Category Archives: Surveying
New Heights: Aerial Photography, Aerial Data
A Louisiana company upgrades its aerial photography camera hoping its business will soar Featured image: Looking up into the belly of a Cessna 206 airplane. The camera is looking down through the hole. Infrastructure like bridges (this one in Tampa, Florida), airports and oil and gas pipelines require regular aerial mapping for maintenance, installation and...
Life Lessons in Surveying
In my Field Notes installments the past few years, I have often written from personal experience, partly to share, but also to stimulate the thoughts and memories of our readers. This will be no different, except these are experiences that have extended to life, in general. Early in my career, well it was a summer...
Splitting the Difference at Willeo Road
How a surveyor’s due diligence is paying off for two counties in Georgia When the Survey Division of the Cobb County Department of Transportation in Marietta, Georgia, received a request to locate the exact county line between Cobb and Fulton counties, there was more at stake than just accurately identifying a boundary line. Government funding...
Teaching Roots and Research at the University of the Philippines
One of Southeast Asia’s oldest surveying schools is promoting the use of geospatial technologies and thriving in the digital age. When Louie Balicanta walks inside the high-ceilinged corridors of Malcolm Hall on his way to teach land surveying, he knows how much responsibility rests on his shoulders. Not only is he an assistant professor at...
The Many Facets (and Faces) of Surveying
Surveyors have traditionally done a variety of essential and interesting work—and they continue to do so. We’ve asked surveyors from various work disciplines what inspires them. To get an idea of where we are going, it’s important to stop and take a look at where we have been. This rings especially true for those of...
Datum Epochs, And How to Understand Them
Understanding datum epochs for accurate measurements and locations in dynamic tectonic areas. What are datum epochs? Let’s start at the beginning. “Epoch” is a scientific term used to denote a specific moment or period in time. Land surveying and geodesy use a numerical “epoch” in decimal years to state the moment at which a given...
