Kualoa Ranch Field Work!

We 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.