Although some may think the large plastic "X" located in the middle of the green indicates the spot of hidden treasure, the marker is actually in place to aid the creation of a topographical campus map.
The purpose of the map is to "give overall campus planning assistance," said John Gratiot, associate director of Facilities and Planning. He said the map will help plan the new Berry Library that will be built on Elm Street and the new Psychology building, planned for Maynard Street, he said.
A plane will fly over campus sometime today to take aerial photographs of the area, Gratiot said. He said the photographs will then be processed digitally with a computer to create the topographical map.
Due to inaccuracies involved in aerial photography, such as deviations in plane elevation when the photographs are taken, surveyors will also need to do some groundwork to determine an exact scale of distance for the map, Gratiot said.
The positioning of eight or nine markers in strategic locations within and surrounding the mapping site will provide the precise locations of spots on the map to facilitate the measuring of distances by ground surveyors, he said.
According to Gratiot, a process called the "global positioning system" will use satellite technology to get the exact positions of five of the markers within one inch relative to the rest of the world.
The distances between the other markers will be measured by the ground surveyors, he said.
Reed Bergwall, the construction project representative for Facilities and Planning, said "the main benefit of the survey is that it will eliminate inconsistencies between sheet to sheet land survey."
Gratiot said local ground surveyors survey different parts of campus separately, focusing on the middle areas of the region being examined. But the surveys contain inaccuracies when matched up because the border areas do not join precisely, he said.
"With this plan the whole campus will all be done with one digital base with one level of accuracy that covers the whole campus," he said.
T and M Associates, a civil engineering company in Lebanon, N.H., is coordinating the survey, Bergwall said.
Gratiot said the map will cover the area "from the south end of Chase Field over to the river all the way up to the south end of the golf course, and will extend on the east side on Lyme Road up to Reservoir Road past the old hospital."
The survey will cost $50,000 and will cover between 900 and 950 acres of land, he said. "It's a good investment, especially when we have so much planning in the works," he added.
Gratiot said he hopes students will refrain from vandalizing the marker on the Green.
