Land Surveyor Blogs

I. Introduction to Topographic Surveys

Definition and Purpose

Topographic surveys are an essential component of land surveying, focusing on the measurement and mapping of both the elevation and features of land. These surveys go beyond establishing property boundaries, which is the primary function of boundary surveys, and instead provide a detailed understanding of the physical landscape. This includes not only natural elements such as hills, valleys, and rivers but also man-made features like

You’re on your way to a successful graduation and you’re thinking about your next step. It’s completely natural, we’ve all been there. What’s scary though is the notion of having to fight for your place in the market that’s full of your peers and newly graduated colleagues. So how can you stand out from the crowd and get a good job even though you’ve barely graduated?

Don’t put yourself in a corner

Even though you may be a major in graphic design, don’t look specifically for graphic design opportu

I wrote this article on LinkedIn in October of last year. It got a lot of comments and shares. I thought some of you might enjoy it here.

Keith

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Dear Mr. Cheap Surveyor,

I just got off the phone with one of your newest property survey clients. Evidently he called me because he thought your price was too high. I didn’t know that till I spent an hour measuring and figuring and estimating what it would take to do the job. I talked to my field su

This is a post that I have been meaning to put together for years and finally decided to sit down and get it going.  Today, we are going to talk about how to use the advanced profile customization options inside your Land Surveyors United Community Profile. 

Many of you have done brilliant work with your profiles by changing the properties inside your Design Studio but today, I am going to share some code for you to copy and paste inside the Advanced section.  I recently helped member Surveynat

I just wanted to share a short but relevant story with you about my last day as a land surveyor.

After this day, I was destined to become an anthropologist.  My mission has been evolving, focused more and more on bringing public awareness to importance of surveying as both an art and science.

Location of Tea Farm:

Something i didn't mention was that it was nesting season in the tea farm- no one knew.  The next day, they tried to get me to stay by

1 surveyor

1 Surveyors' s How do you know?

Aloha gang,

I will give you a quick introduction:

My name is Tom Pattison. I am a licensed surveyor in 5 states. I have almost 20 years of experience in the field of surveying. With over 12,000 jobs completed and experience from Topography Surveys, Construction surveys, Alta surveys, Residential surveys... all the way to Flood and Shoreline Certificates performed on the Hawaiian Islands. I have conquered just about everything in my professional surveying career. I have traveled from Canada all the

Memories from presidential election years in the USA remind me it is a difficult time to be a surveyor.  It seems nobody wants to start a new project until they have a plan for the future.  With the election process up in the air it is hard for most people to predict the future of our national government.

When it was up to me to be sure the company survived our decision was to hunker down and survive the year by chasing projects outside the normal flow of work.  I remember helping to test some ro

Register, Learn and Earn 10% Towards LSU

Land Surveyors United is an awesome community, and I'm pleased to be able to give back to LSU with your help. Colburn Strategic Partners will donate 10% of every Geov8 Virtual Expo registration to LSU using this link, Click Here.

About Geov8

Geov8 2015 Virtual Expo is an online virtual geo+innovation event showcasing new and innovative geospatial technologies. Industry leaders and experts in geospatial tech will present cutting edge information and turnkey s

As the largest community body of land surveyors anywhere in the world with close to 9000 members, we have a responsibility. We must do all that we can to educate the public regarding our importance to society in order to pave the way for those who come after us.  One way to accomplish this would be for each of us to record a short PSA sharing the nature of surveying jobs in the places where we live.  

For Example, this PSA was submitted by Kennedy Komla of Ghana

For those who do not know,  PS

CHAIN! The weakest link (in the chain)

by: Deward “Karl” Bowles,

Texas RPLS no. 4966

  Certain magazines (trade magazines) have purported to represent the current interests of our profession by exposing Land Surveyors to new technologies and philosophies regarding our industry.  These magazines have been around for decades in many cases.

   These so called trade magazines have treated us for years and years now to articles where the authors (pundits) of these articles chide us insisting that Land S

Surveying with Cameras: Enhancing Occupational Safety of Field Crews

While surveying is often enjoyable and rewarding work, the conditions and sites where we do our land surveying work often are full of life-threatening hazards. Maintaining your safety or your field crew’s safety as they work in and along dangerous roads, on busy construction sites or at hazardous industrial facilities is paramount. Using conventional land surveying techniques and tools to ensure the occupational safety of field

I recently added a new way for you to snapshot the location of your next jobsite inside the Mobile Rover, called Surveyor's Polaroid.  How this works is like this: Next time you are on a jobsite, fire up your mobile device and head to this page on the Mobile Rover.  Share your location (don't worry,it is not stored) and it will generate a simple Google Street View image of the geolocation you are presently at.

Below is a screencapture of where I was when I built and tested the app and is merely

By now, most of us are aware that we do not need to have a video on our computer to upload it to Land Surveyors United.  You can simply find a video on Youtube, Dailymotion, Hulu or any video site which gives you an embed code and simply share it with your fellow surveyors by embedding it here.  You may have also noticed that inside every post on the network there is a little button for including a video. When you click that you are given the option to embed a video from any video service on the

Surveying is not dead and you are the proof.

I happen to believe that surveyors need to know what is going on in the minds of other surveyors.  For far too long, the media and publications surrounding surveying (although not all intentionally) have done a great disservice to the everyday surveyor by placing everyone at opposite ends of the field. One day I just decided that this could not continue. I became hellbent on the idea that if we restructured the agenda of support and open the channels

An attractive social networking Business Profile has all of the components that one might consider putting into a printed flyer. The idea is to make your brand "sharable" across the web and the goal is to have other members or businesses share your profile in ways similar to "word of mouth." So lets look at some of the most important aspects of an attractive business profile for Land Surveyors United.

Official Logo
The most important feature of your profile, by far. You should upload an official l