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Students Help Set Up Event Layout for 2019 UMass Amherst’s Commencement with the Trimble R10

by Alex Okscin

Undergraduate students in BCT and other programs in collaboration with the UMass Amherst Physical Plant assisted the commencement planning team with layout for the main graduation event. Commencement planning for thousands of students takes a village or at least the Physical Plant at UMass Amherst. One of the people responsible for coordinating the layout for events is Surveyor and GIS Administrator Carl Larson. Carl has been in charge of staking out commencement planning for a number of years, but this year Carl has a little more help. With the help of a few students and Trimble GPS equipment, the stadium will be transformed from an athletic field to graduation for thousands of students and their parents. By using the Trimble R10, we have cut the time it takes to layout graduation by almost two-thirds.

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Using the Trimble R10 with Drones to Develop City Models for Professional Planners

by Ryan Wicks

City and regional planners have the daunting task of developing a vision for the future of both the physical, aesthetic and cultural feel of an area. This often involves engaging multiple parties that have a stake in that future, identifying convergent or divergent needs or desires of those stakeholders, identifying themes within those needs or desires, and developing not just one potential plan, but a multitude of plans that can be considered in comparison. Continue reading “Using the Trimble R10 with Drones to Develop City Models for Professional Planners”

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Measuring Ground-Control Points for Salt Marsh Studies

The Wetland Assessment Program (WAP) at UMass Amherst is an ongoing research program, the main goal of which is to study wetland ecosystems and to develop better tools for monitoring and conservation of these areas. (http://www.umasscaps.org/applications/wetlands-assessment.html) Headed by Dr. Scott Jackson and Dr. Kevin McGarigal for the past decade, WAP is part of the larger Conservation Assessment and Prioritization System (CAPS). The main strategy of the program is to find and measure relationships between Landsat data – which includes land use data, elevation, slope, etc. – and both Indices of Biological Integrity (IBIs) and Indices of Ecological Integrity (IEI’s). The specific sampling and observation methods vary depending on the type of wetland system under consideration. The program has had significant success in finding meaningful and useful patterns for most wetland systems, however success with salt marsh studies has been elusive. Continue reading “Measuring Ground-Control Points for Salt Marsh Studies”