Category Archives: Surveying
A New Line
Midway through a large and complex transportation project, a team of Belgian surveyors successfully adopted a new class of instrument. Hardware and software modernization doesn’t always yield immediate benefits for enterprises, and sometimes taking a particularly big leap or risk comes at a premium in time and labor. But sometimes everything goes smoothly. Our July...
Teaching Land Stewardship
The focus of the professional surveying societies today seems to be on the decline of the number of surveyors out there. Some are even beginning to raise this level of concern to that of soft panic. From the outside, the surveying community is headed for a perfect storm of obsolescence. Technology has contributed to the...
Alexa, Survey This Parcel
I’ve been thinking about the issue of automation and robots and their impact on the geospatial profession. I think it’s good news. So, let’s get started on dispelling the idea that “the ‘bots are coming for my job!” Here are two reasons why that’s not going to happen. 1) Everything I’m reading and observing argues...
Surveying Boot Camp
Deep in the heart of Oregon’s Coastal Range, you can find an elite team of surveyors taking on some of the hardest terrain in the country. Oregon’s dense forests and steep mountain foothills are a challenge to traverse, but at Northstar Surveying, Inc., of Corvallis, it’s just part of the job. Under the stellar leadership...
Cool School
Siberian State University of Geosystems and Technologies Editor’s note: The name, “Siberia” evokes visions of a vast, cold, and perhaps foreboding place. Vast, yes, but also beautiful, steeped with fascinating history and resources and home to a diverse population imbued with a pioneering spirit. To meet the demands for qualified surveyors for the region, a...
Monitoring a Historic Bridge Replacement
A survey manager describes how monitoring improved construction processes for the replacement of an 85-year-old bridge connecting Illinois and Iowa. The Savanna-Sabula truss bridge added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999, carried passengers along U.S. 52 and Illinois 64 over the Mississippi River, connecting the towns of Savanna, Illinois, and Sabula, Iowa....
