GRDM—A digital field-mapping tool for management and analysis of field geological data

Abstract

Field geological observations have both spatial and non-spatial aspects and recording them directly on a personal computer using a digital mapping tool has become a practical and effective alternative to traditional methods of field data collection and mapping. This paper presents the design of a cost-effective, stand-alone digital field-mapping tool named GRDM that caters to special requirements of field-based studies concerned with spatial disposition of the statistics of field measurements. Such studies require recording multiple observations for individual attributes at each field location to capture the inter-site variability and automatic computation of their statistics. Field observations include directional data that are circular in nature. Therefore, computation of their exclusive statistics within the field system is also necessary. To meet these requirements, GRDM was designed for field personnel lacking expertise in customizing a GIS. Its design automatically accommodates a list of values for each non-spatial attribute attached to individual location points and generates statistics from the lists. The system treats the orientation values as a distinct numeric data type and computes circular statistics for them. It makes both the original data as well as their statistics simultaneously available for extraction of thematic information.