There still needs to be more dialogue between the GIS
industry and the surveying profession so that each group
better understands how cooperation can benefit all parties
“A big challenge is integrating the
surveying profession with the GIS
profession. There’s a growing tension
between them. One of the bridges
that I want to accomplish this year
is integrating the technology so
the surveyors can have tools within
the GIS toolbox that allows it to
create and manage surveys that can
be directly used by the GIS people.
The GIS datasets, in turn, can be
refined based on survey information,
especially transaction based survey.
These two goals are separate
and sometimes they run into a
big conflict about who should do
what. I think I would be technically
directing them and say these
technologies can be synergist. There
is a need to search out surveyors
that want to grow their activities
in the GIS areas and search out GIS
people who want to have a strong
survey inclination.”
Jack Dangermond
President, ESRI
Coordinates, Volume 3
Issue 3, March 2007
When Jack made the above statement
we found ourselves wondering
what other experts, from both sides
of the stated divide, felt about the
matter. We set ourselves the task to
find out. We published a story last
year in June (www.mycoordinates.
org/surveying2007.php).
After a year, we again raised
the same topic and sought the
opinion of some of the experts.
The Value of Land Surveyors
Ten years ago the California Board
for Professional Engineers and Land
Surveyors (BPELS) attempted to pass a set
of rules that required all digital mapping
to be performed by Professional Land
Surveyors. The motivation for these rules
stemmed from the definition of surveying
under the California Professional Land
Surveyors’ Act, which includes specific
reference to digital mapping being
within the purview of the Professional
Land Surveyor. The BPELS at the time
concluded that there were sufficient risks
in the making of digital maps, which if
made incorrectly, could cause damage
to the health and welfare of the public.
The BPELS is made up of 13 members.
Seven of these are public members
(having no professional background
in Engineering or Surveying), five are
licensed Professional Engineers, and
one is a licensed Professional Land
Surveyor. The following history of the
BPELS appears on their web site:
A Brief History of the Board
The California Legislature created the
Board of Registration for Civil Engineers
in 1929, following the failure of the St.
Francis Dam in northern Los Angeles County. On March 12, 1928, the dam,
which was located northeast of Castaic,
suddenly gave way. A huge wall of water
cascaded down the narrow valley of the
Santa Clara River and when the water
hit the town of Santa Paula, almost 50
miles downstream, the crest was still
25 feet high. The dam failure unleashed
12 billion gallons of water through the
towns of Piru, Fillmore, Santa Paula,
and Ventura before it reached the ocean.
Lives lost numbered approximately 450;
property damage was in the millions of
dollars; 1,200 houses were demolished;
and 10 bridges washed out. After the
flood, inspection revealed that the dam
was built on, and anchored to, a weak and
faulted rock formation. The Legislature
determined that the unregulated design of
construction projects constituted a hazard
to the public and passed laws to regulate
civil engineering and to create the Board.
Although Civil Engineers first became
licensed in 1929, Land Surveyors
have been licensed in California since
1891. That was the year the Legislature
established the State Surveyor General.
However, in 1933, the Legislature
abolished that office and enacted the
Professional Land Surveyors’ Act. The
Act expanded the Board’s authority
to include jurisdiction over licensing
of land surveyors and regulation of
surveying practices. …Regulation of
land surveyors brought about uniform
enforcement of survey law and is
in the best interests of the state and
California consumers. (from http://www.
pels.ca.gov/about_us/history.shtml)
The history of BPELS highlights the
need for society to regulate professional
practice and to maintain a minimum
set of standards in order to protect the information from recorded documents,
statutes, case law, and measured evidence
found in the field to arrive at the true
location of legal title boundaries to
real estate. In this text Mr. Gold cites
approximately 550 precedent setting court
cases specific to Texas that have added to
the body of knowledge of how professional
land surveyors should treat conflicting
evidence describing the location of
boundaries to real estate. A similar
body of court cases is slowly mounting
covering mapping and GIS products.
Location on or near the
Surface of the Earth
Of course, the surveyor is also adept and
skilled in the science of measurements
to determine relative location (say
property corners within a subdivision)
and absolute location (say relative to the
national mapping grid). Throughout the
history of land surveying, the science
of locating position on the surface of
the Earth and the measurement of the
size and shape of the Earth (Geodesy) is
well documented and resides within the
domain of the Surveyor and a specialist
surveyor, known as the Geodesist. One
of the first texts on surveying in English,
Geodaesia by John Love, was published
in 1688 in London. The text describes the
reduction of field measurements of angles
and distances by compass and chain,
then using logarithmic and trigonometric
tables to compute boundary locations.
The ancient analogue measuring
instruments used in 1688 have been
replaced by digital measuring systems,
including GPS, digital theodolites (total
stations) with built-in electronic distance
measurement, and digital levels using
bar code reading systems. All these
measurements are data logged and
imported into surveying software and
digital drafting software. The end products
of these digital surveys are easily imported
into GIS software. Much of the surveyor’s
time in both the field and in front of the
computer is spent on making redundant
checks. These built in checks are essential
for the computation of accuracy and
precision using statistical evaluation
software. When results lie outside given tolerances, field measurements are repeated
until the required standards are met.
Most surveyors have exposure to GIS
with some actively using GIS to manage
their own geospatial data. GIS software
vendors are also making life easier for
surveyors to use GIS by incorporating
surveying functionality within GIS (a
good examples is ESRI’s ArcSurvey).
Recent surveying graduates are well
versed in GIS with many university
programs incorporating courses in GIS as
part of the surveying degree curriculum
(for example see http://csci.tamucc.
edu/gisc/). Why is it then that most GIS
enterprises do not involve surveyors?
From background
noise’ to one
of ‘raised
consciousness
Jack’s comments are interesting,
although I would tend to disagree with
his assessment on the current nature
of the ‘tension’. Perhaps it’s just
semantics, but I personally believe that
the ‘tension’ is not so much growing
as it is ‘maturing.’ For example, the
MAPPS lawsuit has ostensibly raised
the tension level, but I wonder if it just
moved the issue from being one of
‘background noise’ to one of ‘raised
consciousness’. As I speak around the
country, which I do on a regular basis,
I think I detect more interest and more
collaboration between the Surveying
and GIS communities than in the past.
Gary R Kent
PLS, Integrated
Services
Director, The
Schneider
Corporation
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“A big challenge is integrating the
surveying profession with the GIS
profession. There’s a growing tension
between them. One of the bridges
that I want to accomplish this year
is integrating the technology so
the surveyors can have tools within
the GIS toolbox that allows it to
create and manage surveys that can
be directly used by the GIS people.
The GIS datasets, in turn, can be
refined based on survey information,
especially transaction based survey.
These two goals are separate
and sometimes they run into a
big conflict about who should do
what. I think I would be technically
directing them and say these
technologies can be synergist. There
is a need to search out surveyors
that want to grow their activities
in the GIS areas and search out GIS
people who want to have a strong
survey inclination.”
From background
noise’ to one
of ‘raised
consciousness