Having a problem, need cartography advice.

[Pakanohida]

I am having a serious problem mapping & I do not find Google Maps, or my local council office to be of much help. Nor can I afford to have a survey team come in since it costs $500+

Is it better to just do it freehand and hope things line up later on?

How do I handle dealing with drops in elevation? My property has a huge issue with that with the house area being 180' (60m) above sea level, and the bottom of the property being at river level that leads to the ocean.

Some things I can handle with mapping. Such as I recently did a small mapping of an attached woodshed that is going to become an attached greenhouse, and then slowly 'cobbed' or a strawbale version of a greenhouse will be expanded in this general area.

I should also point out I do not walk very well, and do not have help on the property.

So, with all that said, please give me suggestions on how to accomplish this massive feat.

[eco4560]

Question 1 - why do you need an accurate map?

[Pakanohida]

In order to maximize the use of this property and figure out what I will need over time, as opposed to what I want.

In order to properly put in windbreaks, swales, water retention, water removal like in the storm I am currently having.

In order to also properly design the edge effects, plants, etc. I could go on and on.. the question I pose is why shouldn't I have an accurate map?

[Ludi]

You might be able to get a Soil Survey map which will have topographical elevations on it as well as information about the soils, what the historical climax vegetation was, whether the soil is good for ponds, etc.

Here's a listing of soil surveys available for Oregon: http://soils.usda.gov/survey/printed...Oregon&abbr=OR

[Pakanohida]

Ludi, did you have me try this on the other forum, it looks familiar to me... ..then again it could be the surfing injuries.

I did find some interesting history about the property here. Seems my roads were made by a logging company that my neighbor up the hill used to work for.

[Ludi]

That's quite possible! I found the soil survey to be very helpful. If there isn't a topographical map in existence for your land unfortunately you'll have to make one which is a difficult process without the expensive apparatus of airplanes and/or professional surveyors. There's a lot about surveying in the Designers Manual, if I recall, but surveying requires being quite physically capable. I can't imagine what it would cost to hire someone to do a topographical survey for you - I guess somewhere in the tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the size of the land (my husband guesses between 5 and 10 thousand dollars for 20 acres, but that's just a guess)

[Pakanohida]

Well, according to our government, the road leading to my house is a straight line. I now need to go outside and yell at the multicurved road to straighten out for the sake of the country because we can't afford new maps! In short, I will try and tinker with it again, but it isn't looking promising.

There are some parts of the property that I would not be able to survey even on a good day, heck, I wouldn't want even trained pros to go down some of the steep areas here that lead down to the river. I am starting to think I should just map little areas, keep them all at the same scale, and then slowly put it all together on a wall or something.

The areas unsafe to utilize effectively will just have to be a true wilderness zone.

[Ludi]

The areas unsafe to utilize effectively will just have to be a true wilderness zone.

I think that's a good plan.

[eco4560]

I am starting to think I should just map little areas, keep them all at the same scale, and then slowly put it all together on a wall or something.

I think this is the way to go - you'll get to know your land intimately, which wouldn't happen if you got an aerial map for example. While it's OK to plan on paper, the reality of the land means that you ultimately have to make it work on the land. There are some things that you can't see on a map (like a great big rock just under the surface right where you want to put a corner post for a structure) that will adjust the plan.

[sweetpea]

It does help to have a good map, especially if you're on the side of a hill, which I am. But as the crow flies (like an aerial map) is very different on a hillside than as the foot walks. I have made what I call triangle maps that plot the distances on the side of a hill with one side of the triangle being the sloping ground (A), the second side is a tall pine tree at the bottom of A, (B), and the third side is where the high point of A intersects an imaginary level line to the pine tree, (C). It's kind of like doing an MRI of your property, looking sideways (across a hill) and gauging distances, rather than only using the bird's eye view.

these triangles let you know the real distance, even though the distance of C (as the crow flies) might only be two-thirds of A if it's really steep. I have one steep slope on my place where A is 30 feet long and C is only 20 feet, so when I made a set of stairs there, using the 20-foot regular bird's-eye-view map measurement would have been a mistake. I would have been short 10 feet of stairs, plus with the triangle measurements I had the drop in elevation correct, which is part of the math of stairs.

I stand at a distance and picture how many lengths of PVC pipe it would take to cover the distances. I think in terms of 10' pieces of PVC pipe. I lay out several lengths of 1/2" PVC pipe on a flat surface nearby to check back and forth what I'm eyeballing. Or if I've got access to the hillside I connect the PVC pipes down the length of it, then I can walk in any direction and still see how the PVC line relates to the slope and the other land markers, like fences, trees, boulders, structures, water tanks. All of the lines connecting those things can become triangles that can be noted on a hand-drawn map. I always do hand-drawn maps and judge things by this is half of that, or this is two thirds of that, or this is twice as high as that, so the general proportions can be written down.

Have you seen Google Terrain?

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/200...ogle-maps.html