1. NEW METHODS FOR DIGITIZING
HISTORIC MINE MAPS
BY RACHAEL GRUBE, MICHAEL HEWITT,
GAVIN PELLITTERI & GABBY ZAWACKI

2. ABOUT THE PROGRAM
• Funded through a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection
• Purpose: to create a digital, public-access database of
underground mine workings that Pennsylvania residents can use to
obtain mine subsidence insurance.
• Maps come from the Wilkes-Barre and Pottsville DEP offices as
well as a number of private collections.

3. HTTP://WWW.MINEMAPS.PSU.EDU/

4. HTTP://WWW.PHUMMIS.PA.GOV

5. EQUIPMENT AND TASKS
• Scanning
• Colortrac Smart LF Scanners
• 42 inch
• 56 inch
• Smartworks Pro
• Scale of 400 DPI
• Geo-referencing, Mosaicking, Vectorizing
• ESRI’s ArcMap version 10.4.1 or ArcGIS Pro
• PASDA (Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access)
• Surface image layer

6. SCANNING
• Initial Scan
• Check for Errors
• Rotate
• Deskew
• Mirror (if necessary)
• Look for Title

7. TYPES OF MAPS: UNDERGROUND MINE MAPS
• Screenshot of umm

8. TYPE OF MAP: SURFACE MAPS

9. TYPE OF MAP: CROSS SECTIONS
• Screenshot of cross section

10. TYPE OF MAP: PLANS

11. GLEANING INFORMATION FROM THE MAP
We usually look for:
• Colliery
• Coal Company
• Coal Vein Name
• Coal Field
• County, Municipality, Quadrangle
• Scale
• Map Date

12. PHUMMIS
• Information
about map
could be on tag
or back of map
• Phummis allows
us to keep track
of all map data

13. GEOREFERNCING
• Bring desired file into ArcMap
• Find a point on the map that can be matched up with a point on
the PASDA surface image layer
• Create first “control point”
• Continue until 4 control points have been placed
• Residuals must be under 5.0

14. DRAG IMAGE FILE
INTO ARCMAP
• ArcGIS does not know
where to place an
image file with no
location information
• Here it shows up in
Santo Domingo,
Equador

15. FINDING GEOREFERENCING
POINTS
• Use info found when scanning
(colliery name, county,
municipality, etc.)
• Use ESRI basemap to find
general location
• PASDA imagery to match
features
• Effective georeferencing features
• Buildings
• Road crossings
• Bridges
• Grid system

16. GRID SYSTEM
• Compilation of the grid
systems from multiple
collieries
• Each colliery has its own
grid system
• Sometimes surface features
were only drawn on the
surface map in a set- must
use grids in these cases

17. FIRST CONTROL
POINT
• Snaps the map to the
correct area
• Jessup, PA

18. SECOND CONTROL
POINT
• Rotates the map

19. THIRD CONTROL
POINT
• Brings the map to
the correct scale

20. FOURTH CONTROL
POINT
• Reduces residual
error

21. CHECKING
RESIDUALS
• Residual: the difference
between the location of a
feature on the aerial
imagery and the location
of a feature on the
georeferenced map
• Residuals must be less
than 5

22. CREATING A MOSAIC
• Quilt-like
visualization of
mined out areas
• Choose best
maps for each
vein of coal
(clearest maps
with the most
information

23. • Each mosaic consists
of a set of footprints
• Each footprint
encompasses the
most useable section
of a particular map
• More info at
arcgis.com

24. VECTORIZING
• Mark shafts, drifts, and slopes
• Only if they reach the surface
• Draw a polygon around the underground mining area
• Cut out large areas that are not mined (doughnuts)
• Mark coal elevation points

25. Slope Drift
Marking slopes, drifts and shafts

26. Shafts

27. Elevation points

28. Trace the mined out
area on the map

29. Example of mine
workings traced for
multiple veins

30. Finished product
• Mine workings, mine
openings, and elevation
points are all vectorized
• As mosaics are
completed, we will be
digitizing the mine
workings in an entire
topographic quadrangle
at a time

31. Visit http://www.dep.state.pa.us/MSIHomeowners/
to find out more about the state Mine Subsidence
Insurance program

32. Questions?