Base Mapping and Water Analysis

ByKasey Marshall

Base Mapping Process

• Used Metric scale (both country of residence and country of homestead use metric system)

• Grid paper size of standard A3 – 42cm x 30xcm• Scale used for full homestead base mapping of

approximately 57 acres is a 1 to 2500 scale• Meaning 1 cm on paper = 25 m on the ground• Using Bane, chapter 5, I spent a lot of time thinking

about the future vision of the mapping since my homestead is really a ‘blank slate’ – This involved dividing the land into different zones

Land Survey

Major Features• Working with a real ‘blank slate’ • The only major feature is a fully completed house and

driveway.• A 100 ft well is present on the property. It comes up into the

technical room attached to the house• Downspouts are present on the gutters of the house, but

leave much room for water capture improvement• No major plants or trees exist on the property

Major Features Details

• Current House site - 1.6 acres• Current drive way – 4.3 m x 100m• Drainage ditch (property line) – 3m x 959m• Seasonal drainage creek – 1m x 500m• Front drainage culvert – 3m x 774m

Lessons Learned Base Map• There is no substitute for walking the land• As I have only walked the house site for this land on initial inspection most of my

work has been through documents provided by the seller and using Google Earth Pro tools

• My next site visit is February 4, 2016. Though I would love to have been able to walk the site for this assignment it is located in Winnipeg, Canada and I am in Hamois, Belgium.

• I learned that the house site is far bigger than needed so land from the back will be able to be recouped or repurposed for other uses

• A major challenge when planning for a site this big is the vastness of it. The urge to put features close to the house is desirable and also undesirable at the same time.

• I also learned that what I thought I wanted to do as a priority list may be changing with the more I learn. It seems the planning and then re planning based of increased knowledge will be paramount in this project.

Base Map with Water flows

Time Lapse Sots of Property

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Water Analysis

• Land is primarily flat with a very slight slope (1%) from East to West and from South to North

• Drainage ditches are present on three sides of the property directing any overflows into municipal use areas as current use of land is commercial farming

• A seasonal drainage stream is present on the property and flows into one of the drainage ditches naturally

• No standing water or natural wetlands are present at any time

Lessons Learned Water Analysis• I learned the precipitation levels were lower than I expected but

due to the type of sediments and bedrock the water flows through the ground at a high rate of speed thus require large drainage ditches

• The water flows the opposite way I would have thought• Since the property is currently used as part of a commercial

farming operation any standing water or water shed issues have already been resolved.

• I also learned from talking with the local surveyors office that the land has been designed this way to avoid standing water as they have a very high incidence of flies and mosquitos during summer that cause an issue if standing water if present.

Detailed weather and precipitation

Water Management Techniques• Bane, pg 83, talks about uses for Greywater. As the current home has

non-purposeful use for the greywater it produces I would like to modify it to capture the greywater for the watering of the tress we plan to plant

• An effective septic field as viewed in one of the YouTube presentations presents an interesting challenge to clean and use the water that comes from the septic tank in a seamless manner. Becoming more aware of everything that goes down our drain will be important

• My last point may seem like common sense, but going from a municipal water system to a well water system will mean using water more economically in order to accommodate the refresh time and ensure never running out of water. Banes speaks to this point on pg 171 where he also calls in other water capture such as downspouts which I was aware of from last week.

Conclusion• I believe this site is the perfect canvas for what I want to ultimately create. I

am very excited to be looking at it from many different angles in this course in order to better get to know the land from another point of view.

• The fact that the main activities on the land will be equestrian use, pasture, hay production and goat meat production gives lots of leeway into the use. It has a total of 55 useable acres to develop which also adds to the ease and contributes to the conundrum of flexibility it presents

• Adding other elements: such as, barns, shelters, pastures, paddocks, gardens, trees, berry bushes, landscaping, etc… to the homestead to support both our family and principle activities will be a major consideration in the overall design.

• I look forward to creating a usable, efficient design that is both aesthetically and functional while being sustainable at the same time. Zero water is the goal in everything we will do.