Category Archives: Surveying

Ocean Business 2019

With preliminary surveys already starting around the coast of the UK for another round of wind farms being built, the offshore industry descended on the National Oceanographic Centre in Southampton, UK for the bi-annual event, Ocean Business, centered around the offshore survey industry. Luckily, my home is a walk away from the event, so I was more than happy...

Field to Finish – The Career Continuum

First, I would like to thank Anthony Whitlock for his excellent contribution to Field Notes last month. It was thought-provoking and stimulated much conversation. It even motivated me to start doing research, specifically on the impacts, or perceived impacts, of the implementation of degree requirements (which are complex in many cases) to sit for state-specific...

Surveyors: Loyalties and Points in Between

Above image: Sarah Glaves (1980-2016) runs differential levels at Takatz Lake on Baranof Island, SE Alaska, to support lakebed mapping and water depth/volume calculations for a possible hydroelectric power plant. Credit: Karl D. Woods, RPLS, Terrasond – Alaska. I faked the need for a bathroom break just to walk through the casino with my chaining...

Surveying & Safety

Above image: A surveying job made comfortable: Measuring a steep terrain from a safe ground location in the treacherous mountains of beautiful northern British Columbia, Canada. The importance of protecting our lifestyle. In this article, for the sake of brevity the concepts of occupational health and safety are referred to by the word “safety.” The...

A Millennial’s View of Land Surveying

Introduction by Field Notes editor, Scott Martin. Thank you, Anthony, for stating what we all need to hear. From mentoring, to degree requirements, to continuing education, to understanding the fundamental principles of technology, you hit all the major elements of what is needed—or not needed—to “save” our noble profession. We, being licensed professionals, NCEES, NSPS, state associations,...

Siotasia Malalo

Graduate Surveyor, Ministry of Lands Survey & Natural Resources Nuku‘alofa, Tonga In April of 2018, Tonga’s Prime Minister launched the world’s first regional strategy for surveying and geospatial capacity development. A regional consortium of Pacific maritime countries and territories including Tonga, Samoa, Vanatu, and many more face common challenges in geodetic issues; surveying, mapping, land...