Any data that you collect using a GPS unit can be brought into AWhere, and viewed in map form via AWhere's 'Import Coordinates' Add-in (if the output of the GPS unit is a table or coordinates and their associated attributes). Some GPS units can actually output a 'shapefile', and a shapefile can be brought into AWhere via the 'Add Map Layer' tool. But, this forum entry is not going to cover bringing in shapefiles, it is going to cover how to import a table of coordinates that you output from your GPS unit.
Depending on the type of GPS unit you have, and/or your expertise at using the GPS unit, you might collect your data with your GPS unit and subsequently map it in AWhere in one of the following ways:
1) Record just the Lat/Long coordinates in the GPS unit, and record your field-observations separately – You might use the GPS unit just to collect the Lat/Long values, and then for collecting the other relevant data at each location (whatever data you are collecting in the field…wildlife observations, household information, whatever)…you might collect that separately, such as entering it into a spreadsheet on a laptop, or by using that old technology that our fore-fathers used…pen and paper J. Regardless of which of the above data collection method you use, you could then bring together the lat/long information from the GPS unit with the observed data that you recorded. Typically, this would mean exporting a table (from the GPS unit) that contains the lat/long info for each location at which you recorded data (along with some unique identifier value for each location…possibly some value that the GPS unit assigned to each set of lat/long coordinates…see first item under ‘Other Tips’ below). Once you have that table exported from the GPS unit and opened into a spreadsheet application like MS Excel, or maybe brought into an MS Access database…you would then need to add/append your recorded/observed data to the corresponding records (lat/long values) in the GPS output table. Thus, in one table, you would now have all of the lat/long coordinates of each location where you recorded data, and you would also have the observed data at each location. Here is an example of what it would look like...in this case, the results of a survey where you took a GPS reading at each location where you conducted the survey. The last three columns represent the 'data you collected' (i.e. what you observed) at each location.
With that table created, you can now import it into AWhere using the ‘Import Coordinates’ Add-in to create a new point map showing your field-work locations.
· Another option for mapping the data, if you go this route (that is, if you record the Lat/Long values separately from the observed data) is to do the mapping this way…you can output the Lat/Long table from the GPS units (again, with each Lat/Long coordinate pair having, at minimum, some unique identifier value (very important!)...thus your table would have only the first three columns in the above sample table. You can then import just that table of Lat/Longs into AWhere to create just a basic point map showing the locations of your observations, but not containing any actual data…yet. Each point location on the map will have just a unique identifier of some sort as its attribute (see 'Other Tips' below). Once you have that point map layer in AWhere, you would then use the ‘Data Connection’ capability in AWhere to connect the point map layer to a spreadsheet containing the actual observed data that you recorded at each location. This spreadsheet would have one record (row) for each lat/long location, and any number of fields/columns of recorded data for each location. At minimum, you would also need to have one column containing that unique identifier value that ties each row in the table to its corresponding point location on the map (i.e. 'Location_ID' in the above sample table)…that field will be the one which you use to establish the linkage between the point map layer and the table. For more on ‘Data Connections’, click here).
2) Record both your Lat/Long coordinates and field observations in the GPS unit – If you have a GPS unit that is capable of recording not only the Lat/Long coordinates, but also which allows you to record your field observation directly into the GPS unit, that would definitely be preferable to the above data recording method, because you are required to do almost no post-field data formatting and cleaning. After your field work is done, the GPS unit can simply output a table that contains the Lat/Long coordinates at each location where you recorded data, and the observed data will already be part of the table since you input the data directly into the GPS at the point of observation (the output table from your GPS unit would look similar to the sample above...little-to-no post-GPS processing needed). You can import that output table directly into AWhere using the ‘Import Coordinates’ Add-In.
Other Tips:
- Assign Unique Identifiers to each recorded Location - For each location where you collect a lat/long, you should establish some system of identifying each location using some unique value…either allow the GPS unit to assign some sort of unique ID value for each location if possible, or come up with a unique coding or numbering system of your own (e.g. a simple number progression (like above), or maybe some sort of alpha-numeric code, (like LOC001, LOC002, LOC003, etc)), or you might use the name of the town or village (if applicable) as the unique identifier value. However, if you do use the location’s name (e.g. town name) as the unique identifier, know that there are circumstances where that might end up being problematic if you are not careful…for example:
o If there are multiple locations that have the same name. Consider this example from Ghana, there are two different locations in Ghana with the name “Jema”...one in the north and one in the south. Say you happen to go to both of those locations named 'Jema' to collect data, you would not want to uniquely identify both as just ‘Jema’…you would want to identify the locations as something like ‘Jema_North’ and ‘Jema_South’.
o Or, if you gather data from multiple (say, 3) locations within the same town or general area around a town (e.g. Taos)…you could not give all 3 of those location the unique identifier “Taos”…you would want to name them, maybe, ‘Taos01’, ‘Taos02’, and ‘Taos03’; again, so as to maintain some sort of unique identification attribute for each and every location where you collect a set of lat/long coordinates. This is critical if you plan to do any data connecting to the resulting map layer...that unique identifier will be required.
Read this forum post for more explanation about the need for Unique Identifiers.
- Output the Lat/Long values in the 'Decimal Degree' format - We suggest that you record and output your Lat/Long values in the 'Decimal Degree' format...practically any GPS unit will allow this format of Lat/Long. 'Decimal Degree' is a pretty standard lat/long coordinate format, and easily recognized by and imported into AWhere.