Surveying, with the exception of new innovations in equipment, has not really changed much over the centuries. The same mathematics is still used as were used in biblical times. The methods and systems are much the same as they always have been. The surveyor’s job is made much easier now with the advent of theodolites, electronic distance measuring equipment, and computers. However, hacking a line through the brush is still hacking a line through the brush. No one has yet invented a tool that will alleviate this drudgery.

The modern surveyor’s biggest technological advance has probably been the electronic distance meter (EDM). This device allows measurement from mountaintop to mountaintop, across canyons, over water, and impassable ground. It also has many advantages over the old standard steel chain or tape. Long distances can be measured with much more precision and much more quickly.

Angles are still measured with a surveyor’s instrument, such as a transit or theodolite, although much advancement has been made in this field as well. The standard transit is read by observing a vernier that is marked off in some increment of a 360-degree arc, typically, one minute. The theodolite is normally an instrument that has an enclosed vernier, and is easier to read, and requires less expertise to handle. Most instruments on the market today have digital readouts that require no interpolation whatsoever, and these are a great advancement in terms of precision.

The typical instrument of today is called the “total station” or some similar term. These devices measure both distance and angle, and have many, many features that make them extremely efficient surveying tools. Many have data collectors that interface directly with computers and virtually eliminate the need for recording measurements in the field. This is important since it eliminates one source of error in the process of ­surveying.

The most recent important advance in field technology is GPS (Global Positioning System). This method of surveying involves the observation of satellites placed in particular orbits by the Department of Defense. The technology was created to allow precise positioning for military purposes, but surveyors now routinely use this technology for certain applications. The equipment and training is expensive, but the results are very impressive.
In the office, the surveyor has all types of various devices that allow dramatic improvements in efficiency. There are computers, of course, and they save thousands of hours of time compared to even 20 years ago, when the standard calculator was a mechanical rotary type, and had no memory whatsoever. Most of the surveyor’s work involves trigonometry, and just the computer’s ability to automatically compute trig functions has enormously increased the ability to make swift and accurate calculations.

The new equipment does not, of course, relieve the surveyor of interpretive duties. Decisions must still be based on experience and good judgment, weight of evidence, location of old corners, interpretation of old surveys, document research, and the general exercise of professional judgment. These things cannot be computerized and that’s probably for the better.

Let’s take a look, then, at how the surveyor goes about performing a property survey. Assuming that a 2.5-acre tract is to be surveyed that is described as a portion of a section by subdivision, we will follow the procedure generally required to accomplish the task.

After entering into the agreement, the surveyor must acquire copies of the client’s deed description and those of all the adjoining property owners. The ad joiners must be examined to determine if there is the possibility of an overlap or a gap (hiatus). Often the deeds of parcels that are nominally adjacent are conflicting. To what extent this might occur must be examined in detail. Generally, if there is a deed description overlap, examination of the history of the segregations of the property will sort out the matter. However, in some instances, such discrepancies must be taken care of by actual field observation to determine the intentions of the parties to the conveyance. In some instances, the surveyor cannot possibly determine the actual boundaries, and the matter must be left either to agreement between the ad joining parties, or left to the courts for interpretation. Obviously, the surveyor does not have the power to determine conflicting boundaries, as this would constitute a taking of property without due process of law.

Once the title boundaries of the property have been determined by the examination of recorded legal descriptions as described above, the surveyor then sets out to begin the actual physical survey of the property. In order to carry out the actual placement of the property corners, it is obvious that a starting point or points must be found.

The surveyor cannot magically set corners. Somehow, a beginning point represented by a physical object on the ground must be related to the survey of the property in question. Another corresponding point must be found to give a direction. Since all of the properties in the western United States have been related in one form or another to the original Government Land Office surveys, it is clear that the parts of that original survey that control the particular parcel in question must be relocated or discovered.

The original surveyors set monuments every half-mile around the perimeter of each section. The corners of the section are referred to as “section corners,” and the half-mile markers between them are called “quarter corners,” because they define the boundaries of one quarter of the section. The center of section is determined in most instances by intersecting lines drawn from opposite corresponding quarter corners. Unless the original surveyors, under special instructions, actually set the center of section, this method is almost always used.

There is a good deal of confusion between landowners and surveyors regarding the center of section. For some reason, many surveyors, when finding a monument (not original) nominally at the center of the section, which has been used as a property corner for many years, will use that monument and call it the center section, whether it is in the proper position or not. This is generally a mistake. While it may make the survey better-fit long continued occupation, it may be very wrong from a technically correct surveying standpoint. If you happen to be involved in the survey of a property dependent on the center of section, it would be good advice to question a survey that holds an old monument as the center of section. It may be right and it may be wrong, but as previously discussed, old monuments are just old monuments. They have no prestige because of their age.

Since the surveyor must establish the relative position of the exterior corners of the section, and most often they are not intervisible, some method must be used that will allow measurement indirectly. The surveyor occupies each “station” (point) of the random traverse and with surveying instruments measures the horizontal distance to the adjoining points and the angle between them.

Once each station in the traverse has been occupied and measured, calculations are made relating each individual point to all others, and a coordinate is established for each station. The precision of the measurements in the traverse is calculated and the error is the “closing” error. Since no measurement can be made with absolute precision, there is always some mathematically determinable error. Closing is the term applied to the precision and accuracy with which the measurements are made. The most common methods used are compass rule, transit rule, or least squares. Once this adjustment is complete, the relative positions of both the section corners and quarter corners and the random traverse points are known. By calculation all of the sub divisional parts of the section can be determined according to the rules of surveying as provided for by the federal statutes. This then allows calculation of the corners of the property being surveyed and the relative positions of those corners compared to the random traverse points.

Once this has been done, it is a relatively simple matter to stake the property by running from the random traverse points to the property corners. Often, the surveyors’ clients will see the surveyors working a goodly distance from the target property and wonder why. They might wonder what in the world they are doing so far from the actual property and the answer in most cases is that they are trying to establish or reestablish the horizontal control and are conducting a random traverse to do so. Once a random traverse has been established within a section or other government allocation, then that traverse can be used again and again, as long as the points are not disturbed or destroyed. Landowners and land development professionals should recognize this and discourage disturbance of these points, because they directly impact the work of the surveyor and thereby the cost.

For the same reason, it is often true that several ad joining tracts of land can be surveyed on a much more economic (on a per-tract) basis than just one piece. It is also the reason why the initial survey in any given section is more expensive than following surveys in most instances. While the liability of the surveyor does not appreciably change, the costs involved in actually accomplishing the survey are noticeably decreased upon establishment of horizontal control by random traverse.

The corners of the property can be marked using any number of different materials. Since the expense in establishing the corners is significant, it seems to us that the corners should be marked by something that is durable and recoverable, although it is amazing how many of the surveyor’s clients tend to scrimp at this stage. The cost per corner differential between a durable monument and something less is relatively small, so it seems logical to go with the best possible markers.

Property corners are typically marked by:

• Wood stakes
• Re-bar
• Iron pipes
• Concrete monuments
• Aluminum monuments

The least durable of these is the wood stake. They tend to rot (depending on the climate) within a few years and are gone. The best of the lot is probably the aluminum marker. These are very durable, and although they are not ferrous material, they can be located by a metal detector. They normally have implanted magnets in them to circumvent this drawback and actually provide better detector response. The aluminum monuments are durable, difficult to remove from the ground, and the surveyor likes them because of their lightweight and hence portability.

This is obviously a tremendously simplified overview of the general nature of a cadastral survey. Clearly, many, many complications arise during the typical survey, and 98% will not be as simple as the situation described here. However, the general procedure is always the same: find the controlling corners (original or perpetuated), establish horizontal control by random traverse, calculate the relationship of the property boundaries to the horizontal control, and set the corners of the property in question.

Most states now require that once a cadastral (property) survey has been conducted, that the surveyor place a map on the public record disclosing said survey. This is a valuable aid in perpetuating the survey of the lands, as it discloses a historical record of survey data. Up until the time such statutes were enacted, much valuable survey data was lost simply because of the lack of such publicly recorded information.

There are of course, many different types of surveys performed by the practicing surveyor. In addition to cadastral (property) surveys, they are called upon to conduct topographic surveys, construction surveys, control surveys, hydrographic surveys, serve as expert witnesses, and provide a host of other related services. SLDT