Tag Archives: surveying

History Corner: John Wasson: Surveyor General in Apache Land, Part 1

Arizona was made a separate surveying district on July 11, 1870.  It was a momentous occasion for the young territory.  Governor Anson P. K. Safford, newly appointed after his stint as surveyor general of Nevada, recommended his Nevada friend, newspaperman John Wasson, for the new position.   At his side in the recommendation of Wasson...

Guest Editorial: How the Future Surveyor Can Be Relevant

I wrote a guest essay in the March 2013 issue of PSM portraying my vision of the future.  I believe I made a miscalculation—the “future” is progressing very rapidly, and a lot of what I envisioned is already here. Here are several notable examples. Locata, the Australian-based company that developed their terrestrial-based replication of the GNSS...

Where Theory Meets Practice: Geodetic Observations – Part 2

Part 1 of this article (March 2014) presents the differences between azimuths that surveyors observe with a total station and the geodetic azimuths listed in GNSS adjustment reports. However, the effect on angles caused by the deflection of the vertical at the observing station is typically small. Thus, the difference between the observed astronomic angle and...

Education in Surveying: Improving the Geospatial Learning Experience: GeoLearn

GeoLearn is an online education company founded in 2013 and designed to improve the learning experience for busy professionals and technicians in the geospatial professions.  Joe Paiva, PhD, PS, PE, a long-time geospatial industry educator, and Robert Morris are principals of this start-up educational company.  The company’s initial slate of  professional development courses, announced at launch...

Feature: Preparing to Fly

An industry insider provides an overview of the advantages of using UAS for surveying as well as common misconceptions, plus preparation steps for surveyors and firms.Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) represent a culmination of advancements in miniaturization, electronics, optics, batteries, and data-processing techniques. After being widely used in military and security operations for the past 10...

Protecting Water Purity

Above: Croton Lake Gatehouse at the Old Croton Reservoir in Westchester County is the oldest part of the city’s current water system.  At the reservoir’s construction in 1842, it had the capacity of delivering about 90 million gallons of water per day to the city.  Surveying the NYC Watershed Where does the water you drink...