Armed with infrared satellite photos and GPS units, Ball State University students are helping farmers and Delaware County officials locate long-forgotten drainage tiles in Indiana fields. "The old way was to drill down at various points in a field until you found tiles," said Paul Shanayda, Ball State's geographic information system (GIS) coordinator. "This new technology pinpoints the tiles and may provide answers to landowners as to why an area keeps flooding."

Students majoring in geography with an emphasis on geographic information processing and mapping will work in conjunction with the Delaware County Soil and Water Conservation District (DCSWC) to provide a seamless map of Delaware County before the summer is over.

The map will help benefit farmers and county officials by identifying areas that continually flood due to broken or cut tiles.

DCSWC officials had the images and approached Shanayda to see if he could put them into a useable format. Using GIS software, Shanayda and his students are cleaning up the images and working to create a single map that can easily be subdivided into useful, bite-size sections, Shanayda said.

Going into the fields with GPS units in hand, the students can show farmers exactly where the tiles are and indicate the damaged areas.

"The students are getting hands-on training that they need to step from the classroom and into their careers," Shanayda said. "It's a perfect coupling of real-world applications and theory."

The project is funded by DCSWC, Ball State's Office of Academic Research and Sponsored Programs, and the university's Building Better Communities (BBC) initiative.

BBC is designed to spur economic development and quality of life advancement in Indiana by applying Ball State's strengths in applied research and hands-on learning to projects across the state. Building Better Communities works to match the university's expertise and resources to the varied needs of Indiana communities.