Day 9: More Georeference Points
June 11, 2013Today Courtney and UAV Team and I all hiked out to collect more georeference points to add to our collection from day one of field work. From the start, we collected base camp points and moved on to major road intersections, movie props and cattle infrastructure throughout the remainder of the valley. This became particularly challenging around the north side of the valley which didn’t end up having as many recognizable points compared to the south side. In the middle of the north face, we used single trees in the middle of plains to collect reference points. After some thought, I began to wonder if these “solo trees” would end up being some of our strongest points to come out of this data collection period.
Courtney and I returned to the barn to export the data from the past two days to see how much we had done. After some pre-processing steps with GPS Pathfinder Office, Courtney was able to show me that we had done 17 points over the course of the data collection period. For statistical reasons we hope to have 30 towards the end of the week.
The map we produced also showed that we are lacking points in the middle of the valley (which is mainly used for cattle grazing and movie production). From initial observation, it seems this portion lacks buildings and road intersections. From this point on, we have to think outside the box to collect the remainder of the required georeference points.
After visiting the front of the valley. I’m starting to think it will work best for measuring canopy height on the tress that areon level ground. Considering PhotoScan doesn’t measure brush and small trees fairly well, it seems appropriate to pick a portion of the valley that lacks these qualities (brush and small trees seemed to be consumed by cattle or horses in the area). I think over the next few days I will practice flying the quad-copter with the UAV group and get a better understanding of the general area described above.
Cole Anwyl Walters
University of Maryland, College Park
Kualoa Ranch Field Work!
June 10, 2013We began field work today. Students spent the first part of the morning discussing and constructing data dictionaries for GPS mapping. Each group has an assigned topic that is their area of focus: hydrology, geology, archaeology, topography, bare earth coverage, vegetation. These groups will be generating data for the study area that will for basemaps for individual projects. After gathering at Kualoa Ranch under the large monkey pod tree (Albizia Saman) near Hotu Iti, each group split off across the valley in quest of information and features. The day was sunny and warm with light breeze. We had a short shower in the afternoon but that was followed by sunshine. A last-minute photo shoot up at the head of the valley for Quicksilver/Roxy provided some drama as a helicopter swooped back and forth into the valley just 50 feet off the ground (and landing once). It was filming somebody driving around like a madman in a little Fiat.
Tired but pleased, we returned to the ranch at 3:30 and began the process of updating the data dictionaries, downloading data and preparing for tomorrow. Ideally, we will do our first X100 flights across the ranch in the morning. 
The 2013 Field Season Begins!
June 10, 2013
We did our first day of “field” activities yesterday. Terry Hunt came to the Tradewinds Ranch house and gave us an intro lecture on the archaeology of the Pacific and an introduction to Hawaiian prehistory. Then, we went out to Kualoa Ranch. David Morgan met us with his daughter and kindly took us on a bus-tour of the Ka’a’awa valley. He pointed out the movie sets, some potential archaeological features, a couple of fantastic spring/upwelling/bogs, and a variety of plants. We got to see the WWII gun bunkers and the submarine set piece he bought during the Lost auction. Fun and informative. Afterwards, students worked on their data dictionaries as they planned for the upcoming field studies. We had a somewhat impromptu burger cooking dinner back at the house.
The group of student and TAs for the 2013 NSF-REU on Oahu
Arriving in Long Beach- The First Post
June 3, 2013I have successfully made my way to Long Beach without many traveling errors or misfortunes. Hopefully this comes as a positive sign for the remainder of the trip. I can truly say that I have met those most diverse group of people on this incredible opportunity. So far, it has been interesting to converse with young academics like myself about the trials and tribulations we face as undergraduates in the world of the Geographical Sciences. I have only been here over twenty-four hours and I have already learned so much about the field that I have dedicated three years of my life.
Today we were presented with what was to be expected of us over the next couple weeks. While some of it appeared to overwhelming at first, I think the excitement has completely taken over. The valley of observation seems so unreal and perfect to me as an amateur researcher, I can not think of a better place for me to be as someone emerging into graduate level research.
Some of my research goals I have made:
-Become more familiar with ERDAS
-Branch out into other fields of study that I am not familiar with
-Develop my own research question with the help of the professors
-Gain a thoughtful understanding of what graduate level research will entail
Overall, I hope I can provide my strengths to the research team and work out the kinks in my weaknesses over the next couple weeks. I can not be more excited for us as a group.
Cole Walters
University of Maryland, College Park.
2012 GRAM Program is done! Get ready for 2013!
July 8, 2012The 2012 GRAM program on Kauai completed this past Saturday with a poster session that showcased all of the students’ research projects. We will post a photo gallery of that event shortly. If you are interested in reading more about the research projects, please see the project groups using the links on the left hand side of the page. Or click on the project group pages:
Day 27
July 8, 2012Today was the final day of the REU.
We had our presentations in the square just outside the Geography department. The weather was cloudy at first but the sun came out during the first team’s presentation,which felt nice at first but led to a little discomfort on my part since I had not worn a hat or brought any sunscreen. Just my luck to sunburn to top of my head on the last day of the REU after being so hat conscious while on Kauai.
Overall the presentations were a success. The audience included several people not directly involved in the REU, and good insightful questions followed nearly every presenter. Personally I really enjoyed seeing the other presentations and how the other undergraduate’s work finished up. It was a balm to my own frazzled nerves that I was not the only person who said something along the lines of “if I only had more time, I could have done X”.
On my work, I really wish that I would have had the time to dig into Team Hydro™’s collected data and map out the full extent of our observations vs. my predicted discharge maps. I still do not know if my work will be of benefit to anyone, but I definitely believe that it has the potential to do so. It just needs further refining to reduce the errors in the analysis. But before refining it needs to be assessed on its function now (ie mapped against our observations).
After the conclusions of our presentations we had a catered lunch of tacos, which was very popular with everyone involved. During lunch I filled out a brief survey of my thoughts on the REU, I am not sure that I did some of the questions justice, I was feeling a little mentally exhausted at the time and may have not provided enough clarity in my responses.
After the lunch, I went back to my dorm room for final packing preparations since my ride was due to pick me up in about an hour. Once I was packed, I had a few moments to say some goodbyes then I was on the road north to home.
I arrived home just after midnight and soon was sleeping the sleep of the exhausted. The only item I have left to do is converting my poster from a giant pdf into format better suited for web display. I will be doing that Sunday.
This is my last blog post, and I want to thank everyone involved in the REU for helping make this a fantastic experience that I intend to capitalize on (Hydrology for grad school? Madness!).
Day 26
July 7, 2012Today was a stressfull day. I and the other undergraduates all were working furiously to finish our posters by this evening.
As per usual I had trouble with ArcMap, nothing game-changing just the standard crash-to-desktop-dont-you-wish-you-had-saved-your-edits frustration.
Around 3pm I had finished my data and figured out how to symbolize it, all that was left was making a poster that can (hopefully) walk an interested party through my process, and explain why it is important.
In 2 hours or less.
So, it should come as no surprise, I had a bit of a stressful afternoon as well.
I was the last one to finish my poster, I handed it off to Paul (one of the grad students) around 7:30pm, only a few hours late. It wasnt as bad as it sounds, since there was only one printer and the queue to print was just long enough that the second-to-last poster was in the works right when I finished.
After that was done, I and a group of other undergraduates went to the home of one of the members of Team Hydro™ to have some home-made food (a godsend) and enjoy a nice relaxing soak in a Jacuzzi (also a godsend).
Tomorrow is presentations and thats it. It is hard to believe that my time in this program is coming to an end.
I think it has been a valuable experience.
Day 25
July 7, 2012Today was a day of computer work and GIS analysis.
I am making some progress on finishing my data analysis. I even got a chance to eet with Dr. Becker and show him what I have done so far (calculating flow accumulation as a value of the # of cells draining into points on the coast, and identifying drainage basins for specific pour points at the coast). I chose pour points where my flow accumulation raster indicated an area of accumulation but did not have have a stream or river. If ground water follows surface water trends then these could be good areas to investigate for SGD. The theory being that groundwater would be expelled in the region but surface water would not (no stream or other surface outlet).
Dr. Becker also pointed me towards symbolizing a line (representing a theoretical boat) based on the number of cells (and volume of water if I can do it) that could affect the water offshore. This has the advantage that I can ake a fixed length line and symbolize it in a convenient fashion (every km or so).
Tomorrow our posters are due by 5pm, although we have been asked to get the in early if possible since the printer is a little finicky.
Day 23
July 4, 2012Oh how quickly the plans of mortals change.
I still cannot seem to shake this jet lag. Getting up in the morning is a herculean task. Additionally, I had a slew of errors when using the ArcHydro extension last night. Basically, I was unable to resolve adding slope to the stream line which would be used to ensure that the drainage patterns of my surface followed the “actual” drainage patterns observed. I put quotes around actual because I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the stream line feature, although it was taken from the official Hawai’i GIS site so I expect it is at least mostly accurate.
The inability to properly calculate and use stream slope isn’t a project ending error by itself, in fact I attempted to simply press on, but I was unable to get any of the processing steps after it to function properly. At this point I do not know if the failing is with my use of the tool or with some software/hardware error.
Luckily Arc 10 does have a suite of hydrology tools that should work for my project. Tomorrow is the 4th of July. Officially it is a day off, but I expect that I will at least work for a few hours in order to use some of the hydrology tools and ensure that they are functioning properly.
The rest of the evening was spent at my first Dodgers game, and only by second pro baseball ever (the first being in 1996). The experience was good, we sat in the top deck almost directly above the Dodgers dugout. I had a “dodgers dog” and even got a free hat since it is the 50th anniversary of Dodger Stadium.
Presentations are Saturday, and I am starting to feel the pressure to get my data finished so I can start putting together my poster.
Day 20 and 21
July 1, 2012All my bags are packed and I am ready to go…
Today is travel back to Long Beach. I will miss Kauai. I believe that my team has some good data, and it will make for some solid posters. Still, there is always more data to be gathered and a place like Kauai is a wonderful spot to gather it.
Yesterday was packing and a barbeque at the beach; nothing really exciting happened but it was nice to have one last chance to snorkel and relax at Poipu.
Our planes leave around 1pm, so I should be back on the mainland between 9pm and 10pm local time.