OpenStreetMap
Mapping coastlines from Kayak
Posted by emj on 29 August 2011 in English. Last updated on 31 August 2011.So I've had this dream for three years to map coastlines with kayak, I've come up with many concepts but they are all very hard to implement. The biggest problem is that coast lines are very long if you are going to map every little detail, and you can't kayak that close to the coast all the time (it would make me crazy
So how do I do it?
Discussion
Comment from liftarn on 29 August 2011 at 13:55
Well, how much detail do you think is necessary? Set your level of amition and then work it out from there.
Comment from chriscf on 30 August 2011 at 04:55
I would suggest that actually the biggest problem is that coastlines are generally taken to be high water, which implies that for anywhere with a tidal beach the bit you want is not usually covered in water. That might pose a problem for the kayak. ;-)
Comment from z-dude on 30 August 2011 at 07:13
You might want to consider mapping the spots that you'd want to share with friends, or interesting spots.
ie.. if you know of a ghost town along the coast, or know where the lost city of atlantis is.. it'd be fun to map.
Comment from emj on 30 August 2011 at 07:39
@crishcf: well I live in Sweden known for its long coastline and many islands, but I've never experience tidal effects here. Apparently the >Gulf of bothnia tidal effects< are very small, because of the narrow strait connecting us with the North Sea. So max ~20cm in amplitude, but that's in the strait
@liftarn, @alexz: I want better quality than commercial map. But alexz made think that that probably means adding data about the coastlines, not mapping the to a 2 cm precision..
So perhaps I should map, the beach/coast area. So 1. how is the water leading up to the beach (rocks/sand etc) 2. how is the waterfront of the beach 3. what is there after you make landfall.
Very good advice. Now I won't have to improve my RC boat equipped with GPS anymore..
Comment from srbrook on 30 August 2011 at 15:08
I recently traced a section of coastline from Bing imagery so I didn't map my holiday hotel in the sea. This may be the best way to do coastline now that hi-res imagery is available. However, the coastline was not updated in time to be downloaded to my GPS before I left, so update it in good time before you want to use it, as coastline updates seem to take a while.
Comment from emj on 31 August 2011 at 06:20
Indeed imagery is a good way to trace coastlines. Look at the place linked in the story and you will see where the imagery ends, high res images covers less than 1% of the Swedish coast.