Utility, Engineering + Surveying - Summer 2019 - 8

Changing Landscape

JAMES ANSPACH, PG(r), Dist.M.ASCE and JASON KACK, PLS

From 'Surveyor' to Geospatial Advisor
Project development, whether the project
is large or small, has almost always needed
some surveying. Traditionally, these "design
surveys" encompassed deed research and
interpretation, boundary surveys, easement
preparation, topographic mapping and related services, with maybe an occasional hydrographic survey or establishing geodetic
control survey. Such activities involved labor-intensive approaches performed by survey crews of up to four field staff.
Much of that world was occupied by
smaller companies-many of which were
local, family-owned businesses. This still exists, and probably will in some part for many
years, because there will always be small
property surveys needing a day's worth of
work with traditional tools.
For the majority, however, the surveying
world is vastly different. For those firms that
embrace the change, their value to clients
and scope of services are increasing.

Game-changers

The transition from chain and theodolite to
GPS is a clear example of the technology rev-

8 Utility Engineering + Surveying SUMMER 2019

olution that begin in the '80s and continues
today. Surveyors also experienced CAD forever changing the preparation of drawings.
The evolution of what could be measured
dramatically changed in the '90s when LiDAR came on the scene. While complex
and cumbersome in the early days, advances
in computers, storage, LiDAR sensors and
software all contributed to making it commonplace by the early 2000s. Today, LiDAR
mapping of complex structures including
dams, bridges, industrial and technical facilities is the norm.
With new tools and technologies, more
details are available faster, and with greater accuracy and efficiency. Important new
technologies include aerial and terrestrial
LiDAR, digital aerial imagery and advanced
bathymetric surveys. Together with multiple
delivery platforms, such as mobile vehicular
mapping units, unmanned aerial systems
and unmanned water vessels, these technologies provide a multitude of expanded data
collection opportunities.
Technology also continues to change and
expand the need for geospatial solutions. Au-

tonomous vehicles, ships and aircraft require
comprehensive and detailed mapping services with coordinate systems that span the
entire earth. Semiconductor manufacturing
involves high-accuracy construction of complex systems that require extensive surveying
support on an ongoing basis.
Continued miniaturization of sensors
and the introduction of autonomous vehicles are creating other evolutions in surveying services. Since autonomous vehicles are
unmanned, for example, they provide safer
data-collection methods and can access areas
a person cannot.
Pre-programmed with the flying or boating path, autonomous vehicles provide more
robust mapping, and gaps or "missing" areas
that occurred with conventional survey are no
longer an issue. Further, this programed path
can be repeated at any interval with nearly an
identical collection path, which offers better
measurement monitoring for settlement and
subsidence than previously possible.
The premier platforms today can operate
a survey-grade LiDAR sensor with flights of
45 minutes in duration. One LiDAR sensor,

Utility, Engineering + Surveying - Summer 2019

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