The American Surveyor Vol 9 No 1

Editorial: The 3D Train
The winds of change continue to blow, and blow they did in Denver. At the January 2012 International LiDAR Mapping Forum (ILMF) we proudly launched our latest venture, LiDAR Magazine, the only contemporary geo-publication dedicated solely to LiDAR technology. ILMF, now in its 12th year, attracted more ....Read the Article

BIM Gets a Boost The 1.2 million-square-foot Music City Center in Nashville will have plenty of design features and spaces for visitors to talk about when it is scheduled to open in February 2013: The multifunction exhibit hall covers 350,000 square feet, or about eight acres; the grand ballroom contains 57,500 square feet and the junior ballroom ....Read the Article

Knowledge is Not Enough—Interview With Ken Mooyman Forget about the bears. Beware of the mating geese. These were the solemn words Ken Mooyman, President of Leica Geosystems NAFTA, heard 30 years ago the first time he was dropped off by a helicopter in the wilds of Northern Quebec for a three-day stretch. Armed with only a tent, sleeping bag, canteens, books, ....Read the Article

Frames for the Future: New Datum Definitions for Modernization of the U.S. NSRS (1 of 4) In 2008, the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) released its 10-Year Plan (NGS, 2008). In that plan, NGS describes the replacement of the two national datums currently in use. These are the horizontal datum (the North American Datum of 1983, or NAD 83) and the vertical datum (the North American Vertical Datum of 1988, or NAVD 88). Note that NAD 83 (1986) was originally a ....Read the Article

RTN-­101 (Part 16): A Decade of RTN Has it really been ten years? Did RTNs really catch on? Does this RTN thing really work? In answer to all three questions, yes! Network corrected real-time high precision GNSS for surveying (and a great many other uses) has endured for its first full decade. Did RTNs revolutionize surveying and real-time GNSS? Perhaps ... Read the Article

Footsteps: United States v. Milner The 2009 case of United States v. Milner demonstrates important common law principles related to tidal boundaries. It also offers interesting insights into the law and the balance courts try to strike in deciding the law. The struggle for balance as it relates to private property rights and the rights of society as a whole are clearly demonstrated in this case. Several events led to ...Read the Article

Vantage Point: Operating Wirelessly Carl Nelson is a lot like many of us, hooked to his electronics and living efficiently by multi-tasking. Unfortunately for him, he got caught at it. On December 28, 2009, Mr. Nelson was ticketed by a police officer in Richmond, California for infraction of state law that prohibits use of a wireless telephone while driving a motor vehicle, unless the phone is configured for ...Read the Article

FeedBack
Canoes and Saying No: I have just read the latest issue of The American Surveyor magazine and have the following comments. 1) Denny and Delores DeMeyer's article "Voyage of the Koo Koo Sint & Paddle Song" is incorrect in the statement that David Thompson was the first person to survey and map the Columbia River in 1811. It seems to me that Lewis & Clark surveyed ....Read the Article

The American Surveyor Vol 8 No 9

Table of Contents 365kb

Editors Corner: What A(nother) Year! By Marc Cheves, LS 207kb

Metrorail Team One of the first reflectorless measurement road surface monitoring projects in the U.S. utilizes technology to minimize hazards. By Joseph Betit, PS, and Craig S. Hewes, PS 2,870kb

Intersecting Paths of Success The magazine visits three surveyors, one Chinese GNSS expert and import/export specialist, and three companies, all in Atlanta. By Marc Cheves, PS 2,870kb

Indelible Imprints—A GNSS Memoir Dr. Javad Ashjaee recounts the origins of the cooperation between Russia and America that brought GLONASS to the precise community. By Dr. Javad Ashjaee 2,778kb

Digitally Preserving a Wahi Pana In late 2010 CyArk embarked on an effort to bring the world a Hawai’i beyond beaches and snorkeling. By Justin Barton 2,144kb

Footsteps: Vision Church v. Village of Long Grove Zoning, land use, and annexation are examined in this installment. By Landon Blake, PS 337kb

Vantage Point: About Face Location, location location, and how it affects zoning. By Wendy Lathrop, LS, CFM 113kb

Reconnaissance: Trials and Tribulations One state’s process for handling complaints against surveyors. By Gary Kent, PS 167kb

The American Surveyor Vol 8 No 8

Editorial: Polarization
The ninth meeting of the Space-Based Positioning Navigation and Timing advisory board, held in Alexandria VA on November 9, 2011 was widely anticipated as a "showdown" between the anti- and pro-LightSquared forces. While the meeting scored points for both sides, it left unanswered some of the most important issues: the upper spectrum band, and who will pay. Those who are just now ....Read the Article

Voyage of the Koo Koo Sint & Paddle Song In 1811, David Thompson, surveyor and fur trader for the North West Company reached the Pacific Ocean, adding the Columbia River as the final leg of the Fur Trade Highway from Hudson's Bay and Montreal to the Pacific Ocean and becoming the first person to survey and map the Columbia River from its source near Invermere, British Columbia to its ....Read the Article

Rendezvous 2011—Altered Contours From sometime around 1000 BC through 500 AD, natives piled great quantities of dirt into all shapes and configurations within the valley of the great river. What was the purpose of these mounds of fill shaped over fifteen hundred years in the south-central region of present day Ohio-- Religion? Artistic expression? A means of hunting, securing necessary ....Read the Article

Vantage Point: A Homeowner's Setback Minnesota's Supreme Court recently struck down earlier decisions favoring a homeowner's complaint against the local city for errors related to the homeowner's shed. While Dr. Rajbir Sarpal and his wife Dr. Carol Sarpal had prevailed in the district and appellate courts, this May 2011 opinion (797 N.W.2d 18) remands the case back to district court, primarily regarding the point of equitable ... Read the Article

Footsteps: Finding the Courage to Say "No" My father died in May. He was 52. The loss of someone close to you, especially your father, forces you to examine your life. You ask, "Am I following the moral principles that I was raised with, even when I'm under pressure to compromise?" This loss in my life and three recent situations I observed in my career as a land surveyor have prompted me to write this article. Boundary surveying is a branch of ... Read the Article

Conference Review: CGSIC and ION 2011—GPS-Greater than the Sum of its Parts The 51st Meeting of the CGSIC and the ION GNSS 2011 was held September 19-23, 2011 in Portland, Oregon. I can think of no better combination of conferences that serves to illustrate (to paraphrase Aristotle) how the "whole" of GPS/GNSS is certainly "greater than the sum of its parts". These two events are "the" place to interact directly with the constellation operators, policy makers ...Read the Article

Data Mine—From Limestone Mine to National Archives Storage Imagine you are charged with this task: Accurately survey the interior of a limestone mine cut into the base of a bluff­a cave with vast expanses, irregular surfaces and no light. Collect data on enough individual points to create a meaningful model of the space so that it can be designed and built for warehousing and storage. The challenge would be ....Read the Article

A Colonial Surveyor in President Jefferson's Public Lands
My apologies to Mark Twain, as in parts of my journey to obtain CFedS Certification I felt like the Connecticut Yankee, in King Arthur's Court, but in reverse. That is, I was the learner and my predecessors were the teachers. Also, my appreciation for American Surveyor Magazine's motto "A Foot in the Past...An Eye to the Future" prompted me to write about the journey that I recently ....Read the Article

American Surveyor Vol 8 No 2 Articles Posted

Editorial: The Things We Gather
You can tell a lot about people by the things they collect. Whatever the motivation, for most of us the process of collecting is a pleasurable pursuit. Many of our writers own fine collections--old surveying instruments, classic cars, antique clocks, coins, photographs and more. Personally, I've ....
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An Integrated Solution for Mining The Twangiza-Namoya gold belt in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is potentially one of the most exciting undeveloped gold deposits in the world today. Exploration and mining activities across what are today Banro's four ... Read the Article

What Separates the Rich from the Poor? "The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted." —James Madison. Of the 6 billion people on Earth, 2 billion try to survive on a few dollars a day. They don't businesses, or... Read the Article

Montana's GIS-Based Cadastre Layered with Riches As the fourth largest state in the United States, Montana is synonymous with frontier. Under the state's famous "big sky" are 145,552 square miles of sparsely populated open land, and-- ranked forty-fourth in total population and forty-eighth in ... Read the Article

Harnessing a GPS Network It's a powerful system, this SmartNet North America. Launched by Leica on March 1, 2010, SmartNet is a subscription-based service offering GNSS Network RTK corrections throughout North America. Geographically, SmartNet covers Ontario, Quebec ... Read the Article

Using Google Earth I'm sure many surveyors like myself have downloaded and played with Google Earth. I have virtual map pins stuck in places where I've lived and worked, and pins placed at Air Force bases where I was stationed in the United States, Europe and North Africa. There are pins in the ... Read the Article

Vantage Point: Life Behind Levees: an Overview and Update Throughout history, mankind's interaction with water has been a love/hate relationship. We have loved to be near water for drinking, bathing, fishing, watering crops, navigating our ships, and just plain aesthetics. On the other hand we have hated the unpredictability of water rising up out of .... Read the Article

Footsteps: Title Industry Changes Affect Surveying
Several changes have recently occurred in the land title industry. What caused these changes and what impact they have had on the boundary surveyor are the topics that this article will address. The land title industry is the group of companies that offer insurance to the purchaser of ...
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American Surveyor Vol 8 No 1 Articles Posted

Editorial: Good Records
Old photos and family albums tell stories that few of us ever take the time to put into words. My wife's family was fortunate to have several ancestors who were good writers. They left behind stories, rich in detail, describing their lives in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the struggles they faced ....
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Rainier—The Unforgiving Mountain Why has the Land Surveyors Association of Washington (LSAW) mounted repeated expedi tions to measure and remeasure Mount Rainier? Along with some very practical reasons--serving geosciences, geodesy, gravimetry, and public safety--this .... Read the Article

Using the Lynx Mobile Mapper to Survey a Levee In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast of the United States, leaving in its wake an unprecedented loss of life and property damage. Among the critical infrastructure the storm impacted was the levee system that controls the .... Read the Article

GIS Matters: Convert CAD Data to GIS Surveyors have been using Computer Aided Drafting/Design (CAD) for decades to draft surveys and to do design. As society becomes more spatially conscious, the ability to integrate data with geographic information systems data increases and is now to the point where CAD-GIS ... Read the Article

Product Review: MicroSurvey CAD 2010 Ultimate "Good!" Step. Step. Step. Plumb the pole. Beep . . . beep . . . beep. "Good!" So goes the familiar rhythm of any one of a thousand topographic surveys on any given day. Each month, surveying magazines are filled with images of point clouds from laser scans. And each month the average practicing ... Read the Article

Conference Review: Moving Forward—2010 Leica Geosystems HDS Worldwide User Conference This year's Leica HDS User Conference once again raised the bar for return on investment in terrestrial 3D laser scanning conferences. With attendance approaching 300, up some ... Read the Article

Model Behavior: The How-To Guide to Successful Surface Modeling, Part 5 Welcome back! In my last article I stated that the next installment of this discussion would examine some field techniques to help create more accurate base models, but I will cover that topic at a later time .... Read the Article

Vantage Point: The Latest "Gate"
My township taxes will probably be going up, and maybe you can gain a business lesson from my pain. Call it "Webcam-gate". Many businesses have formal policies regarding personal activities on business time. This includes phone calls to friends, family, doctors' offices, and the bank. It also ...
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