INVESTING IN YOUR LAND

with

Keyline Designs

Sustainable development planning for every farm be it large or small.

Options for assessing the development potential of your land

Remote assessment options - based on supplied topographic maps

Remote assessment at Keyline Designs is usually based on topographic (contour) maps. Aerial photographs may be very helpful and climatic data such as rainfall records also aid the process.

Clients often post or email scans of this information to Keyline Designs for an initial assessment. These can be developed into a preliminary development proposal. When maps are submitted, the results of the assessment are usually discussed via the telephone. Clients are requested to keep copies of the their maps for use during this discussion. Typed reports and printed plans will be produced if required.

Many clients like to be present during the design process so they can be actively involved in the design process. If this is you then simply make an appointment to visit Keyline Designs for a personal consultation. Some clients combine Keyline consultations with a holiday at Surfers Paradise on Queensland's Gold Coast where Keyline Designs is based. (The Gold Coast is the east coast tourist capital of Australia.)

The consultation may start with an initial assessment and verbal report , of the development potential. An initial Keyline assessment of topographic map may take as little as an hour.

Further assessment of the supplied maps will result in a preliminary water resource development proposal . Such a proposal will usually include: volume estimates for the most significant earthworks, the storage capacities of dams and some cost estimates. The accuracy of these figures depends upon the precision, scale and contour interval of the topographic maps used. To create a preliminary development proposal takes around six (6) hours. Various factors influence the time required to produce a preliminary development proposal, including for example, the area under consideration and the shapes and forms of the landscape.

Keyline Designs services are charged at standard rates (see below) and payments are made at the time by either credit card, cash or cheque.

An "off-the-shelf" topographic map at a scale of 1 in 25,000 showing contours at 5 metres (1 in 24,000 with 20 feet contours) is a suitable map upon which to base either an initial assessment or preliminary development proposal. Smaller scale maps may not reveal significant options and are less precise. However even maps at a scale of 1 in 100,000 with a contour interval of twenty metres (over 50 feet) can provide very useful information and be quite indicative of the general potential of the landscape.

If your land is in the U.S.A. suitable topographic maps are available on the internet. Go to www.TopoZone.com and use the search facility to find the 1 in 24,000 scale topographic map of your locality. Once you have the map centred on your land send me the web browser address shown for that map and we can proceed from there.

Keyline Mapping Service

Larger scale maps with closer contour intervals are preferable for planning. Keyline Designs Mapping Service can coordinate the production of true to scale, contoured aerial photo-maps. These have closer contour intervals than off the shelf government maps. For example areas covered by Government topographic maps showing 10 metre contours can be re-contoured and overlayed onto current aerial photos with new form line contours at two metre intervals. These contoured photo-maps are ideal for whole farm planning.
Click here for more information on Keyline Mapping Service