[Taxacom] odometer georeferencing

[Tom Schweich]

Fred,

My area of expertise is fairly narrow, being mostly a user of ESRI's 
ArcGIS.  However, in that particular GIS application, you should be able 
to start with a base map, add streets from the ArcGIS data DVD or some 
other source, and from the streets create a route feature that follows 
the route of the collector.  The route feature can be calibrated in 
miles or whatever units the collector's odometer used.  You can also 
enter odometer resets if necessary. Then, assuming the collector 
actually did use their odometer and it was accurate (!) you would be 
able to locate the collection along the route and determine the location 
in latitude and longitude (Please! in WGS 1984) or some other coordinate 
system, if you must.  I'm not familiar with other GIS applications, but 
I suspect they could also do the same.   I have not done this with 
extant plant collections.  In my case, I was determining mileposts along 
a field trip route.

HTH,
Tom

On 2/7/2011 7:43 AM, Frederick W. Schueler wrote:
> Taxacomers,
>
> Like many who antedate 1995, I've got a huge body of observations
> "georeferenced" by odometer readings along highways.
>
> Kari Gunson - http://www.eco-kare.com/ - has proposed to GIS these by
> listing the geographic co-ordinates of every 10m of the highways they're
> along, so I'll just be able to select reference points from web maps,
> calculate the distance from the reference points, and then assign the
> observation the co-ordinates that match these distances.
>
> I wonder if this method has been used by others, and if there's any
> place where such tables are archived? I haven't tried to search for such
> accounts on line, since I don't know what the method would be called.
>
> fred.
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>            Frederick W. Schueler&  Aleta Karstad
> Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
> now in the field on the Thirty Years Later Expedition -
> http://fragileinheritance.org/projects/thirty/thirtyintro.htm
> Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
>       RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
>     on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
>      (613)258-3107<bckcdb at istar.ca>  http://pinicola.ca/
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Tom Schweich KJ6BIT tas27 at schweich.com
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