Essential Surveying Practices

While the profession of surveying is one with a long history, there have been rapid changes to the industry over the last decade, bringing about myriad new tools designed to increase efficiency, accuracy or access. Despite this, there are several fundamental and core things that surveyors need to understand when working. In this session, presenters will take on three of these key core areas. 1) Why it is important to look at accuracy and utilize survey ground control appropriately; 2) how and why to choose and navigate different datum and projections, and 3) evaluating what tools are the right match for which project. Following the presentations focused on best practices and considerations in these areas, a broader Q&A will focus on audience questions and provide contextual expertise from leaders in the surveying industry.

Latest Techniques for Surveying Ground Control for Aerial Mapping and Lidar
The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) a professional society which has been in existence since 1934, has updated its Positional Accuracy Standards for Geospatial Data. The recently released Edition 2 goes into a great deal more detail regarding the different techniques for the survey of ground control and also how to incorporate the ground survey error budget into the overall accuracy of the mapping and lidar products. This presentation will examine the recommended methodologies for the accurate survey of ground control.

James Gillis, VeriDaas Corporation

Modernizing the National Spatial Reference System
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Geodetic Survey (NGS) has been providing the positioning infrastructure for the nation since 1807 when Thomas Jefferson created the Survey of the Coast. Society continues to learn more about how dynamic our world is, through improvements in technology with satellite based positioning, and other new systems of measurement that did not exist when today’s National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) was developed. The modernized NSRS will provide a precise, consistent and accurate positioning infrastructure that is readily and easily accessible primarily through Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observations.

Brian Shaw, NOAA

Ground Control and Check Points for Modern Mapping Solutions
Today’s crewed and uncrewed airborne mapping systems are multi-sensor in nature. They typically include one or more laser sensors and/or one or more cameras and a GNSS or a GNSS/inertial system. The multi-sensor nature allows for acquiring multiple data streams that are used to produce a variety of mapping products. Due to the integrated sensor nature and the variety of imaging and positioning data streams, the reliance on ground control has evolved over the last few decades. This presentation will explain that evolution.  

Dr. Mohamed Mostafa, Trimble Applanix