Survey Transect Calculator

This calculator plans a pedestrian archaeological survey by treating the Survey Area as a square, taking its side length as the square root of the area, and dividing that side length by Transect Spacing to get the Number of Transects (rounded up so the whole area is covered). Because that formula only involves area and spacing, Transect Visibility Width and Walking Speed have no effect on the Number of Transects at all -- they enter later, in how much ground each transect actually samples and how long the fieldwork takes. Ground Coverage is Number of Transects times side length times Transect Visibility Width, divided by the total area and capped at 100%: widening the visibility strip raises coverage directly since more of the ground between transect lines becomes observable, while narrowing the spacing raises coverage by adding more transect lines.

Hours per Surveyor comes from Total Walk Distance divided by Walking Speed and then split across the Number of Surveyors, so a faster crew or more people on the ground both shorten the time estimate proportionally, and Estimated Field Days assumes a fixed six productive hours per person per day. The square-area assumption is a simplification: a real survey block is rarely a perfect square, so Number of Transects and Total Walk Distance here should be treated as a planning estimate to be adjusted against the actual shape and access constraints of the parcel being surveyed, not a substitute for a field-drawn transect layout.