Land Area Determination

The purpose of this section of the class is to become familiar with the principals of land area determination methods as they are applied to forestry and other natural resource disciplines. The lectures, assignments, and labs in this section, will enable the student to achieve the following learning objectives:

• Know how to pace out a chain and how to do traditional chaining

• Understand the concepts of land surveying and the importance of topographic maps, GIS, and GPS

• Explain the use of a theodolite, compass, and laser rangefinder for determining distances

• Understand  the concept of magnetic declination and Know how to account for it

• Recognize the different tools used in the determination of land area

• Explain the concepts of aspect and slope position

• Explain the concepts of the U.S. Public Land Survey system and be able to Understand public survey data