Category Archives: Surveying
What Is CHC Navigation?
One of the largest providers of surveying and geospatial solutions is a company you might have heard very little about. That is about to change. Above: Liao Kai (Leo), Ge Yang Chao, and the author test drive rovers on the CHCNAV roof. In September 2019, I visited the HQ of CHC Navigation (CHCNAV), a company...
MicroSurvey’s Ubiquity
The popular surveying software is evolving to support modern operating systems and dozens of field instrument platforms, and it’s making a lot of friends along the way. Some of the most ubiquitous and pervasive elements of our lives, like smart phones, the web, GPS, and even those omnipresent coffee chains, began as radical ideas. MicroSurvey’s...
4th Wave
In the context of the history of surveying and mapping, the evolution from analog to digital occurred only in the latter half of the 20th century. Since then there have been several distinct “waves” in the development of tools and solutions. This is true of both optical solutions and GNSS, but it’s a bit more...
NSPS Forum for Women in Surveying
Above: An all-woman survey crew on the Minidoka Project in Idaho, 1918. The project was part of a large-scale irrigation system that controlled the flow of the Snake River with a series of dams and canals. While the recent Women Surveyor’s Summit is the first of what is hoped to be an ongoing new series...
Mentoring in the Age of Automation
Above: Darrell Hanners, LSI completes a topographic survey in the mountains of Caribou County, Idaho. As old-timers retire and fewer young people enter surveying, we are at a turning point where mentoring is crucial to the future of the profession, but we will need to adapt to mentor well. Land surveying is an ever-evolving profession....
Rising from The Ashes: Paradise Strong
Almost exactly one year ago, the residents of the town of Paradise, California, and the surrounding area awoke to a wind-driven inferno eventually named the Camp Fire. Before it was over, 86 people would lose their lives, more than 13,000 single-family homes (including mobile homes) would be destroyed, along with over 600 commercial structures and...
