Abstract

Surveyors and GIS Professionals- What We Need to Know About Each Other
Track: Plan
Authors: Alyssa Martin, Nathan Wysocki

Surveying and GIS have historically operated in separate worlds. In the past ten years, land surveyors have embraced CAD, but they are transitioning away from a paper-based environment towards a GIS data-based platform. As these two different but complimentary professions progress, they find their involvement with one another increasing, making collaboration imperative. Surveyors and GIS professional speak much of same language and use many of the same tools.
Surveying is a unique field, because it is as much an “art” as it is a “science” where accuracy at times is based on a surveyor’s opinion, rather than a mathematical or fixed solution. When a surveyor works on a boundary survey or a survey for design or construction, the collected information must be precise and accurate. Surveyors must know the integrity of that survey information. This is very difficult to represent within a GIS database, as there is more to a survey than the plotted lines and points. Much of land surveying data is the same that GIS professionals are used to creating, managing, and displaying. However, it’s the data behind the data where GIS professionals and surveyors have trouble coming together. As with any subject matter, a certain amount of expertise is required by the GIS professional to accurately manage this information.
As mentioned earlier, surveying is not “black and white”, but instead a complicated and difficult subject matter based on case law, surveying principles and the surveyor’s professional opinion. Surveyors spend years in school and more years in apprenticeship before they can be licensed. States have their own requirements for how surveying is performed. Surveyors take great pride in the work and products they produce. Much of the surveyor’s work lays the foundation which projects are based upon. The challenge for surveyors is how to keep up with the increased demand for information and for this information to be more readily available to customers. GIS is one powerful answer to managing and communicating the business of surveying. GIS doesn’t replace the need for surveyors or their methods, but just as GPS has revolutionized the way surveyors do their business GIS can revolutionize the way surveying data and information is communicated to a large audience.
Likewise, as surveyors are encouraged to add value to their businesses by integrating with GIS, GIS professionals should be encouraged to understand the survey process. Increasing the accuracy and quality of the GIS deliverable for their clients. There are some aspects that should be understood between surveyors and GIS professionals. While surveyors don’t need to become a GIS experts and GIS professionals don’t need to become surveyors there are huge benefits to be gained from each discipline what role the other plays in the GIS field.


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