Utilize skills to create a GIS product for analysis of local problems, as a final group project (EMPACTS component).

Communication with the

Hobbs Employees, Al Knox

Develop Criteria for GPS

points of interest to be

gathered

Divided responsibilities and

labor and developed a rough

time line

Gathered data using hand-held GPS

and camera phone, by physical

collection and observation, and from

internet sources

Long hours in front of the computer

converting gathered data, pictures, and

gps data, into a digitized ARCGIS map

How we did it (cont’)

Recommended Future Mapping Ideas

There are several categories of Interest Points that remain to be mapped:

Plants: Wildflowers*, rare or endangered plants, and any additional Ozark chinquapins and Indian marker trees

Public Attractions: Geocache locations, any additional benches, restrooms, picnic tables, and campsites, water sources, horse hitching areas, trail head locations, and scenic views that haven’t been already recorded on map.

*Future students should speak with park Interpreter Rebekah Penny

Division of Labor

Luke Dye

Facilitated meetings with contacts

Helped develop criteria for Points of Interest

Met with Mrs. Phillips, the EAST/Empacts Coordinator

Collected data points and pictures along the Sinking Stream Trail and the Van Winkle Mill Trail

Edited and corrected trails recorded by previous students

Assisted with PowerPoint development

Developed the ARCGIS story map

Division of Labor

Daryk Blackford

Met with Hobbs State Park Staff

Developed criteria for points of interest

Physically collected data points and pictures from Little Clifty,

Pigeon Roost and Bashore Loop trails

Manage symbology and description for points of interest in the

ARCMAP

Developed power point presentation

Helped develop the ARCGIS story map

Timeline April 1, 2015

Luke Dye: Made contact via email with Hobbs State Park

April 6, 2015

Luke Dye: Phone contact made: Al Knox (Trail Supervisor)

April 8, 2015 (4 hrs.)

Daryk Blackford: Meeting with Al Knox

April 11-12, 2015 (4.5 hrs.)

Daryk Blackford: Collected GPS coordinates and captured photos of Little Cliffy and Bashore Loop Trails

April 15, 2015 (1 hr.)

Luke Dye/Daryk Blackford: Project meeting. Purpose and best course of action established

April 17, 2015 (5 hrs.)

Luke Dye: Meeting with Dianne Phillips

Digitized hiking trails into GIS software

Daryk Blackford downloaded and digitized waypoints to GIS software

April 18-19, 2015 (5 hrs.)

Daryk Blackford: Collected GPS coordinates and captured photos of Pigeon Roast

April 20, 2015 (3 hrs.)

Luke Dye: Meeting with Dianne Phillips

Worked on presentation

Edit and correct GIS data

Dayrk Blackford: Worked on presentation

Edit and correct GIS data.

Timeline (cont.) April 24, 2015 (4 hrs.)

Luke Dye: Edit and correct data

Daryk Blackford: Edit and correct data

April 30, 2015 (9 hrs.)

Luke Dye: Completed power point presentation.

Daryk Blackford: Inserted Hyperlinks into Final Project map.

The first step was to convert

GPS mapping data and

waypoints into a digital map.

The second step was to

manually correct any trail

mapping errors and assign

symbols to GPS waypoints and

create a legend.

Step three;

Finally, with the

addition of a base

map data layer a

useful map begins

to emerge. Then we

begin to create a

hyperlink within the

map that has a

picture of almost

every point of

interest. Sources: Esri, HERE, DeLorme, TomTom, Intermap, increment P Corp., GEBCO, USGS, FAO, NPS, NRCAN, GeoBase, IGN, KadasterNL, Ordnance Survey, Esri Japan, METI, Esri China (Hong Kong), swisstopo, MapmyIndia, © OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GISUser Community

World Wide Web Our sources of information from the internet

http://alltrails.com/parks/us/arkansas/hobbs-state-park-conservation-area

http://friendsofhobbs.busterneece.com/content/trail-guide-descriptions

http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/hobbsstateparkconservationarea/

http://www.arkansas.com/outdoors/camping/state-parks/detail.aspx?park=38

http://nwacceastlab.maps.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=b298542390e8480db9ac2f721f743c90

http://www.esri.com/

Data Collection Tools • Arc Maps 10.1 Software

• ESRI Story Maps Web Serves

• Etrex Venture HC handheld GPS unit

• Google Drive Cloud Server

• Samsung Galaxy S5 Android Operating System

• Motorola Droid Maxx Android Operating System

• Microsoft Suite Programs

• World Wide Web

Results

Our ArcMap available online:

http://arcg.is/1DPLsTV

Our publicly available ARC story map:

http://arcg.is/1GD8YW5