Over time, the practice and processes of surveying have generally changed slowly. Since the 1950s, however, progress in technology and methodology has accelerated. Today, this progress is changing—and expanding—the scope of the surveyor’s work. With no end in sight for this increasing pace of advancement, the change is affecting more than technology; the role of the...

Editor’s Note: Ph.D. candidate Grant Hausler presented at the recent PPP workshop held in Ottawa, Canada, the first international event following the PPP-RTK Symposium held in Frankfurt in 2012 (see “After RTK,” PSM June 2012). The event drew public and private entities that have been rapidly implementing real-time PPP. Such solutions have been reaching surveyors,...

When evaluating automated versus conventional deformation monitoring for a major rail project in Slovenia, automated clearly wins.Editor’s Note: PSM has examined several automated deformation monitoring case studies; due to technological advances, automated monitoring has gone mainstream. The following adaptation of an academic paper provides a direct analysis of project operational considerations and cost comparisons. Intuitively,...

Clients are increasingly asking for building information modeling (BIM) in some form. Is your firm ready to meet the challenge? Take this quiz to find out how much you know about BIM.If you’ve been watching market trends, you’re probably aware that building information modeling (BIM) has the potential to be big business. In the $4-trillion...

Fait acompli – “it is done” You can hang a camera from a kite, or a balloon, or a radio-controlled aircraft, or a small private aircraft, or even a full-blown helicopter—this has been going on since the advent of cameras and these airborne platforms. Television and film production companies have been using small, radio-controlled helicopters,...