Surveying Articles

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AI’s Blind Spots: Why Cultural and Historic Sites Are Being Erased from Digital Maps

 

The Vanishing — How AI Is Mapping History Out of Existence13532451688?profile=RESIZE_180x180

It starts subtly. A parcel map is generated with stunning efficiency. A sleek interface displays terrain data, boundary lines, structures—all perfectly digitized. But something’s missing.

A shaded grove that held an unmarked cemetery.
 A long-forgotten footpath carved by generations of Indigenous families.
 A stone wall no longer visible from the air, but tied to a land dispute a hundred years old.

Gone. Not because they were disproven or deemed irrelevant—but because the algorithm never knew they existed.

Welcome to the quiet crisis unfolding at the edge of progress: AI is erasing history—not out of malice, but out of ignorance. And it’s happening at scale.

Modern AI-powered mapping tools are impressive. They can parse satellite imagery, process LiDAR scans, detect surface features, and overlay parcel data in seconds. But they have one critical flaw: they only see what’s been recorded—and what fits their training set. That mea

The Rising Cost of Entry: Barriers for the Next Generation of Surveyors.

 

A Profession at a Crossroads — Too Few Recruits, Too Many Barriers13531725285?profile=RESIZE_180x180

There’s a storm quietly brewing in land surveying—and it has nothing to do with weather. It’s the profession’s slow-burning crisis: a pipeline that’s running dry. Across the country, surveying firms are struggling to find new talent. Technical schools are reporting low enrollment in geomatics programs. Licensure numbers are stagnating—or declining. And the hard truth is this: if we don’t lower the drawbridge, the next generation simply won’t cross into the field.

The demand for surveyors is real and rising. Infrastructure is aging. Boundaries are being challenged in growing numbers. Land development is accelerating. Municipalities are digitizing records and modernizing mapping systems. The opportunities are there—but the workforce isn’t. And it’s not because young people don’t want to work. It’s because surveying has quietly become one of the most expensive and convoluted professions to break into—without the financia

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