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Survey and Cartography Section
of the National Speleological Society
 
CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS
 

2024 NSS Convention

July 1-5 in Sewanee, Tennessee


This is a call for presentations for the Survey and Cartography session at the 2024 NSS Convention. The session provides a good way to tell other cave mappers what you are doing, and to discuss problems related to mapping and cave surveying. Most cave surveyors have either developed useful techniques that may benefit others, or are encountering problems that someone else may have solved. In either case a session presentation would be appropriate.

The session is informal and the audience is friendly. There are no requirements to provide fancy visual aids or to provide a written paper (other than an abstract to include in the Convention’s Program). Most presentations are scheduled for 15-20 minutes, but this is very flexible and can be changed to accommodate the presenter.

The session will probably be on Friday afternoon, July 5.

Presentations can be on any topic related to any aspect of cave mapping, and the material can be for folks with any level of mapping experience.  A partial list of potential presentation topics includes:

•    How to keep cave mud off your survey instruments (while still going into the cave)
•    Tips on the care and calibration of electronic survey instruments
•    How to resolve blunders without another trip to the cave
•    Large project management (personnel, survey standards, data processing, etc.)
•    New tools, toys, or software to aid in mapping or cartography
•    Representing complex vertical caves on a 2-dimensional map
•    Demonstrations of techniques for improving efficiency when drafting maps on a computer
•    Comparison of various programs for survey processing, map drawing, and data visualization
•    Integrating cave survey data with surface and GIS data

The above list is obviously incomplete. If you are doing something that you think would be of interest to other cave surveyors, please consider doing a presentation on it. We are also open to suggestions for topics for an “open discussion” to solicit input from the session attendees.

If you have experience using a BRIC survey instrument please consider doing a presentation on its merits and drawbacks.

The session will be chaired by Carol Vesely. Abstracts can be e-mailed to her at cavesely@gmail.com or mailed to her at 328 Highland Pl, Monrovia CA 91016. Your abstract must be limited to 250 words. Please make it a summary of your conclusions and results, not simply a statement of what you are going to talk about. Also, let Carol how much time you will need for your presentation and whether you need any special equipment.

The deadline for receiving abstracts is April 15, 2024

For questions about the session please contact Carol Vesely at cavesely@gmail.com.

For information about the Cartographic Salon go to caves.org/committee/salons/Cartographic.shtml

Check the convention’s web site, https://caves.org/convention/2024-nss-convention/, for more information about the convention.

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Last updated or validated on March 22, 2024