Doc: Field Documentation

The beesayatv field documentation system records route, connectivity, surface, environmental, and photographic observations during hikes. These records support Trail Reports, the Trail Atlas and its map layers, the offline Trail Atlas App, and the broader field approach described in the Solo Hiking Principles.

  • Purpose — Collects field observations and measurements to support trail documentation, geographic mapping, and subsequent review.
  • Field recording — Uses the beesayatv Field Logger Android application to capture route data and available measurements during field visits.
  • Data processing — Separates raw observations, calculated outputs, automated suggestions, and reviewer-applied classifications.
  • Publication — Selected and reviewed records can be incorporated into public Trail Reports and Trail Atlas layers.

1. GPS Route Recording

  • Location updates — Requests high-accuracy GPS updates approximately every 5–8 seconds.
  • Accepted route points — Records latitude, longitude, and timestamp, together with device-reported altitude and location accuracy when available.
  • Route construction — Uses accepted GPS points to form the recorded route for subsequent review.
  • Data quality — Applies acceptance rules to reduce the influence of invalid or unreliable location readings.

2. GPS Point Filtering

  • Coordinate validation — Rejects points with invalid coordinates.
  • Accuracy validation — Rejects points with missing or invalid accuracy information, or reported accuracy above 200 metres.
  • Timestamp validation — Rejects points with stale timestamps.
  • Movement validation — Rejects points associated with implausible movement speeds.
  • Interpretation — These rules are data-quality acceptance criteria, not a guarantee of route precision or positional accuracy.

3. Distance and Elevation

  • Route distance — Accumulates distance between accepted GPS points.
  • Altitude observations — Exports altitude when supplied by the device.
  • Elevation profiles — Trail Reports can display elevation profiles derived from route data.
  • Elevation gain — Maintains the displayed elevation-gain value separately from the logger’s raw altitude observations.
  • Measurement limitation — GPS-derived distance and device-reported altitude are subject to measurement error and should be interpreted accordingly.

4. Start, Finish, and Route Sections

  • Route endpoints — Allows reviewers to select start and finish points from an imported route.
  • Selected section — Defines a review section independently of the full recorded GPS track.
  • Review cells — Divides the selected route section into 25-metre cells for further analysis.
  • Independent records — Retains the full recorded route separately from the selected section used for review.

5. Trail Surface Documentation

  • Manual surface labels — Allows field observations to include manually recorded surface classifications.
  • Automated suggestions — Generates draft surface suggestions using movement-related signals, including walking speed and step timing.
  • Review cells — Associates surface evidence with 25-metre route cells.
  • Surface classifications — Supports Paved, Unpaved, Trail, and Unclassified labels during review.
  • Editorial review — Allows reviewers to apply or revise classifications based on the available evidence.
  • Surface segments — Merges reviewed cells into surface segments used for trail summaries and map layers.
  • Canonical Surface Network — Supports the curated representation of physical paths in the web-based Trail Atlas, reducing duplicate overlapping tracks from multiple Field Sessions.

6. Cellular and LTE Observations

  • Connectivity records — Can include timestamp, coordinates, GPS accuracy, altitude, route distance, service state, network type, signal strength, signal level, operator, and subscription information.
  • Sampling interval — After the first valid observation, considers new samples approximately every five minutes.
  • Movement requirement — Saves subsequent samples only after meaningful movement.
  • Location quality — Poor-quality location observations can be excluded from the public Trail Atlas.
  • Field evidence — Records connectivity conditions observed during a survey rather than providing a live cellular coverage service.

7. Connectivity Processing and Display

  • Observation consolidation — Consolidates published connectivity observations using factors such as coverage class, operator, network type, and nearby position.
  • Service states — The Trail Atlas can distinguish service, no-service, and emergency-only observations.
  • Trail Report summaries — Can display a calculated connectivity-presence percentage based on the selected survey data.
  • Summary interpretation — Connectivity percentages summarize recorded observations and do not directly measure the proportion of the entire route with coverage.
  • Publication review — Allows connectivity records to be filtered for quality before public display.

8. GNSS and Field Telemetry

  • Sampling interval — Records best-effort field telemetry approximately every 10 seconds when supported by the device.
  • Location quality — Can include GPS accuracy and other location-quality information.
  • GNSS diagnostics — Can include GNSS status, visible and used satellites, and satellite signal values.
  • Motion and steps — Can include movement-related sensor readings and step information.
  • Orientation — Can include device orientation readings.
  • Environmental measurements — Can include ambient-light readings.
  • Device status — Can include battery state.
  • Surface suggestions — Can include current automated surface suggestions.
  • Publication limitation — Most telemetry is retained for analysis and is not automatically published in the Trail Atlas or Trail Reports.

9. Shade and Canopy-Related Analysis

  • Ambient-light recording — Associates readings from the device’s ambient-light sensor with route review cells.
  • Baseline comparison — Compares local light readings with nearby or session-level baselines.
  • Draft shade classifications — Can generate Exposed, Partial, or Good shade suggestions.
  • Inferred output — Treats these classifications as light-based estimates of shade conditions.
  • Canopy limitation — Ambient-light readings are not direct measurements of forest canopy density.
  • Editorial review — Draft classifications are intended to assist interpretation rather than replace field verification.

10. Visual Evidence

  • Optional photography — Supports private photo capture during field recording when camera permission and an available front camera are present.
  • Route association — Links captured photographs to accepted route points.
  • Capture constraints — Limits captures using both route distance and elapsed time.
  • Supporting evidence — Allows imported photographs to support administrative review and interpretation.
  • Publication limitation — Captured photos are not automatically published to the public Trail Atlas.

11. Points of Interest

  • Independent POI records — Stores field-documented points of interest separately from Field Logger recordings.
  • POI information — Records coordinates, category, title, and optional notes.
  • Trail context — Displays contextual POIs near a selected route in the Trail Atlas.
  • GPX export — Can include contextual POIs as GPX waypoints.
  • Data separation — POIs are documented independently and are not automatically generated from Field Logger data.

12. Session Export and Import

  • GPX route — Exports the recorded GPS track.
  • Connectivity CSV — Exports cellular and connectivity observations.
  • Route-surface CSV — Exports route-surface data.
  • Field-telemetry CSV — Exports available telemetry records.
  • Session manifest — Includes session information and file hashes.
  • Photo metadata — Can include photo-related metadata when applicable.
  • WordPress import — Supports importing session files into WordPress for review.
  • Surface data export — Allows reviewed surface segments to be exported as structured data.
  • Trail and POI export — Supports exporting published trail routes and nearby contextual POIs as GPX.

13. Trail Atlas Integration

  • Trail Reports — Uses reviewed route data and selected measurements to support trail documentation.
  • Trail route layers — Presents documented hiking routes in the web-based Trail Atlas.
  • Connectivity layers — Displays published connectivity observations at their recorded geographic positions.
  • Surface Network — Uses reviewed physical surface segments to represent paths and roads.
  • Contextual POIs — Adds independently documented geographic features around trail routes.
  • Offline Atlas — Supports the offline Android app through the datasets incorporated into its exported atlas bundle.
  • Dataset limitations — Not every field record or web-based feature is automatically available in the offline app. Availability depends on the datasets and display functionality implemented in the current bundle and application.

14. Measured, Calculated, and Inferred Data

beesayatv distinguishes between raw field observations and the outputs derived from them.

  • Raw observations
    • Accepted GPS locations and timestamps.
    • Device-reported altitude and location accuracy.
    • Cellular and network fields.
    • GNSS status and satellite information.
    • Motion, step, and orientation readings.
    • Ambient-light and battery readings.
    • Optional photographic evidence and associated metadata.
  • Calculated outputs
    • Accumulated route distance.
    • Route review cells.
    • Consolidated connectivity observations.
    • Summary values derived from recorded samples.
    • Elevation profiles and other route summaries derived from available route data.
  • Inferred outputs
    • Draft surface classifications based on movement-related signals.
    • Draft shade classifications based on ambient-light readings.
    • Other automated suggestions derived from recorded field evidence.

15. Review and Publication

  • Reviewer-applied classifications — Maintains a distinction between classifications assigned during review and automated suggestions.
  • Evidence evaluation — Allows recorded measurements and photographs to be considered during editorial review.
  • Unpublished telemetry — Does not automatically treat raw telemetry as public trail data.
  • Draft shade classifications — Remain analytical suggestions rather than confirmed canopy measurements.
  • Visual evidence — Remains separate from public map content until reviewed and incorporated into the appropriate publication workflow.
  • Public documentation — Uses selected and reviewed information in Trail Reports and Trail Atlas layers.

Documentation Principle

The beesayatv field documentation system is designed to record conditions encountered during fieldwork and preserve the evidence needed for later interpretation.

  • Measurements are observations, not automatic conclusions.
  • Calculated values depend on the quality and coverage of the recorded samples.
  • Automated surface and shade classifications remain suggestions until reviewed.
  • GPS and connectivity observations have practical measurement limitations.
  • Public trail information is subject to field verification and editorial review.
  • The Trail Atlas presents reviewed geographic information, while the offline app displays only the datasets supported by its current atlas bundle.