Using Sat Nav and GPS in a geographical context

1. Geographical Information
Systems
GPS and Sat Nav
Garmin and Tom Tom

2. A walk in the hills
• The plan was to meet with the
mountaineering club on a Wednesday
evening and go Rock Climbing.
• I needed to find where they were climbing,
get to the roadside parking and then walk
up to the crag.
• I started with the website wcmc.info –
West Cumbria Mountaineering Club, they
also have a Ning

3. This is the meet that
interested me –
Wallowbarrow crag,
Duddon, Newfield Inn,
Seathwaite.

4. Sat Nav
• The Satellite Navigation works by touching
the screen and entering a place, postcode
or address; we tried Duddon, Newfield Inn
and then Seathwaite [Cumbria].
• The Sat Nav calculated the route and then
started giving instructions

5. The readout from the GPS on the
windscreen
Next turning 0.25 miles
Total journey time 47 mins
Speed = Stationary
Arrival Time - 1758
Distance 21.6 miles

6. Problems occurred ‘en route’
Two diversions were passed
and some care needs to be
taken if it directs you down a
closed road.
There is a facility for finding
alternatives and avoiding
particular roads but this is
where some of the problems
with large lorries on small
tracks and narrow bridges
have occurred.
It is worth checking
signposts also as you travel.

7. The Sat Nav was directing us onto
the A595 but ahead traffic flows
were quite heavy for West
Cumbria. We decided to turn right
thorough Beckermet ignoring the
instructions and travelling parallel
to the main road.

8. Why heavy flows?
The Sellafield Nuclear
Power station ahead is
the main employer in the
area and at twenty past
five the traffic leaving
the site was quite heavy.
The Sat Nav continuously tried
to send us left back to the
road but we persevered and
were soon through the village
and back on the A595 below
the nuclear plant.

9. Back on the A595 - traffic

10. Normal rural delays
• Although farmers milk
twice daily you rarely
get held up as their
routine is known and
most are happy to
wait. The early
morning milk is
missed by most…
• What delays do you
experience on the
way to work/school?

11. • Eventually we were
through Eskdale and
following good
instructions up and
over the open
countryside of Birker
Fell.
• With few choices the
Sat Nav makes good
decisions

12. • We approach the village
of Seathwaite and park The end is near
beside the road

13. Tools available
• I had grid reference
for the crag so we
took 1:25 000 map,
Sat Nav and GPS
with us.
• Before starting the
walked journey I
turned on the GPS
tracking so that it
would follow the
route.

14. Following
• The Nav provided an
arrow in relationship to
the River Duddon but little
else; a Lat and Long
location can be extracted
also
• The hand held GPS gives
you a much better current
location and can record
speed, location and in
this case altitude.
• It continually stores this
data so that you can
download it afterwards.

15. At the crag few climbers were to be seen so we
Climbers?
persevered on our walk looping around to
return to the car about two hours later.
Interesting features were tagged and added as
way marks such as this rock

16. • The data was downloaded from
the GPS to PC initially in the
supplied Garmin Software. This
Back at Base
gives the shape of the journey Notice the variety of data recorded
[line data from a series of points] and that some points have been
and also the data as a table way marked.

17. This route was
taken by minibus
following a rivers
collection day on
the River Calder
• A variety of different mapping packages
support importing data from GPS units.
This is 1:25 000 mapping from Anquet,
the track is overwritten in green.
Conversely ‘routes can be added on
Choices your PC and then exported up to your
unit for following.

18. Memory Map 1:50
• The whole walk with
way marks was
imported into memory
map and laid over the
1:50 000 mapping
• A profile or cross
section was made of
the route. As you
follow this the cursor
matches your position
on the master map

19. Link to previous location
Detail
• Smaller detailed wanderings can
be extracted using a Print Key
Editor such as Print Key 2000.
• These illustrate the route
deviating along the former river
meander and a newly
established footpath not on our
map [or the memory map]
• The diagonal line is the fly in
from the previously logged
location - Langdale

20. Cross sections
• The cross section of the
map is linked to your
track As you move the
cursor across the profile it
follows the track locating
specific points.
• Elevation data from the
map can be compared
with data from the GPS if
it has barometric
pressure assisting with
identifying anomalies and
changing pressure
systems.

21. Fly through
• Once a track is
completed you can
fly through the
landscape, altering
the vertical interval
to exaggerate the
landscape
features. The
journey can be
paused to illustrate
particular aspects.

22. Comparing Memory
Map and the Garmin
topological map
• By generalising the
cartographic detail on
Ordnance Survey
Very noisy
maps the contours can
be shown in clearer
way.
• This track was made
on a trip up Easedale
Tarn from Grasmere.
• Note haw clear the
hanging valley of Sour
Milk Gill is shown.

23. Grasmere Detail
• With simpler mapping it is
often easier to identify
geographical features;
• Solifluction lobe shown
poorly on 1:25 000 OS
mapping
• Footpath up Hanging
valley indicates the
position of the footpath.
Relief shading also useful.

24. And finally at the end of the walk
A quick check on line indicates that
the Newfield Inn is CAMRA
recommended and one of the
Magnificent Seven, the best pubs in
the area. We often ignore Google as
a GIS, summary next

25. Review
• Sat Nav and GPS are different devices, the latter has
more geographical applications.
• Sat Nav has to be used with some care especially when
road conditions change. Good geographical knowledge
helps with your decision making.
• GPS can be used to collect a variety of good imformation
but quality digital mapping is needed to make better
sense. This can be point, line or area data.
• Different mapping packages produce very different
results. Tracklogs would not connect to the GPS so
despite having this as our primary 1:50 000 maping it
was of little use!
• Google Earth, Census data and Aerial Images sources
digitally all compliment Sat Nav and GPS.

26. Credits
• Text and Images Mark OLLIS
• Ever Faithful helper and standby camera
operator Jacob
• Creative Commons
• www.aberrantbee.com
• Made with the assistance of the beautiful
Cumberland countryside.