Category Archives: Surveying

Contrasting Cadastral Systems: US Surveyors in Switzerland!

Key takeaways from a U.S. delegation’s examination of the Swiss cadastre. Editor’s note: Wisconsin surveyor Rich Leaver recently organized a delegation of U.S. surveyors to Switzerland on the first of what he hopes to be a series of fact-finding visits to countries with formal national cadastral systems. Leaver’s goal is to examine such systems and...

Digital Twins for Utilities

More and more cities are recognizing the tremendous benefits that a digital twin provides to: its planners, those responsible for operations and maintenance of city infrastructure including utilities, private architects and engineers striving for compliance with city ordinances and by-laws, and the public. Among the elements essential to developing successful digital twins is recognizing that...

What Is South Surveying and Mapping Instrument Co.?

South Surveying and Mapping Instrument Co., LTD. holds a substantial share in the largest single market for such products. Until recently, it was not well known in the Americas; a sleeping giant may be awakening. Years ago, I started seeing South’s booths at trade shows like Intergeo and Conexpo, but in recent years I’ve begun...

Technology to Buy Into: Riding High on AI

Artificial intelligence is making huge waves in the geospatial industry, changing how location information and BIMs are created from big data. Meet three startups at the forefront. (Image above: By applying computer vision to street imagery, Mapillary detects map data at scale.) Startups in the AEC realm have skyrocketed over the last decade. The availability...

George Zhou

Growth from China: an Interview with CHCNAV’s George Zhou

George Zhou has long been a figure in GNSS integration and product development, but he’s best known for founding and growing CHC Navigation from a startup in 2003 to a major global developer and producer of GNSS and geospatial hardware and software. As a follow-up to our November 2019 recap of our recent visit to...

Positively Surveying: A 2020 Vision for Geospatial Professions

I’m imagining a world. It’s not a dream. It’s coming, and soon. One in which we bring data from the field and step into a virtual reality (VR) environment made by our data points that we uploaded to the cloud. Where we’re crafting and sharing our surveys in 3D and real-time, in collaboration with surveyors...