GIS and Surveying Technologies Used to Map Plants at the Desert Botanical Garden:

How Does the Collector App Fit In?

Veronica NixonGIS SpecialistDesert Botanical Garden-Phoenix, AZ

Mapping approach Accuracy SpeedTechnical Accessibility

Environmental Robustness

Budget Friendliness

Overall Score

Collector App * *** ** *** ** **

Digitize Orthophotograph * *** ** * *** **

Survey GPS *** *** ** * * **

Survey GPS + laser range finder ** ** ** *** * **

Total station *** * * *** * **

Sketch & digitize * - *** *** *** **

Two-tape method ** * *** *** *** **

UAS * * * - ** *

Ground-based LiDAR *** * - - - *

Mapping approach Accuracy SpeedTechnical Accessibility

Environmental Robustness

Budget Friendliness

Overall Score

Collector App * *** ** *** ** **

Digitize Orthophotograph * *** ** * *** **

Survey GPS *** *** ** * * **

Survey GPS + laser range finder ** ** ** *** * **

Total station *** * * *** * **

Sketch & digitize * - *** *** *** **

Two-tape method ** * *** *** *** **

UAS * * * - ** *

Ground-based LiDAR *** * - - - *

Mapping approach Accuracy SpeedTechnical Accessibility

Environmental Robustness

Budget Friendliness

Overall Score

Digitize Orthophotograph * *** ** * *** **

Digitize Orthophotograph

Pros• Don’t have to leave your desk…

• Quickest way to map visible plants…

• 4” resolution…

• Can be performed by non-GIS staff and volunteers

• Annual donation from the county

Cons• Don’t get to leave your desk

• Most plants not visible

• Only 5’ accuracy

Mapping approach Accuracy SpeedTechnical Accessibility

Environmental Robustness

Budget Friendliness

Overall Score

Survey GPS *** *** ** * * **

TopCon GRS-1 controller

TopCon PGA1 RTK antenna

Survey GPS

Pros

• 400 plants mapped on best day

• Sub-centimeter accuracy provided by free local base station

Cons

• No GPS signal under landscape structures and cacti

• Very difficult to see screen in bright sunlight

• Not volunteer-friendly

• $7,000 - $16,000

• Survey GPS - $16,000

• TruPulse 360B Laser Range Finder - $1,200

• Umbrella on 110° day –Priceless!

Mapping approach Accuracy SpeedTechnical Accessibility

Environmental Robustness

Budget Friendliness

Overall Score

Survey GPS + laser range finder

** ** ** *** * **

Survey GPS + Laser Range Finder

Pros

• 1-foot accuracy

• Works where there is no GPS signal available

Cons• Very difficult to see screen in

bright sunlight

• Very difficult to teach volunteers

• Requires two people

• $17,000+

Mapping approach Accuracy SpeedTechnical Accessibility

Environmental Robustness

Budget Friendliness

Overall Score

Total station *** * * *** * **

Insert photo of Dylan with total station.

Total Station

Pros

• Most accurate

• Can map everywhere you can’t get a GPS signal

Cons

• Heavy equipment

• Takes a long time to set up

• Two-person job

• $12,000

Mapping approach Accuracy SpeedTechnical Accessibility

Environmental Robustness

Budget Friendliness

Overall Score

Sketch & digitize * - *** *** *** **

Sketch & Digitize

Pros

• Easy to read paper maps outdoors

• Easy to train new volunteers and staff

Cons

• Hard to read mark-ups/prone to error

• Extra step to transfer notes into computer

• Requires pre-mapped landmarks

Mapping approach Accuracy SpeedTechnical Accessibility

Environmental Robustness

Budget Friendliness

Overall Score

Two-tape method ** * *** *** *** **

Known location

Known location

(Right 3.5’, Down 2.5’)

Two-Tape Method

Pros• Can be used anywhere

• Volunteer-friendly

• Practically free

Cons• Tape measure often

blocked/bent by intervening plants

• A lot of potential for human error when reading and recording measurements

Mapping approach Accuracy SpeedTechnical Accessibility

Environmental Robustness

Budget Friendliness

Overall Score

UAS * * * - ** *

+ GoPro HERO3

DJI Phantom Quadcopter

+ Gimbal$2,000

+ Ground station

Unmanned Aerial Systems

Pros

• Beautiful, high-resolution images

• Capture images from multiple angles

• Fairly inexpensive

• Fun to operate!

Cons• Subject to airspace regulations by local

airports

• Cannot operate over guests

• Steep learning curve

• Requires pre-mapped and flagged control points

• Could not georeference images with enough accuracy to map plants

• Danger of collision with buildings and plants

Mapping approach Accuracy SpeedTechnical Accessibility

Environmental Robustness

Budget Friendliness

Overall Score

Ground-based LiDAR *** * - - - *

Ground-based LiDAR

Pros

• Creates an incredibly spatially detailed representation of your plants

• Can be calibrated to measure the health of plants

Cons

• Prohibitive number of set-ups needed to scan all plants in a garden due to the obstructive nature of plants

• Prohibitive time and cost to extract plant locations from LAS dataset

Mapping approach Accuracy SpeedTechnical Accessibility

Environmental Robustness

Budget Friendliness

Overall Score

Collector App * *** ** *** ** **

Collector App

Pros

• 18-month inventory3-week inventory!

• Able to take our whole plant database + GIS into the garden

• Has the potential to radically speed up and improve the way we inventory our plant collections…

• ‘Digital native’ volunteers love it!...

• You can map where there is no GPS, cell phone, or wi-fi reception.

Cons

• No dynamic labels

• 10-ft iPad GPS accuracy

• Would important aspects of the inventory process be compromised by radically speeding it up?

• Older staff and volunteers are hesitant.

• You can only map where you have sufficient accurate landmarks already mapped or where the aerial photo is sufficient.

• iPads are terrible in bright sunlight.

• I can never seem to select a feature on the first tap.

We get a lot of mileage out of our plant map.

• Allows us to quickly locate plants for research

• May significantly improves our plant inventory work

• Allows us to conserve plants during landscape transformations and exhibit installations

• May support an app to enable a visitor to ID any plant they see in the Garden

Thank you

Veronica NixonGIS SpecialistDesert Botanical Garden-Phoenix, AZ