Reference · 11 pages
Survey types & practice
What an ALTA/NSPS survey is and is not, boundary versus topographic versus construction work, and the vocabulary a client, an attorney and a field crew each use for the same thing.
- Boundary surveysA boundary survey locates the corners and lines of a parcel on the ground. What the work involves, what it can settle, and what it cannot.
- ALTA/NSPS surveysAn ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey is a boundary survey tied to a title commitment, built to a national standard for commercial transactions.
- Topographic surveysA topographic survey maps the shape of the ground and what sits on it. How to specify accuracy, contour interval, features and file format.
- Construction stakingHow design coordinates become marks in the ground: calculating from plans, offsets, cut sheets, curve layout and the checks that prevent expensive rework.
- As-built surveysAn as-built survey measures what was built rather than what was designed. What it captures, who requires it, and why the timing matters more than the accuracy.
- Control surveysControl is the framework every other survey hangs on. How horizontal and vertical networks are designed, observed, adjusted and checked.
- Route surveysRoads, pipelines, transmission lines and rail are surveyed along a centerline. How stationing, alignment geometry and right-of-way work fit together.
- Subdivision plattingDividing land creates new parcels that must survive for centuries. How a subdivision moves from concept to recorded plat, and what the plat must carry.
- Hydrographic surveysSurveying beneath water adds sound speed, motion and tides to every measurement. How depths are measured, corrected and reduced to a vertical datum.
- Photogrammetry and lidarRemote sensing produces enormous amounts of data quickly, and none of it is accurate without ground control. How these methods work and where each belongs.
- Surveying glossaryOver fifty surveying terms defined plainly, grouped by theme, with notes on where the everyday meaning and the technical meaning part company.
Other sections
All reference- Public Land Survey SystemTownships, ranges, sections and aliquot parts as the BLM Manual of Surveying Instructions describes them — how the rectangular system was laid out, how corners were monumented, and how a retracement follows it.
- Datums & heightsHorizontal and vertical datums, the ellipsoid and the geoid, NAD 83 and NAVD 88, and the modernized reference frames that replace them.
- Coordinate systems & projectionsState Plane, UTM, low-distortion projections, and the grid-versus-ground arithmetic that decides whether a measured distance matches a published one.
- FS exam guideHow the NCEES Fundamentals of Surveying exam is structured, what each subject area covers, and how to build a study plan around it.