Data Collection

     Our data was collected from different sources and in different formats. Data that was used included ArcView shapefiles of two different development arrangements, AutoCAD drawings of current and proposed structures, orthophotos of current SFU structures, campus maps, source photos for viewshed analysis, and some field work using a hand held GPS.

• The SFU Dataset was originally provided by SFU Facilities Management in AutoCAD .dwg format. This dataset was used in a previous Geography 452 project, where it was converted into ArcView shapefile format. The data was given to us in shapefile format, but needed a lot of work in terms of georeferencing and projection, which posed a problem when we tried to overlay data from other sources. Redigitizing some of the polygons was necessary to accommodate for missing, partially completed, and duplicated polygons. This dataset included buildings, roads and fields.

• Orthophotos of the SFU area were also provided by Facilities Management.

• Two different proposed development arrangements were given to us: the ArcView shapefile, and in the data above. These proposed developments were created by the Hotson Bakker Architects and IBI Group.

• AutoCAD drawings of current buildings, roads, fields, parking lots, as well as proposed buildings, roads, trees, fields, etc. were supplied to us by the Ramsey Worden and Hunter Laird architects. These .dwg files were edited, reprojected, and converted into ArcView shapefiles used in our final layout.

• Campus maps were obtained from SFU Campus Security and were used for reference when redigitizing buildings to maintain accuracy of in terms of location and identification. Building names were also obtained from the printed SFU campus map.

• Over 300 digital photographs were collected for the viewshed sites. They were later stitched together for the Quick Time Virtual Reality 360º display. This data collection required a day of fieldwork. Group members went to twenty-two selected points around the campus and collected images with a digital camera. Approximately 12-16 images were acquired at each site to produce a 360º panoramic view of each location in QTVR. We used a 40-50% overlap to be certain all images could be stitched together. A handheld Global Positioning System made by Garmin (model GPS 12) was used to record positional location for each site. Latitude and longitude coordinates, along with elevation were recorded electronically so it could be used in the attribute table of each location. Although positional accuracy is dithered approximately 10 meters by the United States government, it offers the GIS user a good point of reference if other coordinates will be used.