For years, ever since geographical information systems (GIS) began to become recognized as an acceptable and exciting technology, there were many skeptics about GIS’ future as an effective surveying reference tool. In fact, professionally licensed land surveyors were the leading critics of the technology’s potential wide-range usage.

Original Concerns Merited
The biggest fault with early GIS adopters was that with their rush to use the technology, they did not place a priority on the data’s degree of accuracy. For instance, as long as a structure (building, road, park, etc.) was represented on a map in a general area, the map’s usefulness and purpose was often met.
Soon, early standards were adopted that map representations should be with a specific level of accuracy, often one meter (or three feet).

This accuracy level, however, was still not good enough for the upcoming uses of GIS. Being within three feet of a gas main or water pipe is not a real comfortable situation when digging a new sewer line or constructing a road.

This was especially important to professional land surveyors. They are often required to certify that their accuracy is with one centimeter (less than an inch).

As you might imagine, or perhaps know from experience, this level of accuracy requires precise and expensive equipment and a professionally licensed surveyor – which means higher costs than having a college intern punching addresses into a mobile GPS unit.

An additional problem with the obtainment of data is that it is often collected multiple times by multiple surveyors for different purposes. Unless there is cooperation by area surveyors and/or their companies, much of the data collected for a previous purpose, perhaps on an adjoining lot, is not shared. Sometimes the problem is as simple as not knowing who actually collected the data.

Plus, recovering old site control to perform resurveys can be a challenge. Pouring through old survey data from prior surveys to start a new survey adds an extra layer of work.

Boundless Possibilities
National Survey & Engineering, a division of R.A. Smith & Associates (Brookfield, WI), has bridged the gap between survey and GIS. It has created a high-accuracy survey-grade GIS solution called Boundless™, patent pending. It creates the bridge using point and line information from standard electronic drawings and point databases. According to National Survey & Engineering’s Robert Jones, R.L.S., the designer of the software, Boundless™ transforms the information into a unified coordinate system. The software, said Jones, does not scale or alter geometry established and measured on the ground
Boundless™ software code was written specifically to be compatible with the leading GIS programs, including ESRI’s ArcGIS, and operates on survey drawings and databases tied to the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) using high-accuracy static GPS adjusted by the method of least squares to the Continuously Operating Reference Stations network. Thus, there is sub-centimeter accuracy, according to Jones.
For surveyors, Boundless does not change office operations for producing plats of survey and the managing of point databases said Jones.

”Our experience at National Survey & Engineering,” relates Jones, “is that our technicians and our project managers have found that Boundless doesn’t interfere with any of their daily operations, and they don’t need to do any special maintenance with Boundless.”

“GIS has moved well beyond the original purpose of simply creating maps,” explains Aaron Ford, GIS Technical Manager with R.A. Smith & Associates, Inc. “With this technology, we are able to make all of the data work rapidly, seamlessly, and be relationally relevant for us and our clients.”

Making It Work
Boundless surveys are perpetual, retraceable, and highly accurate. Once property is surveyed via GPS and through Boundless, future reliance upon physical monuments such as iron pipes, sidewalk crosses and concrete monuments are no longer necessary.

Often such monuments are removed or destroyed over time or due to construction causing an array of problems such as much greater field work and errors. Further, for the first time, land surveys are spatially related. To this point, most surveys existed in isolation. One survey does not necessarily spatially relate to another survey – causing gaps and overlaps.

Boundless works within any coordinate system, a major hurdle in land surveying. Therefore, its application is worldwide. With Boundless, internal operations for surveyors are not disrupted as the software works seamlessly between the technologies.

Boundless is key to collecting, storing, integrating, and managing spatial information with the following additional benefits:
• Simultaneously unifies, integrates and perpetuates surveys with survey-grade accuracy
• Eliminates issues related to working with disparate coordinate systems
• Each Boundless survey is tied to the International Spatial Reference System
• Most surveys exist in spatial isolation, but Boundless unifies surveys into a common spatial relationship
• Because a completed survey in Boundless is perpetual, there is no future reliance upon physical markers
• Beyond survey information, other data can be associated to the survey via the GIS database
• No changes are necessary to existing survey or GIS operations
• Surveys are of high-accuracy due to GPS technology, reflecting grid as ground measurement
• Old surveys with point databases can be grandfathered into Boundless

When at a survey site, a surveyor gains extraordinary horizontal positional accuracy by connecting to the National Spatial Reference System and the CORS network. The surveyor can then navigate to points instead of hunting for a pipe, cross in concrete or other marker.  

Land Development Implications
Nothing makes the owner or manager of a land development project happier than saving time and money while also improving efficiencies and having better information to make key decisions.

That’s a significant benefit according to Jones. Jones said the objective for National Survey & Engineering is to incorporate all surveys within Boundless. As more surveys are performed in Boundless its benefits increase. A notable benefit of Boundless surveys, such as those for large properties or property development in phases, is that Boundless spatially relates surveys. Jones said that ability makes it is possible to provide instant analysis of nearby property boundaries. That translates to simplifying field work he said.

“In the field, surveyors navigate to property corners with GPS. That stands in stark contrast,” Jones maintains, “to the search and recovery approach to finding markers and monuments that may be missing. Boundary gaps and overlaps are reduced and accuracy is sub-centimeter regardless of when you go back to re-survey the property.”

“During construction, when markers can easily be destroyed, re-establishing site controls is simplified as the surveyor navigates back to the missing point. Also, an important safety benefit is derived by Boundless for surveyors,” Jones said. “The need to send field crews to work in what may be hazardous traffic on busy roads is minimized.”

The vision for Boundless, said Jones, is that survey land records are managed within a high-accuracy GIS that possesses statistical process controls. That is the technology breakthrough he said. “It’s the bridging of survey and GIS. As such, Boundless is redefining how land surveys are performed and spatial boundary information is used,” said Jones.

The next challenge, which National Survey & Engineering and its parent, R.A. Smith & Associates, is attempting to meet, is its ability to better share this technology to the entire marketplace. The reception by both the GIS and surveying communities has been very positive. In fact, the firm is currently working with other organizations to share the technology as they continue to develop licensing and sharing software. Plans are to offer this to a greater professional audience in the second quarter of 2007. The firm is seeking beta testing partners.

In the meantime, Ford and others with the company stress that the most important component of the Boundless system is the data. It is critical that the original data be extremely accurate. Part of the firm’s 2007 release of the technology is expected to include a set of minimum standards.

“There is little doubt,” relates Ford, “that new technology offerings such as Boundless come with an obligation and responsibility to make sure that professional integrity is improved. R.A. Smith is determined to meet these challenges as we are certain that this technology will have a significant impact on our profession.” SLDT