ACSM Bulletin 246

Protecting coastal areas Next generation crisis mapping

science

Draft 2011 ALTA / ACSM Standards adoptedThe Savvy Surveyor Putting ArcGIS 10 to work

Promoting Advancement in Surveying and Mapping No. 246

A C S M

BulletinBulletin

plus:

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august 2010 ACSM BULLETIN �

ACSM BULLETINThe official professional magazine

of AAGS, CaGIS, GLIS, and NSPS

American Association for Geodetic Surveying (AAGS): Barbara S. Littell (president), Curtis

L. Smith (president-elect), Michael L. Dennis (vice president), Ronnie Taylor (immediate past president),

Daniel J. Martin (treasurer). Directors: Edward E. Carlson, Karen Meckel [www.aagsmo.org,

240.6�2.894�]

Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CaGIS): Scott Freundschuh (president),

Kari J. Craun [president-elect], Terri Slocum (vice president), Alan Mikuni (immediate past president),

Kirk Eby (treasurer). Directors: Gregory Allord, Jean McKendry, Robert M. Edsall, Michael P. Finn,

R. Maxwell Baber, Sarah Battersby, Charley Frye [www.cartogis.org, 240.6�2.9522]

Geographic and Land Information Society (GLIS): J. Peter Borbas (president), Coleen M. Johnson

(vice president), Robert L. Young (immediate past president), Stacey Duane Lyle (treasurer), William M. (Bill) Coleman (secretary). Directors: David R.

Doyle, Bruce Hedquist, Francis W. Derby, Joshua Greenfeld

[www.glismo.org, 240.6�2.9700]

National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS): A. Wayne Harrison (president), William R. Coleman (president-elect), Robert Dahn (vice

president), John R. Fenn (secretary/treasurer), John D. Matonich (immediate past president), Patrick A. Smith (chairman, Board of Governors), J. Anthony Cavell (secretary, Board of Governors). Directors:

Stephen Gould (Area 1); Lewis H. Conley (Area 2); Joe H. Baird (Area 3); Wayne A. Hebert (Area 4); Jan

S. Fokens (Area 5); Larry Graham (Area 6); Jeffrey B. Jones (Area 7); Henry Kuehlem (Area 8); Carl R.

CdeBaca (Area 9); Timothy A. Kent (Area 10) [www.nspsmo.org, 240.6�2.8950]

ACSM Congress: Jerry Goodson (chair, NSPS). AAGS delegates: Daniel J. Martin (chair-elect), Steve Briggs; Wes

Parks (alternate). CAGIS delegates: Doug Vandegraft, Alan Mikuni; Aileen Buckley (alternate). GLIS delegates: Robert Young, J. Peter Borbas; William Coleman (alternate). NSPS delegates: John Matonich (treasurer), Rich Barr; John Fenn

(alternate). John Swan (NSPS Foundation representative, associate member); Patrick Kalen (Council of Sections

Representative, associate member), John Hohol (Sustaining Member Council representative), Curtis W. Sumner

(secretary, ACSM Executive Director)

EditorIlse Genovese

6 Montgomery Village Avenue, Suite 403, Gaithersburg, MD 20879. Ph: 240.632.9716, ext. 109. Fax: 240.632.1321.

E-mail: <[email protected]>. URL: www.webmazine.org © 2008 American Congress on Surveying and Mapping. The magazine assumes no liability for any statements made or opinions expressed in articles, advertisements, or other portions of this publication. The appearance of advertising in the ACSM Bulletin does not imply endorsement or warranty by the ACSM Congress of advertisers or their products.

ACSM BulletinISSN 0747-9417

EditorIlse Genovese

PublisherCurtis W. Sumner

the acsm bulletin is an off ic ia l publ icat ion of

AAGSAmerican Associat ion for Geodetic Surveying

CAGiS Cartography and Geographic Information Society

GLiSGeographic and Land Information Society

NSPSNational Society of Professional Surveyors

NSPS Foundation, inc NSPS Foundation, Inc

ACSM Sustaining Members

Autodesk , Inc . ♦ Berntsen In te rnat iona lB lue l ine Geo ♦ Ear l Dud ley Assoc ia tes ♦ ESRI

F i rs t Amer ican Data Tree ♦ Hugo Reed & Assoc ia tes Le ica Geosystems ♦ L IS Survey Techno log ies Corporat ion

Mage l lan ♦ NOAA , Nat iona l Geodet ic SurveyPro fess iona l Pub l i ca t ions , Inc ♦ Reed Bus iness – GEO

Roadway ♦ Rober t Bosch Too l Corporat ionSchonstedt Ins t rument Co ♦ SECO Manufactu r ing

S idney B . Bowne, LLP ♦ Sokk ia Corporat ion SuRv-KAP, Inc ♦ Topcon Pos i t ion ing Systems

Tr imb le Nav igat ion uSDI Bureau o f Land Management /Cadast ra l Survey

uSDI F i sh & Wi ld l i fe Serv ice uSDI Minera ls Management Serv ice

vic to r O. Sch innere r & Company

a ags, c agis , gl is , nsps S E R V E T O P R O M O T E T H E I N T E R E S T S O F G E O D E S I S T S , C A R T O G R A P H E R S , G I S E X P E R T S & S U R V E Y O R S

Schne ider Corporat ion

4 ACSM BULLETIN august 2010

the publisher: The American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM) and its member organizations—AAGS, CaGIS, GLIS, NSPS, and NSPS Foundation, Inc.; Sustaining Members; and Associate Councils.

editorial policy: The American Congress on Surveying and Mapping publishes the ACSM Bulletin to provide current scientific, technical and management information in the fields of surveying, cartography, geodesy, GIS, and photogrammetry, and to communicate news on developments in the geospatial data industry of interest to the member organizations of ACSM. ACSM is not responsible for any statements made or opinions expressed in articles, advertisements, or other portions of this publication. The appearance of advertising in the ACSM Bulletin does not imply endorsement or warranty by ACSM of advertisers or their products. Submit articles, press releases, and all other matter for consideration for publication to Ilse Genovese, Editor, ACSM Bulletin, 6 Montgomery Village Ave., Suite 403, Gaithersburg, MD 20879. E-mail:

<[email protected]>. Phone: 240/632-9716, ext. 109; Fax: 240/632-1321.

restrictions and permissions: Articles to which ACSM does not own rights are so identified at the end of the article. Permission to photocopy for internal or personal use may be obtained by libraries and other users who register with the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) by paying $2.50 per copy per article directly to CCC, 222 Rosewood Dr., Danvers, MA 01923. [Fee Code: 0747-9417/97 $2.50. © 2010 American Congress on Surveying and Mapping.] This consent does not extend to copying for general distribution, advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, or resale. Other requests to photocopy or otherwise reproduce material in this magazine should be addressed to the Editor, ACSM, 6 Montgomery Village Avenue, Suite 403, Gaithersburg, MD 20879. Phone: 240/ 632-9716, ext. 109. Fax: 240/ 632-1321.

circulation and copyright: ACSM Bulletin (ISSN 0747-9417) is published bimonthly—February, April, June, August, October, and December—by the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM), 6 Montgomery Village Avenue, Suite 403, Gaithersburg, MD 20879. Copyright 2010 American Congress on Surveying and Mapping. Periodicals postage paid at Gaithersburg, Md., and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to ACSM Bulletin, Member Services Department, 6 Montgomery Village Avenue, Suite 403, Gaithersburg, MD 20879.

membership inquiries/change of address: Membership Coordinator, 6, Montgomery Village Ave., Suite 403, Gaithersburg, MD 20879. Ph: 240.632.9716 ext. 105. Fax: 240.632.1321. E-mail: <[email protected]>. URL: www.acsm.net/membership.htmlsubscriptions: The 2010 subscription rate for the printed publication is $100 (U.S. addresses) or $115 (foreign addresses). Subscription rates for the online version are—online only: $100 (U.S. and International); online and print: $126 (U.S.) or $140 (International). Single copies are sold to non-members at $8 per copy, plus handling and postage. Membership dues include an annual subscription to the ACSM Bulletin ($40), which is part of membership benefits and cannot be deducted from annual dues. Single copies are sold to members (U.S. and foreign) at $6 per copy, plus handling and postage. Subscriptions handled by The Sheridan Press Subscriber Services: Ph. 717.632.3535 ext. 8188; Fax: 717.633.8920; E-mail: <[email protected]>.advertising: Current advertising rates displayed at http://www.webmazine.org. Inquiries: John D. Hohol, 608.358.6511. E-mail: <[email protected]>. printed by: The Sheridan Press, 450 Fame Av., Hannover, PA 17331. cover design by: Phil Wolfe Graphic Design, Hanover, Pennsylvania.

A C S M

Bulletin

g a r y k . k e n t

(Draft 2011 ALTA/ACSM Survey Standards adopted, p. 29), The Schneider Corporation, Indianapolis, Indiana.

<[email protected]>

m e l i n d a p e a c o c k (Putting ArcGIS desktop to work, p. 21) is a GIS cartographer and cadastral mapper currently pursuing surveying studies.

<[email protected]>

r . w . g l a s s e y (The Savvy Surveyor, p. 25) owns PLS Inc in Issaquah, Washington.<[email protected]>

g e r r y c u r t i s (review of Understanding the Cultural Landscape, p. 31), is president of Gerry Curtis Associates, Inc., Ft. Worth, Texas. <[email protected]>

r o b e r t d e n a r o (Map-enabled technologies bolster green driving efforts, p. 23 ), is vice president of ADAS, NAVTEQ

g u n t h e r g r e u c h l i c h (Re: The Evolution of a National Voice, p. 32 ), is ACSM Fellow, former ACSM president, and owner of Gunther Engineering of Boston, Mass.

<[email protected]>

Among our contributors

w w w . w e b m a z i n e . o r g

l a n d o n b l a k e (Levee networks in low-lying coastal areas, p. 10) is Project Surveyor, KSN, Inc., Stockton, California. <[email protected]>

official magazine of the american congress on surveying and mapping

A C S M

Bulletinaugust 2010 no. 246

www.webmazine.org

On point cloud technology and laser scanning — By Tony Rogers

Ushahidi Haiti and Chile — By Sophia B. Liu, Anahi Ayala Iacucci, and Patrick Meier

Surveying and Mapping in 3D 39

Of sun activity and weather — By Stuart Clark

42Calm Before a Storm of Energy

1 7

10Levees in Low-lying Coastal Areas A land surveyor’s perspective —By Landon Blake

Next Generation Crisis Mapping

23Green Driving Bolstered by map-enabled techniques — By Robert Denarao

on the coverFront Cover: Lake Crescent, photographed from Storm King in Olympic National Park (bottom of page). Photo of Lake Crescent and Olympic Mountains taken from Spruce Railroad Trail in Olympic National Park. Back cover: Mount Baker and Dungeness Valley. Photo taken from “Township Line Road” area. Township Line Road runs between Township 29 North and Township 30 North, Range West, W.M. [All photos @James Wengler, PLS, CFedS]

A C S M

Bulletindepartment s

GISworld Putting ArcGIS 10 desktop to work 21

NextMap USA 30Chesapeake Bay restoration tracked 41

Comments PageRe: The Evolution of a National Voice, ACSM Bulletin no. 244, April 2010 32

Columns The Savvy Surveyor 2

Ask Dr. Map! On the slippery slope 27ALTA standards: 2011 draft adopted 29

What can COFPAES do for you? 3Ask Vic! Project responsibilities in client-drafted contracts 37

Opinion Scientists should start listening 4

Book Reviews Understanding the Cultural Landscape 31

Duel at Dawn: Heroes, Martyrs and the Rise of Modern Mathematics 36

www.webmazine.org

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-Triple operation—base, RTK rover, or network rover

-Triple communications—cellular, UHF radio, spread spectrum

-Hot swappable batteries for continuous use

-SIM card slot

-Bluetooth

From the time it was introduced three

years ago, no other receiver has matched

the GR-3. Only surveyors can appreciate

its full range of features and productivity

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—ACSM and ASPRS endorsed in August a slate of candidates for appointment to the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC). Both organizations strongly support the objective of NGAC regarding the National Spatial Data Infrastructure and its critical role in our Nation’s future development. Among the candidates endorsed by ACSM and ASPRS are individuals with a wide breadth of technical knowledge. Among those nominated was Anne Hale Miglarese, of Booz Allen Hamilton, who was re-appointed. The new appointments (listed in alphabetical order) are: Gary Florence, Susan Marlow (Smart Data Strategies), Patrick Olson (Aero-Metric), John Palatiello (MAPPS), Gary Thompson (North Carolina Geodetic Survey).

—Four seamounts located southeast of the Marshall Island in the Pacific Ocean and named Randall Seamount Group honor the accomplishments of the Randall family in surveying and mapping for over 90 years, many spent on survey ships conducting hydrographic surveys. The geographic name Randall Seamount Group was recently approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, and the location of the seamounts was mapped by the Maritime Domain of the National Geospatial-intelligence Agency (NGA). Four members of the Randall family, one of whom played an important role in the creation of ACSM, are being honored. The patriarch, Robert H. Randall (1890-1966) launched a program for geodetic and topographic surveying and mapping and is credited with efforts to establish, within the Pan American Institute of Geography and History (PAIGH), a Commission on Geography. Robert Randall is also remembered as one of the first who championed a national body of surveyors and mappers—ACSM.

— With prayers and the solemn tolling of bells, but

also with second-line parades and the drumming of Mardi Gras Indians, New Orleanians took stock on August 29th of their rebuilt lives in the five years since the worst event in the Gulf region’s history, and promised each other: “We are not rebuilding the city that was; we are rebuilding the city that is to be.” —Bruce Nolan, The Times-Picayune

A C S M

Bulletin w w w . w e b m a z i n e . o r g

In Point of Fact —

—The National Geographic Society awarded in July Alexander Graham Bell Medals to two visionary geographers and GIS pioneers—Dr. Roger Tomlinson, known as “the father of GIS,” and Jack Dangermond, a trailblazer in spatial analysis methods. The Alexander Graham Bell Medal, named for the inventor and the second president of the National Geographic Society, is awarded for extraordinary achievement in geographic research. Bell’s great-grandson, NGS chairman Gilbert M. Grosvenor, presented the medals to Tomlinson and Dangermond.

—Be a “Thought Leader” and tell your story at The Esri - ACSM Survey Summit, July 7-12, 2011. Submit an abstract of your presentation by December 6, 2010 to have a major role in creating an invaluable Survey Summit experience for the attendees. For more information, go to: http://www.thesurveysummit.com/get_involved/index.html.

—Service providers must embrace cloud services and bundle them into their solutions for small as well as medium- and large-scale enterprises, according to the latest report from Analysys Mason (www.analysysmason), Enterprise cloud services: Worldwide forecast 2010-2015. The report found the global market for enterprise cloud-based services will grow from $12.1 billion in 2010 to $35.6 billion in 2015.

—Trimble and Timmons Group to partner on a Wetland Delineation System expected to improve efficiency and accuracy of collecting data on vegetation, hydrology, and soils. The solution combines Trimble Mapping & GIS handheld computers with WetCollect™, a software for wetland delineation from Timmons Group. Historically, data on wetlands were collected through handwritten field notes which were manually entered into data forms on a desktop computer and printed for submission. With the new solution, delineators can perform this process digitally in the field, leaving pen and paper behind. The data collection and submission process are thus more efficient and more accurate.

august 2010 ACSM BULLETIN 9

—from the editorThe ACSM Bulletin is at a crossroads. Because of the negative impact of the economy on revenues, the final three 2010 editions, beginning with this one, will be provided online only. A “digital Bulletin” has been in the works for some time, as the archive of past issues at www.webmazine.org attests. This August issue is a step up; it’s a dynamic digital edition that you can read as you would a printed magazine. In fact, what you love about the ACSM Bulletin in print will now be delivered to you online—and more. The ACSM Bulletin came into existence in June 1941, when the newly organized National Congress on Survey-ing and Mapping issued a small “bulletin” reporting on the first meeting of the organization. This Report and three subsequent issues of the Bulletin appeared as volume 1 in the Index to Surveying and Mapping for the years 1941-1960. The Bulletin of Surveying and Mapping continued as a quarterly publication until July 1944 when the name “Bulletin” was omitted from the cover and the issue was published as an issue of Surveying and Mapping. Almost two decades later, in November 1961, the ACSM Board of Direction authorized the publication of a “news Bulletin” between issues of Surveying and Mapping which would go on to evolve into an academic journal. The Bulletin grew in both content and popularity. So much so that in summer 1971, it was decided that the Bulletin would be produced as a magazine. The editor of the anniversary 37th issue of the newly minted Bulletin magazine was the late Earle J. Fennell, past president of ACSM and former ACSM executive director. His editorial expresses aspirations for ACSM and its publishing efforts which endure to this day.

“Few are the opportunities for the principal officer of a company, an institution, or a professional society to address his associates directly in order to .... set forth the directions to be taken, which he believes important to those he represents. This statement is even more accurate when applied to an organization having broad national and international membership with related yet independently developing disciplines. Therefore, it is indeed an especially happy opportunity to be able to approach all of our membership from the forum of this first issue of the newly expanded Bulletin. .... Our new Bulletin will give the basis for a more comprehensive dialogue, a much fuller voice to those of you who wish to communicate your views and exchange professional information with your associates. It is expected too that the important pro-grams of the technical divisions will be explored for all of us in each issue, for this Congress is designed to function in the areas of greatest potential benefit to you. You not only need to know but should actively want to know what developments are occurring in the primary areas of your interest. With your contribu-tion, we feel confident that the Bulletin will become rapidly a most important extension of membership service and a further medium for dissemination of information on all levels of surveying and mapping.”

The initial issues of the Bulletin magazine were sent to all ACSM members and subscribers, to all members of ACSM affiliates who were not ACSM members, and to department heads of universities and colleges who were active in, or related to, educational programs in surveying and mapping. In addition, it was made available to princi-pal officials in federal, state, and other government agencies having interest in surveying and to principal officers of private organizations with similar interests. The reach of magazines such as ours has fallen through the decades for all the obvious reasons, but everything is relative. ACSM hopes to continue to engage members and subscribers through the ACSM Bulletin. So now begins a new era for the magazine. We are pressing on with our aspirations for a dynamic digital publication and hope that in 2011, we’ll be able to provide the option of a print edition as well. We have a mission to fulfill, and work to do.

Ilse Genovese


Levee networks are an important part of flood control systems that protect real property parcels from damage by floods. Land survey-

ors play a critical role in creating and maintaining these levee networks. This article will help you understand what a levee is and how levees link to form levee networks. I will examine the impact of levee networks on land use and land planning in low lying coastal areas and explain how land surveyors working in low-lying coastal areas create and maintain levee networks. I will share with you information from my own experience working as a land surveyor in the California Sacramento / San Joaquin Delta.

the deltaThe California Sacramento / San Joaquin Delta is a region of rich agricultural land located at the confluence of several California rivers of which the Sacramento River is the largest. The Delta receives water from about 40 percent of the land drained by the rivers, including snow melt from the Sierra Nevada, Cascades, and Coastal mountain ranges. Water from the Delta’s drainage area created the historic Tule swamps; these swamps and the silt carried down from higher eleva-tion have formed deposits of rich peat soil. The river waters are influenced by the tides in the San Francisco Bay. In fact, most of the Delta is below sea level and would be flooded by the tides without the protection of an extensive levee network.

The levee network in the Delta contains more than 1,000 miles of levees which protect more than 50 Delta islands and tracts.1 The Delta land mass, including the Delta levees, are slowly subsiding or sinking. This subsidence and other factors that weaken levees over time require that the Delta levees be regularly raised and strengthened.

what is a levee?A levee is a berm or dam, usually constructed of earthen material, and built as a linear feature along a river, channel, or shoreline to hold back flood

waters. The typical levee has a water body on one side and dry land that it protects from flooding on the other side. In the Delta, the land being protected is lower than the water surface on the other side of the levee. This dif-ference in elevation means that the risk of flooding in the Delta is high. Many levee networks include “dryland levees” con-structed a short distance landward from the levees built at the water’s edge. These set back levees serve as backup levees and are often larger and more substantial than the levees between the water body and the land. In the Delta, they are often constructed along natural ridges or some other high ground.

Most levees in the Sacramento / San Joaquin Delta follow a common cross-sectional pattern. The people who work with levees, including land surveyors, must be familiar

a land surveyor’s perspective

Levee networks in low-lying coastal areas—by Landon Blake

1 A Delta island is surrounded by water on all sides, while a Delta tract typically has high ground on one or more of its sides.


with the features that make up a levee cross-section. The levee cross-section begins at the waterside toe of the levee, usually found underneath the water surface of the adjacent water body. In the Delta, the waterside toe of a levee may be exposed at very low tides. As a result, hydrographic surveying techniques are usually required to locate the levee toe.

The next feature is the riprap armor which is placed on the waterside slope (the portion of the levee between the waterside toe and the waterside hinge point) of the levee to protect against erosion. The riprap is usually a quarry stone 18” in diameter.

The line formed against the waterside slope of the levee by the water surface of the adjacent water body is the edge of the water line. In the Delta, the location of this line

will fluctuate with the Bay tides and the level of water in the river channel between levees.

The waterside hinge point is the next prominent feature of the levee cross-section, located above the edge of the water line. It marks the landward limit of the waterside slope of the levee and the start of the levee crown. It is also the landward limit of the riprap placed on the levee.

A small splash berm may be placed at the waterside hinge point to protect against wave action (or “splashes”) during a flood event.

Land surveying control points are typically located at or near the waterside hinge point during levee improvement projects. Levees are expanded landward, or inland, and the waterside hinge point is usually the only part of the levee crown that remains undisturbed during construction.

Aerial photograph of the Delta. The berm islands around the flooded Sherman Island are visible in the upper right corner. [Credit: Doc Searls http://www.flickr.com/photos/docsearls/3797363614/sizes/o/in/photostream/]


The crown of the levee is at the levee’s top located between the waterside hinge point of the levee and its toe on land. The levee centerline (see opposite) controls the levee alignment for surveying and civil engi-neering purposes. Often, the crown serves as a road along which one can travel the length of the levee.

The land-side hinge point is the landward side of the levee crown. It also marks the top of the land-side slope of the levee, while the land-side toe marks the bottom of the land-side slope. The levee abuts to the land being protected at the land-side toe. Some improved levees have a large earthen toe berm at the land-side toe to improve stability. In the Delta, a toe ditch near the levee’s land-side toe collects water seeping through the levee and runoff from irrigation or rain storms.

what is a levee network?A levee network is a system of levees providing flood control within a geographic region or watershed. Typically, a levee network will cor-respond to a particular hydrographic

system (a river system or shoreline of a water body). However, the size and scope of a levee network is a matter of perspective. It could be as small as a single levee around one tract or island or large enough to include all

The Calaveras River and its levees in Stockton, California. The Calaveras River flows between the Smith Tract and Sargent Barhard Tract in Stockton.

The crown of the levee running on the north side of Smith Tract.


the levees protecting the islands in the Delta.

Levees within a levee network can be connected in several ways. A levee can connect to itself, forming a closed figure or loop. The levee on McDonald Island in the Delta is an example of a “self-connecting” levee. A levee may connect to a levee with a different size or cross-section. In the Delta, some levees terminate on high ground. An example of this type of a connection is the north Smith Tract levee in Stockton, California, which ends on high ground near the mouth of the Calaveras River. A levee can be bisected by a dryland levee: the levees on Robert’s Island, for instance, are bisected by the High Ridge Levee running underneath Inland Drive. A levee may terminate in another geographic feature, such as an elevated roadway or railroad bed. It may also be terminated by another flood control structure, such as a flood gate across a river channel.

Levee networks play a critical role in the flood control systems of low-lying coastal areas. They are built to work together with other components of an area’s drainage system—dams, flood gates, water pumps—in responding to flood events.

The Delta’s drainage system is designed to move ground water, rain-fall, and agricultural runoff through the protected land parcels into a river or slough adjacent to a levee network. To keep the low-lying Delta islands and tracts dry, the initial configuration as well as rigorous maintenance of the network of levees surrounding the islands are extremely important.

building and maintaining leveesThe health of a levee network is dependent upon the condition of the individual levee segments within the network, which, in turn, depends on where and how the levees have been built and maintained. Most Delta levees begin as natural or shoe string levees created from sediment deposited by rivers or sloughs as they overflow their banks. They were enlarged and strengthened during the reclamation of the Delta and converted into man-made levees, while the Tule swamps behind them were drained and converted to agri-cultural land.

All levees require regular mainte-nance; otherwise they will fail, and the erosion caused by a levee failure

will destroy much of the failed levee. If not repaired, the remnants of the levee may become small berm islands, just like those around the permanently flooded Sherman Island in the Delta.

With the passage of enough time, a poorly maintained dryland levee may turn into a berm or ridge that appears to be part of the natural topography. The danger then is that if they are removed as part of grading or excava-tion for agricultural or other land use, the land will be exposed to flooding.

Levee maintenance may involve substantial improvements to the levee’s size and structure in order to counter subsidence or major erosion, or more routine maintenance to stop minor degradation.

Routine maintenance includes plac-ing riprap around the levee, cleaning sediment and vegetation from the toe ditches, removing vegetation from the land-side and waterside slopes of the levee, controlling animals that burrow into the levee core, improving the levee road on the levee crown, and dredging the channel of the river or slough on the waterside of the levee.

Both the construction and mainte-nance of a levee involves consider-

Reclamation districts in the Sacramento / San Joaquin Delta

Brian Leiser, Survey Party Chief, performs a topographic and boundary survey of a pump station operated by Recla-mation District Number 1614 on Smith Tract, in Stockton.

levee surveying


able expense. As a result, levees are not allowed to significantly deteriorate. However, levees can be destroyed in certain circum-stances. For example: A levee may be removed as part of a new land development project involving infrastructure for a new subdivision or an environmental restoration project.

levee administrationThe levee network in the California Sacramento / San Joaquin Delta is administered by several federal, state, and local government agencies.

At the federal level, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are actively involved in the Delta’s levee network. State agencies include the Department of Water Resources, the Department of Fish and Game, the

State Lands Commission, and the Central Valley Flood Protection Board.

Among the local agencies are the various public works and the planning, flood control, and channel mainte-nance departments of cities and counties. Reclamation districts act as the levee network administrators for individual Delta islands and tracts.

These agencies regulate a number of activities related to levee opera-tions, including:

The construction, repair, and improvement of levees.The destruction and removal of levees.Placement of structures (docks, sheds, pools, etc.) on or near levees.Construction of utilities, roads, railroads, and other infrastructure on, near, underneath, over, or across levees.Land use and land development of parcels adjacent to or protected by levees.Recreational and navigational use of waterways bounded by levees.The sheer size of the undertaking

requires good inter- and intra-agency communications to avoid creating chal-lenges for parcel owners and organiza-tions involved in levee administration.

land useBuilding levees impacts land use and land development, and the likely nature of the impact must be considered during the levee plan-ning process. For instance, parcels protected by levees may have higher land use value.

As land values increase, so must the investment in the protective levee increase. If resources for adequate levee management are not allocated, the regulating authority may disallow higher land use values on protected parcels. This problem is often encountered when land developers seek to convert agricultural parcels protected by a levee network into

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commercial, residential, or industrial parcels.

Levees are considered to be physical features much like railroads or interstates, but if they are not prop-erly planned they can act as a barrier to developing the protected land parcels. It is difficult and expensive to build roads, pipelines, canals, utility lines, and other infrastructure over, under, or through a levee. As a result, these features are more often than not built within the bounds of the

“cells” created by a levee network, running alongside the levees and only crossing them at select locations, such as an existing road bridge.

Levee networks also impose restrictions on the land uses of the plots adjacent to the levees. For instance, activities which involve excavation or vibration and encroach-ments onto the levee are prohibited.

the role of land surveyorsLand surveyors play a critical role in the creation and maintenance of levee networks.

Several types of surveys are executed to support the design and maintenance of levee networks. Profile and cross-section surveys or break-line topographic surveys define the position and shape of the levee, the adjacent water body, and improvements on the adjacent parcels.

Hydrographic surveys are needed to locate the waterside toe of the levee, to discover erosion sites between the edge of water and waterside toe of the levee, and to determine the course of the river channel for analysis of water flow and water surface elevations and shape.

Before a levee can be constructed, a construction survey control must be set on the project site, followed by surveys to calculate material quanti-ties and to create as-built drawings.

Topographic, hydrographic, and construction surveys must be

Pump on the north side of Smith Tract used to pump run-off up and into the Calaveras River.


executed on a solid survey control basis, requiring control networks be established for individual islands, tracts, and larger portions of the levee network,

Levees must be constructed and maintained on and within the levee right-of-way. The right-of-way may be held in fee simple or as an easement by the primary levee administrator, usually the local reclamation district or levee maintenance district.

Levee right-of-way boundaries must be located during major levee improvement projects. Challenges to locating the boundaries include:

Finding the deeds that create and convey levee right-of-way; Lack of monuments marking levee right-of-way;

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Identifying errors and problems with the parcel geometry descriptions in the deeds that create and convey levee right-of-way; Locating riparian boundaries along the waterside of the levee;Correcting previous surveys of the levee right-of-way that were performed improperly; and Resolving overlapping property interests in the levee.2

A land surveyor not directly involved with levee maintenance and construction may still have to deal with levee and flood control issues when working for owners of parcels adjacent to or protected by a levee network. In many cases the land surveyor becomes an advocate of the

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owners’ rights and adviser. As such, a land surveyor may be called on to prepare elevation certificates and flood maps or survey levee right-of-way for improvements near the levee.

Land surveyors work with various entities engaged in the development of parcels protected by and adjacent to levees. They also contribute to network administration by way of maintaining geospatial datasets for parcels, flood control assets (including the levees), transportation networks, land use, and hydrographic networks. Land surveyors may also participate in preparing for parcel tax assessments that are used to fund levee maintenance and annexations to levee or flood control districts.Their skills in mapping can be used to prepare flood fight and evacuation maps for emergency planning.

In the Delta, land surveyors conduct regular inventories of levee networks. They locate and catalog the condition of roads, gates, ramps, pumps, siphons, ditches, canals, buildings on or near the levees, boat docks, out-fall pipes, and utilities. These inventories are conducted by truck, boat, all terrain vehicles, foot, and from information collected via aerial photography.

the futureThe future presents several chal-lenges to effective and affordable levee network administration in the Sacramento / San Joaquin Delta. Should sea levels rise, this may increase the need to raise and widen levees so that they can cope with more frequent and more severe flooding.

Another consequence of possible climate change, reduction in the amount of fresh water, may increase competition for this resource and adversely impact agricultural activity

A new residential development in the Sacramento / San Joachim Delta that requires a significant investment in levee improvement.

2 In some cases multiple levee easements will be laid over the same portion of real property. This same real property may be burdened by easements for other infrastructure, utilities, and land conservation purposes.

levee surveying


in the Delta region by the communi-ties that fund levee maintenance and construction.

As the population in California grows there will be more demand to convert agricultural land protected by levees into land for houses, shops, warehouses and factories. An honest evaluation would likely reveal that continuing to pave over prime agricul-tural land in an area prone to flood-ing is not the wisest land planning strategy. However, it is not unusual to see developers apply political and economic pressure to ensure that they can build on such land.

Funding for levee maintenance and construction projects has slowed down due to the recent economic recession. This may have conse-quences for the future, with the maintenance of the levee network in the Delta being deferred down the road and communities suffering from damages caused by more frequent flood events.

Another major challenge that needs to be tackled by civil engineers and land surveyors is to educate land owners about the benefits and consequences of living behind a levee network. The public’s ignorance about levees and how they protect

land from flooding is almost as con-spicuous as its lack of appreciation of the role of land surveyors in land management in general.

Land surveyors engaged in the administration of the Delta’s levee networks themselves face certain technical challenges. The first is poor land surveying practices implemented by both government agencies and private companies working in the Delta. This needs to change.

The second challenge is a con-tinued deterioration of boundary evidence necessary to locate levee right-of-way. This is a problem in the Delta because government agencies which hold the levee right-of-way in the Delta rarely mark and record these rights.

The third factor is the continual evo-lution of national, regional, and local land surveying datums. Land survey-ors are required to integrate historical surveying and flood data based on changing national or regional datums which may have local variations. Accurate elevations are critical for flood hazard prevention in a region as large as the Sacramento / San Joaquin Delta. Datum differences and datum adjustments make the process

of providing this accurate elevation data more complicated.

The final survey-specific challenge to levee network administration is discovering the appropriate uses of new geospatial and surveying technologies. Land surveyors must determine what role GIS, LIDAR, laser scanning, mobile computing, side scan sonar, and similar tools play in building and maintaining levees and how best to use them for the benefit of the owners of land protected by levees and local government.

conclusionThousands of parcels and hundreds of thousands of people live behind levee networks. These levee networks provide critical flood protection to our society. Land surveyors play a critical role in the proper functioning of these levee networks, and will be key to overcoming the challenges presented by these networks in the future.

Pump station used to channel agricultural runoff into Burn’s Cut Off from fields on Middle Robert’s Island. Crops of asparagus and corn are visible on the sides of the drainage canal.

A view of Burns Cut Off and its south levee along the north side of Middle Roberts Island.

levee surveying


Ushahidi, which means

“testimony” in Swahili, began as a one-off deployment for mapping reports of post-election violence after the December 2007 Kenyan elections. Ory Okolloh, co-founder of Ushahidi, initially shared reports she received about the violence through her blog. She soon became overwhelmed by the amount of crisis data she was receiving and asked if it was possible to create a website

that would allow anyone to publicly report crisis information and “put” it on a map so that everybody could see where the information was coming from. This resulted in a group of volunteer developers and designers in Africa and the U.S. creating a website enabling public collection of near real-time crisis information via mobile phones, e-mail, and the web submission page.

The hope behind creating the Ushahidi map mashup was that this

crowdsourced information would mobilize people to assist other members of the public in a crisis and mobilize governments to react.

A number of humanitarian organiza-tions have argued that information during a crisis is as important as food and water. Ushahidi does not treat information in a vacuum but, rather, treats it as part of a crisis “ecosys-tem” informed by two-way commu-nication.

Ushahidi Haiti and Chile: Next Generation Crisis Mapping—by Sophia B. Liu, Anahi Ayala Iacucci, and Patrick Meier

Ushahidi-Haiti [http://haiti.ushahidi.com/]


As such, Ushahidi does not just facilitate crowdsourcing of crisis information from the public but it also facilitates crowdfeeding of crisis information via the web or by subscribing to location-specific SMS (short message service) alerts.

In May 2009, Ushahidi launched a free and open source software (FOSS) called the Ushahidi Engine, a crisis mapping platform allowing anyone to adapt this mashup as a live mapping tool for any local situation.

The potential of this tool to “rally the public” may have contributed to the definition of Ushahidi in Wikipedia as “an initial model for what has been coined as “activist mapping”—the combination of social activism, citizen journalism and geospatial information … while simultaneously creating a temporal and geospatial archive of events.”

Ushahidi’s use during the 2010 Haiti and Chile earthquakes as a web platform for aggregating, monitoring, and mapping real-time crisis reports from different media sources improved trans-parency, accountability, and coordination of relief efforts, thereby legitimizing map mashups produced and used by members of the public.

ushahidi haitiWithin two hours of the 7.0 magni-tude earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, Patrick Meier and David Kobia along with colleagues from the International Network of Crisis Mappers had created an Ushahidi-Haiti instance (http://haiti.ushahidi.com) and interactively customized it.1

Four days later, Ushahidi partners launched the 4636 SMS short code in Haiti, thereby enabling free mobile reporting of emergency needs and offers of help with location informa-tion via texting.

To help with the near real-time crisis mapping efforts, Meier facili-tated crisis mapping training events at the Fletcher Ushahidi Situation Room and ultimately mobilized over 300 student volunteers from Tufts University and beyond to comb the web for Haiti-related crisis informa-tion and map it on the Ushahidi Haiti page. More than 3,500 reports had been manually mapped by the time this article was written in late July.

The Ushahidi partners also worked with several thousand Haitian volun-teers to crowdsource the translation of SMS messages and other crisis reports from Creole to English as well as determine specific location information in Haiti.

Because of this tremendous crisis mapping effort, Ushahidi Haiti became an important source of near real-time, geo-tagged crisis informa-tion for the U.S. Coast Guard, the Joint Task Force Command Center, the U.S. State Department, the Red Cross, the UN Foundation, the International Medical Corps, the Clinton Foundation, and other first responder organizations.

ushahidi chileDevelopers Patrick Meier and David Kobia also launched a copy of the Ushahidi-Haiti map for Chile immediately after that country was struck by a powerful 8.8 magnitude earthquake on February 27, 2010. That same afternoon, Meier invited students from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) to collaborate. Just 48 hours after that, the Ushahidi-Chile instance (http://chile.ushahidi.com) was launched, and a group of 60 SIPA volunteers trained by Digital Democracy (http://digital-democracy.org) began monitoring social and tra-

ditional media reports from Chile. On the first day, the volunteers manually mapped over 100 incidents. In two days, Ushahidi-Chile had over 150 volunteers who had mapped, in three days, over 700 reports. By late July, Ushahidi-Chile volunteers have manu-ally mapped nearly 1,200 reports.

crowdsourcing and social netsourcing Ushahidi Chile was implemented using Ushahidi-Haiti as a template; in addition, it also utilized the social ties that bound the trusted network of volunteer mappers mobilized during the Haiti crisis. Meier calls this type of crowdsourcing “netsourcing.” After the information had been gath-ered, free cloud computing tools (i.e., Google Groups, Google Docs, Skype Public Chat) and social media sites (i.e. Facebook Groups, Events) were used to coordinate the distributed mapping efforts. For example, multiple Google Groups were set up to broadcast instruction information to the volunteers and to coordinate mapping contributions using the Ushahidi platform. Multiple Google Documents and Spreadsheets were also set up to serve as public sign-up sheets for netsourcing as well as to facilitate media monitoring and crisis mapping activities in an efficient way through self-organization. A Media Monitoring List Google Spreadsheet for Ushahidi-Haiti con-tained over 350 individual source links to online Haitian radio stations, news sites, Twitter users, Facebook groups, and blogs that carried breaking news about the Haiti earthquake. The Media Monitoring List for Ushahidi-Chile contained over 250 links to official governmental Twitter feeds from Chile, Twitter users, Twitter lists, Twitter Spanish speaking experts, Spanish and English news sites,

Crisis management with GIS

1 Google Maps was first used as the basemap for the Ushahidi deployment in Haiti, but then the OpenStreetMap (http://www.open-streetmap.org) for Haiti quickly became far more detailed than any other street map available for that country.


blogs, Facebook groups, and other relevant links. Google Docs was invaluable in facilitating real-time editing among multiple users and live, ad hoc updates of the Ushahidi maps.

Instant communication within the distributed Ushahidi volunteer net-work and with the partner organiza-tions on the ground was implemented via Skype Public Chats. All Skype Chat communications were automati-cally transcribed and the digital trace was used as a record to keep organi-zations up to speed.

Facebook Groups and Events were used to recruit additional volunteers,

inform them about training events, and provide updates on other Usha-hidi-related activities.

ushahidi vs classical gis mapsWhat makes the Ushahidi maps different from classical GIS maps is its ability to visualize interactions. The Ushahidi map is a living map of crowdsourced crisis data visualized

“on top” of the static GIS map, the base layer. The Ushahidi map makes it possible to follow the situation developing on the ground because of its ability to show the interactions between the event and the place where this event has occurred and

the reaction of the people living at the location impacted by the event. In addition, the Ushahidi map is also a witness to the interactions between the people managing the platform and the people reporting to the platform, and the interaction between the people in need and the responders.

Tools like Google Groups, Skype Chat, Twitter and Facebook, which are fundamental in bridging the map-ping and response efforts, are the living parts of the map. The mashup itself is the structure that allows those interactions to be represented as well as to take place. The result is a multi-dimensional geospatial

Google Docs: Getting started



representation which brings to life the communities living in the visualized space and their responses to crisis events.

GIS mapping is still a fundamental part of the Ushahidi system, but the social network that lies behind the static map is now an integral part of this system. The availability of free and open source software has made it possible for volunteers to create a comprehensive map without training or prior knowledge of cartographic principles.2

The innovation we thus see emerg-ing from distributed crisis mapping is the dynamic creation of Ushahidi maps: Ushahidi Haiti and Chile were not mere representations of space, but rather living records of the situa-tions reported by the people inhabit-ing that space, and of the social activism that elicited responses to the events represented. Another inno-

vation is geo-tagging of crisis reports, i.e., providing their GPS coordinates to responders on the ground.

The Ushahidi map mashups are now viewed as an effective crisis response resource largely because of the comprehensive, geo-tagged, up-to-date crisis maps created, by volunteers, for use by the humanitar-ian community responding to the 2010 Haiti and Chile earthquakes.

Geo-tagged, networked crisis map-ping during the Haiti and Chile crises has proved extremely effective in rescuing earthquake victims, locating the nearest hospitals, and administer-ing aid supplies. The social benefit of networked crisis mapping is that it offers an opportunity for anybody who wants to volunteer their time to contribute to a disaster relief effort in a tangible manner.

In a networked world, we all now have the ability and the opportunity to participate in crisis management through activities such as crisis mapping.

About the authorsSophia B. Liu ([email protected]) is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a Technology, Media and Society PhD Candidate in the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Anahi Ayala Iacucci ([email protected]) is the Director of Ushahidi-Chile at SIPA. She currently advises Internews Network and Freedom House on their Ushahidi plat-form projects in Kenya and Egypt.

Patrick Meier ([email protected]) is director of Crisis Mapping at Ushahidi and a PhD Candidate at The Fletcher School, Tufts University. He is also a pre-doctoral fellow at Stanford University and the co-founder of the International Network of Crisis Mappers.


2 It would have been difficult for volunteers to create a typical GIS map since such maps are often produced using proprietary software that is often expensive to get and requires formal training to use.


ArcGIS 10 has arrived. This ver-

sion is said to be easier to understand and use. I find that many land sur-veying and engineering companies use the basic ArcGIS level, ArcView, simply because of limited in-house expertise with GIS. However, Michael Ludvigsen, Jr., of Benton & Associates Incorporated in Jacksonville, Illinois, has observed that his company has begun moving utility mapping for cli-ents from AutoCad to ArcGIS, perhaps because more counties in Illinois are now acquiring good quality aerial pho-tography.

The use of aerial photography to create a map that is tied to a town-ship grid has drastically changed the mapping industry and has propelled us into what I call the ‘digital revolution. This will change the way maps are viewed—a paperless dawn. City and county officials can view their town-ships like onto an x-ray. Utility systems laid out within a sectional grid can be more accurately placed by aerial pho-tography. Workers digging up a utility line can use ArcGIS and aerial photog-raphy together to measure off exactly where to dig. And officials can visual-ize the terrain and pipeline locations in reference to buildings, trees, and other obstacles that may complicate the work. This was unheard of 25 years ago.

“The greatest benefit,” says Ludwig-sen, “is that the ArcGIS is able to mesh various types of data in completely dif-ferent formats into a finished product that is tailored to our client’s needs.”

As surveyors arrive at work and sit down to their computers, they do not have to worry about downloading soft-ware, installing applications, and fixing the bugs of a program—that is the job of the IT department and so is setting

up ArcGIS desktop, although a GIS specialist would most likely be able to handle the task too. Once ArcGIS is in place and you have downloaded your local mapping grid, using ArcGIS 10 is simply a matter of time and practice.

The local County office—usually its Recorder, GIS professional, or Appraiser—will provide the data you will need, and, if you are lucky, the data may even be available on a digital grid. You can then either perform your work in AutoCad or other formats and upload that work to ArcGIS or you can use ArcGIS to get all the work done in one location.

The map you create will be more visual and easier for your clients to understand, which would help them make more knowledgeable decisions for the city, the county, or some other jurisdiction.

ArcGIS desktop is revolutionizing digital mapping. With ArcGIS, survey-ing and engineering companies can now produce better mapping products faster, and in a more efficient manner. These products can be send to clients electronically, in a viewable format, via their laptops, iphones, or ipads for instant viewing at a meeting. Gone is the need to run copies, send them by FedEx, and hope that they arrive on-time. Instead, show your clients their world, their investment through a pro-fessional product built from surveyor grade data and leveraging surveyors’ expertise in an environment moving toward digital mapping.

Putting ArcGIS desktop to work—by Melinda Peacock

ArcGIS assists CGIAR increase agricultural productivity

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) signed a site license with Esri providing its

15 research centers throughout the world with access to ArcGIS software. CGIAR works in collaboration with hun-dreds of government, civil society, and private organizations to reduce poverty and hunger, improve human health and nutrition, and create greater ecosystem resilience. Esri’s geographic information system (GIS) technology will be imple-mented in the centers to foster programs for sustainable agricultural growth ben-efiting the poor.

“This site license agreement will ensure that scientists in every center have access to the GIS technology they need to continue their important work including the creation of data col-lections on population, poverty, climate, soils, crops, livestock, transportation, and biodiversity,” says Enrica Porcari, chief information officer of CGIAR. The centers will provide spatial applica-tions that help users more readily see and understand interrelationships between such subjects as urban and rural markets, crop production, defor-estation, and soil erosion.

Esri’s ArcGIS will provide the plat-form for collaborative efforts in GIS-based agricultural research at global, regional, and local levels in every center. This will allow CGIAR to con-tinue creating online applications such as the Amazon Initiative which allows dynamic queries about biomass and deforestation in the Amazon. More than 10 CGIAR datasets and applica-tions are also available as services from ArcGIS.com, a hosted Web site available for anyone to create, find, and use maps, applications, and tools.

The new agreement with Esri rep-resents a major advance in the ability of CGIAR and its partners to build and share location-specific agricultural and natural resource knowledge products.natural resource knowledge products.

GIsWORLD Share GIS perspectives with others


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Phone: 240.632.9716 ext. 113 E-mail: <[email protected]>

NSPS, 6 Montgomery Village Avenue, Suite 403, Gaithersburg, MD 20879

http://www.nspsmo.org/click on CERTIFIED SURVEY TECHNICIAN tab

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the entry point: the navigation systemIt may seem obvious, but the con-versation starts with the addition of navigation to a vehicle. There has long been discussion about the impact of navigation on fuel efficiency. In “getting lost” scenarios, excess CO2 emissions are generated while the driver wanders in search of a destination. Governments in Western Europe, and more recently in the United States, concerned by the envi-ronmental impact of such emissions, have attempted to curb air pollution through regulations and monetary incentives to automobile manufactur-ers. But not everybody is convinced that this is the right way to proceed, so it becomes necessary to examine how technical innovation, in this case navigation, impacts driving on an everyday basis.

Literature search conducted by NAVTEQ did not find a single study on the use of navigation by aver-age drivers as part of their everyday driving—be it running errands, com-muting to work, or taking children to school. Therefore, in 2008, we commissioned a project with NuStats, a social science research firm with an established record in research on transportation and personal mobility.

The study was conducted in two metropolitan areas of Germany—Dus-

seldorf and Munich—and followed three groups of drivers: one had no navigation system, another group was given a navigation device, and the third group comprised drivers who were provided a navigation device enabled with real-time traffic.

All the participants’ cars were fitted with a logging device which was used to track the routes they drove and their driving speeds. The study monitored more than 2,100 individual trips and recorded over 20,000 kilometers of driv-ing (equivalent to >12,000 miles) and almost 500 hours of driving time.

The results point to a clear, positive environmental impact strictly through

the regular use of a navigation system. The drivers with navigation (both with and without real-time traffic monitor) saw their fuel consumption falling from 8.3 to 7.3 liters/100 km and their fuel efficiency increase by 12 percent. In the U.S., this would be the equivalent of a car improving from 27 mpg to 30 mpg.

The increase in fuel economy found by the German study would translate to a decrease of .91 metric tons in carbon dioxide emissions per driver a year—a 24 percent decrease over the amount that the average non-naviga-tion user emits a year.

Another key finding from the study was that the participants with naviga-

There is a litany of terms moving around the naviga-tion space right now in relation to the environmen-tal impact of not only navigation devices, but also

the data that empowers them. “Green driving.” “Green routing.” “Eco-routing.” These concepts are all impor-tant to the future of helping the vehicles we produce, and the consumers who own them, be more environ-mentally friendly. And we’re not talking too far in the future—these concepts each already have a number of tests behind them. But understanding clearly the implication of each and, more importantly, how to evaluate the art and technology of greener driving can provide meaningful insights on the subject.

Map-enabled technologies bolster green driving

Robert Denaro, vice president ADAS, NAVTEQ

Acknowledgement: The images used here accompanied Denaro’s original article, “Five Ways Technology Can Boost Green Driving Practices,” published on GreenBiz.com.


Gree

n Dr

iving

, p. 2

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tion drove less per trip—on average 2500 kilometers less per driver per year, saving 1.19 million tires from disposal in Germany alone.

eco-routingDefined as using a route cal-culated to minimize fuel con-sumption, eco-routing takes navigation efficiency one step further. Most currently used navigation systems calculate which route will take the shortest time to travel from point A (origin of the trip) to point B (its destination). Some systems will also calculate the shortest distance. With eco-routing, the system is asked to find the route with minimum fuel consumption.

Factors such as slopes, start and stop sequences, and speed changes impact fuel efficiency. Each navigation system enabled with eco-routing thus has a digital map showing such attributes of the travelled topography as road slope, traffic lights and stop signs, city center designation, cross roads, curves, and railroad crossings. These characteristics, as well as engine type, are used to calculate a fuel consumption index which, together with distance and estimated travel time, can provide a calculation of the path of minimum fuel consump-tion—the “green” route.

NAVTEQ along with Magneti Marelli of Italy has tested this concept by examining calculations comparing the

“Fastest route” to the “Greenest Route” under several scenarios in urban and suburban areas of Paris, Frankfurt, New York, and Chicago. There was at least a 5 percent fuel savings per trip, and often more, and the time penalty from the fastest route was on the order of a few minutes at worst. The first prototype of this type of “green” naviga-tion system was previewed by Magneti Marelli at the Paris Motor Show in October 2008.

green drivingGreen driving is a matter of driving behavior rather than navigation device; it’s how we drive a vehicle for which we have obtained fuel-saving recommendations. We don’t need to calculate the shortest route to practice green driv-ing, but we do need to know when the car’s driving speed needs to be adjusted to the road profile to optimize fuel consumption, and for this, we need a digital map. Fuel is wasted by actions such as accelerating just before a curve, a roundabout, or a limited speed zone such as a city

center or school neighborhood, or by climbing a slope in the wrong gear. Consulting a map will helps us anticipate these conditions and minimize the speed and gear changes while driving.

The green driving system “looks ahead” down the road, guiding the driver how to drive smoothly—gently acceler-ating and decelerating and so keeping as steady a speed as possible, thereby saving fuel and reducing emissions. .

A NAVTEQ and Magneti Marelli study of the benefits of green driving found estimated fuel savings between 5 and 15 percent for drivers who chose to follow the green driving recommendations. Certain hybrid car models on the market already have green driving displays that monitor the effect of acceleration and braking on fuel consumption.

predictive cruise controlCruise control is not a new concept; it is often used on longer trips and on highways to maintain constant speed and save fuel. Traditional cruise control works well on flat terrain but when climbing a hill, the system can and does downshift.

The new predictive cruise control systems use digital map data to “look ahead” and decide on the best throttle position and gear to drive up a hill or into a curve. Cars and trucks built with this type cruise control typically have transmissions with seven, eight, or nine gears compared to traditional three- or four-speed automatic transmissions. Multi-speed transmissions can improve fuel economy and smoothness on their own; with an ability to anticipate hills and curves so as to find the right gear before it’s needed, they are a huge asset for green driving.

The predictive cruise control system is available in some hybrid cars, and their owners report that they have been

Eco-routing in Ford Nav system [source: hybrid-cars.matters.com]


you recall if the section corner in question was a brass cap, or a stone, when you visited it in 1990?” Thank heaven for detailed field notes! Being a surveyor is a constant challenge for our memories, and I believe it helps us stay mentally sharp. This mental exercise also directly leads us toward honesty and truthfulness, as any exaggeration or misstatement will clearly degrade and complicate an already nearly impossible challenge. Small wonder that this honesty also creeps into our personal lives and business practices! This may also help to explain why surveyors are such a pleasant and professional group, and why so many have become close friends.

Surveying challenges us to keep abreast of emerging geospatial technology, while remaining true to the basic tenets of surveying—honesty and truthfulness. Being a sur-veyor is fun, though this is great responsibility!

We are proud of our work and enjoy doing it whether it’s in the field or in front of a computer screen. I have always thought that surveying is the perfect blend of physical and mental activity.

Many years ago, I worked for a character who was fond of saying, “Surveying would make a great hobby!” This philosophy can get us in trouble, as some practitioners are far too quick to low-ball a project. The fact that we enjoy our work should not diminish its value!

Surveyors provide information and services which protect people’s largest investment—their real estate. As such, we are advised to work closely with attorneys and title professionals. We are also encouraged to collaborate with other geospatial professionals, such as photogrammetrists, geodesists and GIS experts whenever possible. Our clients will appreciate such cooperation, our professionalism will soar, and I believe all will benefit from it as a result.

Surveyors are fact finders; we report the truth on the ground. (The truth shall set you free…)

Pleasant surveying!

What is a land surveyor?

The Savvy Surveyor— A column on all matters of surveying by R. William Glassey, PLS

A land surveyor is, of necessity, part historian, part car-tographer, part mathematician, part handwriting analyst, part truck mechanic, and part mind reader. A surveyor

is also a professional skilled at contract and boundary law, psy-chology, and collections —of receivables, as well as geospatial data, monument records, and other information pertinent to the work of a surveyor. A sole proprietor of a surveying business practices in all of these disciplines, and more.

When one begins studying to take professional exams for surveyors, one quickly realizes there is an incredible array of information upon which one could be tested. This situation is further compounded in states that “stubbornly insist” on including planning or design questions in their exams. A land surveyor thus possesses many qualities essential in every “renaissance person.”

I believe this multi-disciplinary aspect of land survey-ing is at least partially responsible for the broad diversity of surveying practitioners. (Or could it possibly be the other way around?) I have personally worked with profes-sional surveyors whose educational backgrounds were in physics, chemistry, mathematics, geology, agriculture, for-estry, geography, philosophy, meteorology, law, land titles, engineering, and other disciplines. We seem to have been attracted to surveying from practically any field of human endeavor, whereas most other professions have consider-ably more restrictive career paths. Surveyors are a diverse group, and collectively we account for tremendous talent, knowledge and wide variety of interests.

I often reflect on how this diversity impacts other peo-ple’s perceptions of surveying as a profession. To those of us who have committed a lifetime to the profession, sur-veying is a profession steeped in spatial truth. It’s a profes-sion expected to provide geographic information—recently collected or in the past. “Have you ever done any projects in Douglas County?,” a client of mine, might ask. Or, “Can

Photo © James Wengler, PLS, CFedS

Want to comment? Contact The Savvy Surveyor Bill Glassey at <[email protected]>.


able to maintain reasonably good fuel economy even on longer trips—something they were not able to do before.

Studies have shown that truckers might be able to increase fuel economy by three percent or more, depend-ing on road conditions. This improvement may have been one of the factors driving the heavy vehicle industry to become an early adopter of predictive cruise control. The Freightliner trucks manufactured by Daimler Trucks of North America, for instance, were equipped with a predic-tive cruise control system early in 2009.

advancing hyBrid technologiesThe fifth and last method for enhancing fuel economy and reducing emissions is a complicated but important integra-tion of digital maps and “look forward” green driving sys-tems with the hybrid engine controller in a hybrid vehicle. A typical hybrid car uses the electronic motor whenever possible, as long as the battery lasts, so as to minimize the use of the internal combustion engine running on fossil fuel. The hybrid controller monitors battery charge to ensure that the battery does not run completely out before the car can be recharged. With digital map data, the system can operate much more intelligently. For example, if the system knew that there was a recharg-ing opportunity on the downhill side, it could drain the battery lower while climbing uphill. Similarly, knowing that there are stop signs or other deceleration opportunities ahead, the system could plan on regenerative braking to add charge to the battery, and thereby regulate battery drain more effectively. Studies in the U.K. by Ricardo Corporation demonstrated hybrid vehicle fuel economy gains by between 5 percent to over 12 percent using these techniques.

the role oF the industry in green drivingWe must continue to research and measure the effectiveness of “green” technologies in vehicles and evaluate the investment in data and technology necessary to achieve superior levels of fuel savings and significant emission reductions. Various segments of the industry will need to come together to make green driving as widely adopted as possible. Navigation system manufacturers will have to implement green navigation features across the board and make their customers aware of these enhancements. This is likely to encourage car manu-facturers to seriously consider building cars with features that will make them fuel efficient. Others also need to play a role. NAPTEQ, for instance, pioneered the concept of a “Map and Positioning Engine,” a small, inexpensive module with GPS, a map, and the Electronic Horizon™software which aids the green driving systems described in this article. And finally, we all should aim to create awareness among drivers that naviga-tion based on precise knowledge of roads can help make their cars more eco-friendly.

Green Driving, from p. 24

The Motor Carriers’ Road Atlas 2010

Rand McNally has launched the newest, updated edition of the Motor Carriers’ Road Atlas, the best-selling trucker’s atlas in the United States. This year’s edition includes:

• All-new, completely revised state and province maps includ-ing updated mileages, additional suburb, town and small city names, and better urban area rep-resentation

• Updated highways showing the latest truck roadways as designated by the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA), or “designated highways” —including Illi-nois’ greatly expanded designated routes for commercial trucks

• More city maps including new inset maps of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Iowa City, Iowa; Paducah, Ky.; Parkers-burg, W. Va.; and a downtown map of Indianapolis, Ind.

• New map design that more accurately displays the cur-vature of the roads, with improved readability of the des-ignated system

• Fully updated charts including more than 800 changes to the truck-specific state contact information such as operating authority contacts, emergency police, and vehicle registration.

The Motor Carriers’ Road Atlas is available in a paperback and laminated version at truck stop retail stores as well as online, at www.RandMcNally.com, and at other select retailers. — by Amy Krouse, Rand McNally; [email protected]

Use of GIS in forestry

Mapping Forestry from ESRI Press provides a unique view from forestry professionals on their use of GIS to manage commercial operations and promote sustainable steward-ship of forests. Presented are approaches for determining the best route for building roads through forest lands, whether logging in a particular area is commercially viable, which

fire-damaged areas of forest should be restored first, and more. Mapping Forestry (ISBN: 9781589482098, 88 pages, $39.95) is available at online retailers worldwide, at www.esri.com/esripress, or by calling 1-800-447-9778.


Ask Dr. Map!Dear Dr. Map,

Q: What is the steepest paved road in the world?

A: Baldwin St., in the suburbs of Dunedin, New Zea-land, claims to be the steepest paved road in the

world. It can be found in the community of North East Valley, 3.5 km northeast of Dunedin’s downtown. Only 350 meters of length, the street rises from 30 meters to its junction with North Road at 100 meters, for a gradient of 1:5. At its maximum, the slope is approximately 1:2.86 (19° or 35%); so for every 2.86 meters traveled horizontally, the elevation rises by 1 meter. One story is that the Brit-ish colonial authorities planned the street from England, unaware of the steep hillside, and the construction went strictly according to the map and the gridded street plan. While the street was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, it was apparently awarded a much steeper gradient because of a typo. Other notably steep streets are: Côte St-Ange in Chicoutimi, Canada (33%); Canton Avenue, Pittsburgh (37%, but extending only 6.5 m); Eldred Street in Los Angeles (32%, and the site of an annual bike climb); Filbert and 22nd Streets in San Francisco (31.5%) and Waipio Valley Road (20°7′11″N, 155°35′36″W) on the island of Hawai’i, 25% for 0.6 miles with peak gradients much higher; some claim up to 45%. Skateboarding is not advisable.

Q: Where is the steepest and shortest ascent from

sea level accessible by car in the USA?

A: This one was harder to research than was first

imagined! Dr. Map believes the answer is the road from Kahului Harbor on Maui, Hawaii, via the Hana and Haleakala highways to the summit of Haleakala, a volcano at an elevation of 3,055 meters (10,023 feet) at 20.708154

N, 156.256603 W, and presents the attached certificate as proof. Google Maps gives the distance at 61.3 km. This gives an overall gradient of about 5%, with much steeper stretches nearer the summit. Several commercial operators offer bus rides to the summit, where you can take a bike cruise to the National Park exit. Better hope the brakes are in good shape! If you know of a steeper ascent, let me know at [email protected].

Q: Where can I get GoogleEarth zooms with carto-graphic twists?

A: Dr. Map has two favorites. Maduradam, near Den Hague in the Netherlands (zoom straight to 52 05

57.91 N, 04 17 50.23 W) is a large model village with a port, airport, streets, parks, and houses of all types.Select an unsuspecting victim and show then a GoogleEarth view-already zoomed in to the location above. Ask them where this tiny airport is located. Then let your victim zoom out. There will be a moment of enlightenment when in zooming out they notice the shadows of giant people falling across the landscape. As a bonus, ask the victim to interpret the land-scape they see, always good for a laugh.

Dr. Map’s second favorite is closer to home—at 38 53 38.15 N, 77 01 22.11 W. Zoom into this location,

On the slippery slope

and you’ll see a huge circular world map. It’s the United States Navy Memorial, on Pennsylvania Avenue between 7th and 9th Streets in Washington, DC. The memorial itself is lined with statues and sculptural panels and has an adja-cent Naval Heritage Center, complete with displays and a gift shop. On the current GoogleEarth image, the world map is covered in empty chairs in anticipation of some kind of ceremony. Know of any other cartographic curiosi-ties visible on GoogleEarth? Send me an e-mail ([email protected]].

Q: Where are some slippery places?

A: As he’s done many times before, Dr. Map chooses to answer your question from a toponymic perspec-

tive. Let’s go by place type. For water bodies we have Slip-pery Ford (2) (AL, WV), Slippery Creek (13) (AK, CA, FL, ID, MT, TX, WA), Slippery Well (AZ), Slippery Lake (AR), Slip-pery Jim Spring (CO), Slippery Slough (FL), Slippery Rock Creek (3) (KY, NY, PA), Slippery John Creek (MT) [a place,

not a person? Ed.], Slippery Hoof Lake and Creek (MT), Slip-pery Brook (NH), Slippery Rock Brook (NJ), Slippery Branch (VA), Slippery Gut Branch (2) (WV, TN) and, of course, the inevitable Slippery Falls (OK).

For topography we have Slippery Slides Mountain (CO), Slippery Rock (KY), Slippery Bill Mountain (MT), Slippery Hill Ridge (NC), Slippery Jim Canyon (WY), Slippery Rock Creek Gorge (PA), and Slippery Elm Hollow (2) (PA). Then under man-made features we have Slippery Point Cemetery (IN), Slippery Elm Golf Course (IA), Slippery Brook Trail (NH), Slip-pery Hill Cemetery (NC), and Slippery Church (TN).

But in the wonderful world of slippery places, it is Penn-sylvania that makes it to the top of the greasy pole. Butler County contains two administrative divisions (township and borough), two populated places (Slippery Rock Park and Slippery Rock), and no fewer than four schools, one of them the well known University. Add to these one more township and a locale in Lawrence County, and we have the Slippery capital of America.

So be careful out there on those slippery slide mountains, and avoid those slippery falls. It’s slippery wet out there pretty much nationwide, so slip not. And who were Slippery Bill and Slippery Jim anyway?

Dr. Map has a PhD and a cartographic license. Send questions to Dr. Map at [email protected] or visit him on the web at http://www.drmap.info.


document has been posted at the ACSM website at www.acsm.net.

In the following paragraphs are highlights of the primary changes occurring in the 2011 Standards compared with their 2005 precursor.

highlights of changesAn effort was made to standardize wording with regard to the property being surveyed, which has, in the past, been referred to as the “premises,” the “property,” the “parcel,” and the “tract.” The 2011 Standards use the term “the sur-veyed property,” except where this is not appropriate. An effort was also made to make more consistent the use of such terms as “visible,” “observed,” “observable,” and “physical” which were used interchangeably in previ-ous versions. The 2011 Standards replace them with the term “observed in the process of conducting the survey” wherever possible and as appropriate.

The 2011 Standards comprise a number of significant additions, including:• A sentence that defines what constitutes an ALTA/

ACSM Land Title Survey;

The final draft of the proposed 2011 Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/ACSM Land Title Survey Standards was approved by a joint committee of the

American Land Title Association (ALTA) and the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) which met in Chi-cago on August 11, 2010. The document will go up for a vote by the membership of ALTA in October and the NSPS Board of Governors and Board of Directors in November. As-suming both organizations approve the new document, it will become effective on February 23, 2011.

The proposed 2011 Standards represent a major revi-sion—the first significant rewrite of the standards since they were first adopted by ACSM and the American Title Association (now ALTA) in 1962. The revised standards rep-resent the culmination of over two years of concentrated work by a large NSPS committee and a select group of title attorneys with ALTA.

Several hundred suggestions and comments from dozens of interested surveyors and attorneys across the country were reviewed over the course of two years during this effort, and many were incorporated into the new draft.

A number of otherwise good suggestions were rejected by the committee because they lacked sufficient understanding of the purpose of a Land Title Survey or of the need for a collab-orative title industry/surveying profession effort.

Some suggestions were from persons who have had limited exposure to, and understanding of, the challenges of writing a national standard. There are, for example, dif-ferences across state lines and in state standards or prac-tices with regard to the name of the final product (called a ”plat” in most states, but a “map” in some), mandatory monumentation (issues related to Records of Survey in western states), and when a new description should be prepared (a regular practice in some but not in most states).

The 2011 Standards have been substantially revised and completely reorganized. The approved draft of the revised

ALTA/ACSM Land Title Survey corner

Draft 2011 ALTA/ACSM Survey Standards adopted [ www.acsm.net ]

by Gary Kent

Gary Kent, PLS, Chair of both the ALTA Liai-son Committee and of the NSPS ALTA/ACSM Standards Subcommittee, would like to thank the many persons who contributed to this effort. In particular, special thanks go to those involved in the joint committee meeting:

Craig Amey, PLS (MI); Richard Bales, Esq. (IL); Patrick Beehler, PLS (WA); Daneece Berge, Esq. (TX); Paul Burn, PLS (NV); Paul McNamara, Esq. (MA); Kelly Romeo (ALTA, Washington, D.C.); and Curt Sumner, PLS (VA).

2011

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•

•

• Guidance on Land Title Surveys of non-standard types of properties (such as marinas, trailer parks and camp-grounds);

• A recognition of the existence of the normal standard of care, and a section that addresses need for the applica-tion of proper boundary law principles in the resolution of boundaries.

• The issue of junior/senior rights has also been addressed. Where there is a water boundary there is now a requirement that the feature located on the survey (e.g. bank, edge of water, low water line, etc.) should bear some relationship to how that boundary is described in the writings.

• For the first time since 1986, the measurement stan-dards are part and parcel of the ACSM / ALTA standards, rather than being presented in an attachment.

• The term Relative Positional Accuracy has been changed to Relative Positional Precision (RPP) to prop-erly reflect what the term actually represents. The defi-nition of RPP (formerly RPA) has also been clarified and the points involved in the analysis have been limited to the actual corners of the property surveyed. To assist in the understanding and application of RPP, the com-mittee is working with volunteers to develop a separate document that will serve as a reference for surveyors with respect to the measurement standards.

• Several sub-sections and a new Table A item were added which clarify the surveying and depiction of ease-ments—both on- and off-site. In addition, Table A has two new items, one related to wetlands locations and one which requires surveyor to have professional liabil-ity insurance. A new section on deliverables gives a nod to digital copies.

• The section on certification has been modified as well. It now includes wording requiring that “the plat or map shall bear only the following certification, unaltered …” (emphasis added), except as may be required by juris-dictional requirements (some states require additional specific wording). Comments on the final draft have been very positive,

and the committee looks forward to its adoption. Please note that the draft is subject to approval by ALTA and NSPS, so readers are encouraged to “stay tuned.”

Have a question about anything related to land title surveying and the standards governing it? Contact Gary Kent, PLS, at [email protected]. Phone: 317.826.7134

2011 ALTA Standards, from p. 29


tion, including the spread of largely Brit-ish and American products and product names throughout the world. He also discusses the results of the influence of colonial powers no longer in power in places, but whose language, dress, and other customs have significantly influenced the former colonies which have retained and even adopted these cultural mores.

Then Mr. Wallach turns to the cul-tural landscape of today. His scope of view is wide, extending to international operations of growing and marketing food products, manufactured goods, and other commodities, while a sig-nificant part of the world still relies on small local production of similar items. The issues in these areas of human activity are so involved, explains Wal-

lach, that a review such as the one presented in Understand-ing the Cultural Landscapes cannot even summarize them in any real sense.

The final two sections of the book are titled “Environ-mental Consequences” and “Reading Landscapes.” The attempts here are to (in a way) categorize the present day results of several thousand years of recorded histories and the historical influences that resulted in the world and our own cultural landscapes as we know them: our buying habits, our movements, or lack thereof, our dress, and even our religious practices.

I actually enjoyed reading this book far more than you might discern from this report. The wealth of ideas and reports contained within this rather short volume come at you so fast that you are virtually overwhelmed with mate-rial. The small, all black-and-white maps and photographs are as illustrative as those projected on a small screen in a classroom setting could be. My inference of Mr. Wallach’s intent is to present you with all the graphic situations and incidents that have created the culture of our modern world and, perhaps, to inspire your inquiry further into the various subjects from a more detailed standpoint. I recommend this book if you have an interest in economic and cultural geog-raphy. If the pursuit of such knowledge is not among your interests, you will likely not finish the book.

Book ReviewUnderstanding the Cultural Landscape, by Bret Wallach. The Guilford Press, 2005. ISBN 1-59385-119-7 (paperback); ISBN 1-59385-120-0 (hardback)— Reviewed by Gerry Curtis, RPLS

I have to admit right now that I opened Understanding the Cultural Landscape with some

apprehension about reading just for pleasure and general interest a book that gave every indication of being a textbook. The author is or was a teacher of geography at the University of Oklahoma, after all. Then I read Mr. Wallach’s introduction and was even more apprehensive. His first two sen-tences in that introduction are

“Geography is a strange subject. You may think you know what it’s about, but stick around.” Uh-oh! Those sentences were both scary and somehow appealing, like the introduction to a particu-larly graphic mystery novel. The surveyor/map reader in me was hooked.

The 377 pages before Sources and Index are not fast reading. But, like in a mystery novel, the organization of the book tends to make the reader want to turn the page, to find out what’s next. Mr. Wallach begins in the same way a well organized classroom presentation would begin—with a first section titled “Anthropological Foundations” and containing such sub-headings as “Human Evolution, Diffusion, Culture, Foragers, Domestication,” and so on. The foundation of the human existence and the earliest human activities are dis-cussed in great detail, with that first section ending with a chapter titled “The Emergence of Civilization.” So much of this early section reports the evolution of hunters, gath-erers, and agricultural practitioners into an assortment of basic vocations and the cultures associated with them or by them!

“Historical Developments” is the title of the second sec-tion of the book. Its first two chapters relate to the growth of China and India and the geologic and geographic systems that helped to shape the cultures of those currently hugely populated areas. Wallach writes in many parts of the book about how the physical geography of areas influenced not only the type of crops grown there, but also vocations and even to an extent, the religions of the various peoples of the world. He closes the section with a discussion of globaliza-


The Comments Page

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34

To this writer’s knowledge, surveyors within the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM) have sought to gain recognition in proportion to their relatively large membership for over 40 years. Some believe that if they could only drop the shackles of the ACSM umbrella hang-ing over them, they would finally get the full professional recognition from all across the country which they believe has been denied them ever since ACSM’s founding in 1941.

When the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) was founded in 1981 and incorporated in 1991, many had hoped that this would settle the issue of recogni-tion once and for all. Almost thirty years later, the NSPS Board of Governors at its 2010 meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, voted 35 to 12 to initiate the process of (complete) separa-tion from ACSM. The NSPS Board of Directors supported the initiative by a vote of 11 to 5. In other words, about two thirds of our surveyor members are eager to leave ACSM.

A letter to membership entitled “The Evolution of a National Voice: The Future of the National Society of Pro-fessional Surveyors” by Messrs. Harrison, Matonich, and Sumner following the Phoenix meeting was published in the ACSM Bulletin no. 244 of April 2010 (p.43). Among the

“primary challenges” cited in the letter are: “Perception of ACSM as outdated and behind the times, the negative ste-reotype of the term “surveyor”, and competition from state affiliates.”

An NSPS ad-hoc committee was established to look into the options and opportunities for establishing a “single industry-wide membership organization.” I believe this was the goal of the 163 dedicated professionals who founded ACSM sixty-nine years ago. They, of course, did not call it an “industry” then.

According to Recollections of the American Congress, 1941-1991 by Walter S. Dix, ACSM’s membership of 163 in 1941 climbed to 4500 in 1958, increased to 6000 in mere two years, and peaked in 1981 at 11,000. The 1982 ACSM convention reported 5,621 registrants—an all-time high! For various reasons, ACSM membership gradually declined from about 10,000 in 1991 to about 5,000 in 2004, the year of ACSM’s restructure into a “revitalized congress of inde-pendent member organizations.”

The perceived negative stereotype of the surveyor has always been of concern to former ACSM leaders. At a time, when many, if not most, land surveyors had come up through the old-fashioned apprentice system, lack of formal education was the challenge and another reason for the

“stereotype.”There was a time, when the perceived low public opinion

of surveyors was demonstrated in its most grotesque form.

RE: The Evolution of a National Voice ACSM Bulletin no. 244, April 2010

Some of us may still remember the scandalous kickback case involving a former politician who had taken differen-tiated bribes from state highway consultants in Baltimore County—5 percent for engineering (design) contracts and 2.5 percent for surveying contracts!

And if you think times have changed, you should know that even professional registration or licensing fees are still differentiated in some states. Massachusetts, for instance, charges $96 for registration as a professional engineer and $82 for registration as a professional land surveyor. Talking about “stereotypes”! We know, of course, that land surveying per se will always be somewhat “local” and has to be regulated by each state of the Union. Our State Affiliates have done a marvelous job providing information with local relevance. Belonging to a prestigious national organization such as ACSM, how-ever, gives every surveyor access to knowledge beyond the narrow lens of local peculiarity.

Surveyor members of ACSM usually have a broader per-spective of their profession than do their local colleagues. They are able to see the proverbial forest as well as the trees. The problem is there is not enough of those surveyors with a broad world view. As an example, a GIS conference in Kentucky, a few years ago, was attended by many “GIS experts” but only by two practicing surveyors (ACSM Bul-letin no. 200, Nov/Dec. 2000).

Given the fractious times we find ourselves in, it may be worthwhile to consider what some of the ACSM wise men have urged us to consider years ago. I’m thinking of Prof. Brother B. Austin Barry of New York who told us in the 1970s to stop that “dastardly sniper fry” and the silly bickering.

Prof. Ralph Berry of Michigan deplored the apprentice system which without proper formal education, he said,

“serves admirably for the training of plumbers” (Proceedings, ASCE vol. 90, SU 2, July 1964).

Ira Alexander of California deplored the absence of geo-detic standards and the basic ignorance of their existence, where they do exist. He warned of “purveyors of smoke-oil cures” when one only learns how to push the right button on the magic black box (ACSM Bulletin no. 136, March/April 1992). And there were others—Walter Dix, Earl Fennel, Jesse Fant, Red Wagner, Ken Curtis, and Paul Wolf among others—who had regularly added their exhortations to which we appear to have paid scant attention.

At the 20th Surveying and Mapping Educator’s Confer-ence held in Texas in 2005, several participants expressed their concern (SALIS Vol.65, No.3, 2005). Prof. Robert Burch of Michigan warned us of “providing education of the

Copyright © 2010 ESRI. All rights reserved. ESRI, the ESRI globe logo, ArcLogistics Route, ArcPad, www.esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRIin the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.

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with mobile technologies such as GPS and automated

vehicle location systems, you create a powerful new

solution that saves you time, focuses your resources,

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Update data in the field.

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G42632_ProfSurveyor_Jul10.indd 1 6/16/10 10:17:42 AM

Copyright © 2010 ESRI. All rights reserved. ESRI, the ESRI globe logo, ArcLogistics Route, ArcPad, www.esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRIin the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.

When you combine geographic information system (GIS)

with mobile technologies such as GPS and automated

vehicle location systems, you create a powerful new

solution that saves you time, focuses your resources,

and captures accurate data.

ESRI’s GIS brings it all together for smart business

operations and intelligent work management that will

help you improve your business processes and maximize

your return on investment.

See the latest in GIS server and mobile technologies

that provide an intelligent work environment for

utility staff in the � eld and in the of� ce, visit

www.esri.com/geocollector.

Update data in the field.

Integrate Surveying and GIS.

Maximize Your Return on Investment with Mobile GIS

G42632_ProfSurveyor_Jul10.indd 1 6/16/10 10:17:42 AM


masses,” devoid of theoretical underpinnings and produc-ing “nuts-and-bolts surveyors.” Prof. N.W.T.Hazelton of Ohio saw a “collective paranoia” and predicted “ossification” and

“balkanization” of our profession. Prof. Earl Burkholder of New Mexico wanted to help his students to “learn how to learn” and to “teach them how to think.”

In his most recent article “Surveying: Beyond Mere Exis-tence” (ACSM Bulletin no. 244, April 2010), Prof. Hazelton, formerly of Ohio, now University of Alaska, has once again analyzed our dilemma. I was pleasantly surprised to note that he has traded his verbal sledgehammer for a finely cali-brated tuning-fork! His brief but excellent analysis points to the “unfortunate consequences of segregating the profes-sion into silos.” He wisely quotes Alvin Toffler and urges us to rethink and to relearn before we act divisively instead of decisively. I would strongly recommend that every ACSM member and especially the promoters of surveyor separa-tion take the time to re-read his article, as well as some of the older published papers mentioned above.

Our new “toys” (technology) have simplified measure-ment and data collection to a point that these activities have become ubiquitous and less important as a science. We have encouraged “specialization” at the expense of “general understanding,” Hazelton surmised. It is a dead-end street that will only push us further down to the level of “nuts-and-bolts surveyors,” equal to other licensed disciplines, such as well trained mechanics, electricians, and plumbers. Just what Prof. Berry had warned us about in 1964! Imagine, 46 years ago!!

I’d have some important questions of those who believe that separating NSPS from ACSM will be a panacea for our shrinking surveyor membership. Do you really think that the tens of thousands of licensed land surveyors in our fifty states will finally see the light and flock to a (to them) remote national organization?

However small their membership, do you think that our well educated members of AAGS and CAGIS will simply subordinate themselves to a larger NSPS organization? Their important disciplines will neither fade away nor can surveyors nationwide function without their expertise. Per-haps, we should go back to our roots: a national member organization with various semi-autonomous specialty divi-sions or sections within.

We may want to take a look at other successful national organizations such as ABA (American Bar Association) and AMA (American Medical Association). Even ASPRS, a national scientific and professional aerial photogrammetric and remote sensing organization of individual members could be a model to learn from. For over a decade now, they have cordial, even cooperative relations with MAPPS, a photogrammetry business-oriented organization of over 120 aerial photogrammetry firms. Every three years, they

hold a joint national conference, as ASPRS Executive Direc-tor James R. Plasker has explained to me. Only better knowledge and greater wisdom can overcome what may be a misguided ego, possibly disguising a suspected but uncalled for inferiority complex.

To fight over the measurement part of a “rapidly shrinking pie” of the spatial information cycle is an exercise in futil-ity, Prof. Hazelton warns us. My own perspective of techno-logical professionalism and progress can be summed up as: What was science yesterday, is engineering today, and will be plumbing tomorrow.

It is important to recognize that beyond measurement comes “knowledge and wisdom.” We must prepare for it and act accordingly. Technical “silos” are not the answer! Through our action we must convince the hesitant local surveyor that belonging to ACSM offers much more than a stagnant existence.

Gunther Greulich, PLS, PEFellow, Life Member

Former ACSM president (1991-1992)[email protected]

(781) 334-2337

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Comment, from p. 32


How many ACSM members know what COFPAES is and what it does on regular basis for the architecture and engineering (A/E) community? —by Laurence Socci

If you compete regularly for Federal contracts, COFPAES works to make sure the competition is fair and does not automatically go to the lowest bidder. COFPAES does

this by working to preserve, protect, and defend the Brooks Act; a long-standing law passed by Congress to ensure that architectural and engineering services—including survey-ing and sometimes mapping services—are acquired by qualifications based selection.

COFPAES is an acronym for Council on Federal Procurement of Architectural and Engineering Services. It is a coalition of the nation’s leading design professional societies and associations. It was formed in 1966 to provide a common voice for the pro-fession on federal procurement issues. COFPAES members are the American Institute of Architects, American Society of Civil Engineers, National Society of Professional Engineers, Manage-ment Association for Private Photogrammmetric Surveyors, and American Congress on Surveying and Mapping.

Joseph Dolan serves as ACSM’s delegate to COFPAES and I serve as ACSM’s staff representative and handle the day to day issues. Two times a year, COFPAES delegates from all member organizations, along with staff from each member organization, meet in Washington, D.C. to learn from federal government officials on the subject of federal procurement of A/E services. The delegates and staff also meet to discuss issues important to members of the organi-zations represented in COFPAES.

One of these issues is a concern expressed by our mem-bers about RFP solicitations from the federal government for surveying services on a federal contract which call for the price for the services to be placed in the bid. Such solicitations are a violation of the Brooks Act because they have made “price” to be the deciding factor in the selection process. Under the Brooks Act, the highest qualified firm should get the contract, not the lowest bidder.

When we learn about such price bids, we immediately con-tact the COFPAES administrator and request an investigation. If it is, in fact, a solicitation that violates the Brooks Act, a letter is written by COFPAES on behalf of ACSM and sent to the contracting officer, informing him that we feel the solicitation violates the Brooks Act. More often than not, the solicitation is pulled and reissued in compliance with the Brooks Act.

You may be wondering, “Okay, so what? Why is qualifica-tions based selection so important?” It’s important because it makes sure the federal contract is awarded based on dem-

onstrated competence and qualifications. The Senate Report authorizing the Brooks Act states, “Under this system, A/Es are under no compunction to compromise the quality of the design or the level of effort they will contribute to it in order to meet the lower ‘fee’ quotations of other A/Es.” [S. Rept. 92-1219; Sept. 25, 1972.]

Since qualifications based selection (QBS) is the law in more than 30 states (and the practice in most others), and many state licensing laws or ethics codes and regulations prohibit practitio-ners from engaging in price competition to secure work, compli-ance with the Brooks Act protects surveying professionals from violating their own state laws and ethical practices.

But COFPAES also works on a number of other issues benefitting ACSM members. One of them concerns the greater use of “design build” rather than the conventional

“design-bid-build” process by the federal government. Many small A/E firms are concerned that since there has been no Congressional review of whether savings or efficiencies are being achieved using the design-build process, they are at a disadvantage and lose out on prospective work.

Earlier this year, COFPAES scored a big victory for the members of its member organizations. After months of work on the “10 percent retainage on A/E contracts, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) clarified its position on the rule, in Item VI—Payments Under Fixed-Price Architecture and Engineering Contracts (FAR Case 2008-015)

This rule amends clause FAR 52.232-10 Payments Under Fixed-Price Architect-Engineer Contracts with revised retainage requirements. The contracting officer can with-hold up to 10 percent of the payment due in any billing period when he or she determines that such a withhold-ing is necessary to protect the Government’s interest and ensure satisfactory completion of the contract. However, withholding the entire 10 percent is not required, and no withholding is required if the contractor’s performance has been satisfactory. The changes thus clarify that retainage is optional and any amounts retained should not be held over beyond the satisfactory completion of the instant contract. In this economy, it was a welcomed ruling.

COFPAES works on other issues too numerous to discuss here. To learn more about what COFPAES can do for you and your business, visit the COFPAES website at www.cofpaes.org.

What can COFPAES do

for you?

Laurence Socci can be reached at [email protected]


Dawn, May 30, 1832. Two young men meet at Gentilly on the outskirts of Paris to fight a duel. At issue is the honor of a young woman. Both men are mem-bers of revolutionary groups and have been active in the political upheavals of the era. They have agreed that only one of the pistols will be loaded, leav-ing the affair to chance. The face each other, and at the signal a shot rings out. One falls, mortally wounded, and is taken to the nearby Cochin hospital. The next morning, Évariste Galois dies in the arms of his brother, Alfred. He is just 20 years old.

A tragic death in the style of the Romantic era, then at its height, but Galois is not a Romantic poet or artist. A revolutionary, a radical who has spent a year in prison for his politics, a young man intent on stirring up his staid university, a firebrand who sees much of the world in terms of black and white, truth and falsehood: Galois is all of these. But he is also a brilliant mathematician, seen as being of great promise by the leading scientists of the day, and has already played a sig-nificant role in changing the fundamen-tal nature of mathematics.

The story of Galois has become a legend of modern mathematics. He has been changed into a Romantic martyr for truth and modern mathematics, his nature revised from self-destructive to self-sacrificing. His life and death marks a turning point in the ethos of mathematics. Amir Alexander’s book explores the nature of this turn-ing point and the mindset that devel-oped in mathematics from this period onward.

Most of the mathematicians of the 18th century, such as Euler, d’Alembert and Lagrange, were men of the Enlight-enment. Many of them were also engi-neers, and Alexander frequently calls

them geometers—‘Earth measurers’ or ‘surveyors’ in French. They believed that mathematics existed to illuminate Nature, to provide order and insight to help understand the chaos of the unexplained world. Mathematics was therefore intimately and intrinsically connected to reality, and the success of mathematics was founded on its usefulness. Proof was therefore less important than utility, and geometry held the central place, just as it had since the Ancient Greek philosophers.

The ‘new’ mathematicians of the Romantic era took a different view. Mathematics should be a self-con-tained system, divorced from reality, with proof being the key issue and only path to truth. Algebra became central, and mathematics was to follow the Euclidean model of carefully building each new component by proof from earlier proved theorems. Many math-ematicians of the day took off in new directions, exploring theoretical areas that appeared to have no connection to reality. Bolyai explored non-Euclid-ean spaces. Galois and Abel developed critical aspects of group theory. Rie-mann moved into extremely abstract algebraic representations of spaces. Other mathematicians, such as Cauchy, re-developed earlier work, such as cal-culus, in terms of the requirement for rigorous proof.

Alexander explores these changes by exploring the stories of the individual mathematicians and their interactions over time. What emerges from this exploration is the origins of the sharp divide between ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ math-ematics, a curse of modern times, which Alexander does not really explore. He also fails to explore the sneering con-tempt that many pure mathematicians seem to feel and express for applied mathematics.

Since C.P. Snow discussed the divide between ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ sci-ence in the UK in the 1950s, this divide in science has tended to be bridged over from both sides. Physicists and astronomers, who occupy areas of science that are less ‘applied,’ none-theless are focused on explanation and understanding of the natural world. But the divide is still alive and strong in mathematics.

This peculiar aspect of modern math-ematics is illustrated in its legends and ‘mythical’ figures. Alexander discusses several, such as G.H. Hardy, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Kurt Gödel, John Nash, and Grigory Perelman in more recent times. The Romantic nature of these figures, their struggle to overcome the opposition and barriers to their genius, their ‘vows of poverty,’ and their dedi-cation to the truth, beauty and purity of mathematics, illuminates the ethos of modern mathematics.

A central tenet of mathematics today is the need to forsake the world, dedi-cate oneself to the purity and beauty of the discipline, and struggle against an uncomprehending and unenlight-ened world. Mathematics is painted in almost religious or poetic terms. How John von Neumann and Roger Penrose would fit into this picture, Alexander never explains.

There are many lines of discussion that can come from such a picture and an important one is: How do you recruit for such a discipline?

The solution appears to be to appeal to those people who have an interest in abstract mathematics, and focus the efforts of mathematicians on the important goal of perpetuating the discipline. Along the way, the discon-nection from the rest of the world is achieved. Those who fall short of the required level of dedication, self-sacri-

Duel at Dawn: Heroes, Martyrs and the Rise of Modern Mathematics, by Amir Alexander. Harvard University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-674-04661-0. $19.11 on amazon.com—Reviewed by N.W.J. Hazelton

Book Review

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p. 3

8


Q. We are often presented with client-drafted con-tracts that do not accu-

rately describe our project responsibili-ties. This is especially true when we are providing construction stakeout services at a site. What are the risks of accepting terms that do not reflect our responsibilities? Do you have any suggestions on how to structure agree-ments that properly reflect our respon-sibilities?

Legal RequirementsA surveyor is required by law to exer-cise a reasonable degree of care, skill, and diligence when providing profes-sional services, even in the absence of contractual language. This is the standard of care intrinsic in providing professional services. One of the most important factors in determining the liability of a surveyor is the scope of services undertaken by contract and the terms and conditions of perfor-mance of that scope. These factors can change the standard of care and the extent of the risk assumed by the surveyor.

There is often a temptation to rede-fine the traditional professional rela-tionship by creating documents with wording favorable to one party or another. It is important for each of the parties involved in a design and con-struction project to understand their respective responsibilities and degrees of authority, and to be able to rely on the agreed-upon division of power and obligations.

The value of a carefully crafted profes-sional services agreement between the client and surveyor, and a coordinated agreement between the client and other

parties, is that the contractual roles and responsibilities are clearly communi-cated. Contract negotiations between the surveyor and client, therefore, rep-resent the prime opportunity to com-municate with the client. The resultant agreement should guide the relation-ship of the parties throughout their collaboration. Therefore, it is important that the final executed contract cor-rectly reflect the roles and responsibili-ties of the parties.

Risk Allocation PrinciplesAlthough contracts for specific projects may vary considerably, the following principles for structuring reasonable agreements should guide you.• Determine who is in the best posi-

tion to carry out responsibilities, and assign responsibilities accord-ingly. Shifting risks to a party inca-pable of managing those risks is both unreasonable and unproduc-tive.

• Assign responsibilities to those with the authority to fulfill them. Even if a party is in the best position to carry out a particular responsibility, that party is incapable of acting unless it is empowered to do so. Having the authority to do what is neces-sary to meet a contractual obliga-tion is a basic principle of contract formation.

• Assign each responsibility to only one party. Clients sometimes assume that if multiple parties are given responsibility for a spe-cific duty, the likelihood of that obligation being properly fulfilled increases. Experience, however, indicates that the opposite is true. Co-responsibility creates a situa-tion in which neither party is fully responsible. Such a situation can

only lead to uncertainty and confu-sion.

• Use provisions that create only reasonable and realistic expecta-tions. Confusion or disappointment significantly increases the risk of a dispute. Contracts can establish reasonable and realistic expecta-tions by clearly communicating responsibilities and obligations.

Basic Questions to Ask When Reviewing Client-Drafted ContractsWhenever a custom contract is reviewed, some basic questions should be asked. They include:• What does the language say?• What does it mean?• What problem is this language

intended to solve?• How does the language affect the

surveyor’s responsibilities?• Will the language have an adverse

impact on the working relationship between the client and surveyor?

Contract negotiation is an opportu-nity to educate your client about the services you provide and the proper roles and responsibilities that you are qualified to assume.

Do you have a question regarding an insurance or practice management issue? Email your question to [email protected] and look for your answer in a future issue of ACSM’s Bulletin. Victor O. Schinnerer & Company, Inc., is the underwriting manager for the CNA professional liability program. Schinnerer and CNA have been the commended pro-gram of the American Congress on Sur-veying and Mapping since 1965. Nahom A. Gebre, Esq., P.E., Risk Management Attorney with Victor O. Shinnerer, writes this column.

Ask Vic!

Q.We are often presented with client-drafted con-tracts that do not accu-

rately describe our project responsibili-ties. This is especially true when we are providing construction stakeout services at a site. What are the risks of accepting terms that do not reflect our responsibilities? Do you have any suggestions on how to structure agree-ments that properly reflect our respon-sibilities?

Legal RequirementsA surveyor is required by law to exer-cise a reasonable degree of care, skill, and diligence when providing profes-sional services, even in the absence of contractual language. This is the standard of care intrinsic in providing professional services. One of the most important factors in determining the liability of a surveyor is the scope of services undertaken by contract and the terms and conditions of perfor-mance of that scope. These factors


fice, and true appreciation of truth and beauty are left by the wayside. They are the failures, the unworthy, the infi-dels, the barbarians at the gates. And they make up most of the world.

Of course, this is an exaggeration, but there is a kernel of truth here. This concept is a thread in the ethos of modern mathematics, something worked into the soul of modern math-ematicians. It has a major impact on how mathematics is taught, and there-fore on how well it is integrated into modern society and its thinking. By focusing on the purity of mathematics, mathematicians have alienated their craft from much of society, thereby ensuring their continued isolation, in keeping with those Romantic ideals.

But alienation from the rest of soci-ety means that mathematical literacy in the general population is low, most people hate and fear math, and we

have the foundations of an anti-math-ematical society, complete with anti-social mathematicians. This is not a good thing today, when we have never had greater need of mathematical lit-eracy.

The geomatics profession is very much a discipline of applied math-ematics. Geometry is at the core of what we do, and we are very much connected to the real world, as were almost all mathematicians from the Ancient Babylonians to the Enlighten-ment geometers. But mathematics is a stumbling block to recruiting for us, and it’s the same in engineering. Math-ematics as a discipline tends to drive away mere practical people, and that makes it hard for us to recruit. It may be timely for the applied mathematical disciplines to take back applied math-ematics, to take charge of the founda-tions of our own disciplines. This is a

complex issue, but we need to make sure that mathematics serves us, not the other way around.

Alexander’s book raises some inter-esting points, but it is short on analysis of the consequences of the change in the fundamental nature of mathemat-ics that it chronicles. It is also a bit repetitive: I don’t know how many times I read that Galois was built up to be a Romantic hero of mathematics, and how many times the same points were made about Abel. Perhaps Alex-ander should have taken greater heed of the notion of ‘proof’ in his telling of the story. I would have preferred less time spent repeating these ideas and more looking at the consequences of these changes. That said, it is an inter-esting interpretation of history, which provides some useful insights into the group psychology of mathematics and mathematicians today.

Duel at Dawn, from p. 36

2011 AAGS Ballot for aags president-elect Jan. 2011 - Jan. 2012

for aags director Jan. 2011 - Jan. 2014

michael l. dennis Biographic information

at www.aagsmo.org

wesley parks Biographic information

at www.aagsmo.org

thomas h. meyer Biographic information

at www.aagsmo.org

alan r. dragoo Biographic information

at www.aagsmo.org

vote for one

vote for one


Surveying and mapping the universe—in 3D

Laser scanners are continually being developed to offer improved func-tionality with operational ranges of

up to six kilometres, quoted accuracies of 2 millimetres, and rates of data capture rapidly approaching the one million points per second milestone.

It is now possible to scan objects much quicker, at a greater distance, and with scanners offering increasing portability and affordability, their use is becoming more and more widespread.

At the same time advances in laser scan processing “point cloud” soft-ware are allowing the vast amount of data to be quickly turned into truly useful information such as 3D compu-ter models and fly-through 360 degree visualizations.

Surveyors are now mapping eve-rything from diamond mines in Africa to glacial movements in the European Alps, and volcanic formations in New Mexico. In fact, this last example was

a proof-of-concept project to explore the viability of laser scanning even fur-ther afield.

Researchers from Navajo Technical College, together with representatives from NASA and New Mexico Tech, laser-scanned a volcanic formation in New Mexico, gathering 240 million individual measurements. Using spe-cially developed point cloud software, the data was processed to create an immersive and interactive 3D compu-ter model from which NASA scientists can assess the potential of laser scan-ning for future missions into space.

Using a Faro LS 120 laser scanner, the survey party mapped the Four Windows lava tube in the El Malpais National Park, collecting eight individual scans, each composed of 30 million points. The project was designed to understand the viability of laser scanning lava tubes and other formations on the Moon and Mars.

“This project was a proof-of-concept for NASA to determine what kind of data could be acquired by sending a rover vehicle, equipped with laser scanner, into a lava tube or cave on the Moon or Mars,” commented H Scott Halliday, Course Leader at Navajo Technical College.

“From the Pointools model we can make an evaluation of the type of structures that can be picked up and conclude whether it is possible to determine the presence of water, ice, and/or micro organisms. This was great experience for the students, and both NASA and New Mexico Tech have been impressed with the results.”

High tech laser mapping can and is being used to help digitally preserve cultural heritage sites around the world. Using software from Pointools to process millions, sometimes billions, of 3D measurements captured by laser scanning

As laser scanning technology advances at an unprecedented pace with never before seen capabilities and applications the question facing the market is no longer ‘can we scan it?’ but rather ‘what do we do with our scan results?’ How is point cloud software helping surveyors around the world?—Tony Rogers, co-founder and Director of Pointools (in photo).

—by Tony Rogers


commented Justin Barton, Production Manager at CyArk.

The added portability of new-generation laser scanners means that scanners are being mounted on aeroplanes, helicopters, mobile mapping vehicles, boats, quad bikes and even robots.

A laser scanning robot called 3D-R1 has been designed for use in dangerous or inhospitable environments such as old underground mines. In addition, highway mapping has been revolutionised by survey vehicles such as StreetMapper that can map to an accuracy of 1 cm while travelling at normal road speeds.

The capabilities of, and opportunities for, laser scanning will continue to develop at fast pace, with manufacturers competing and surveyors pushing into new areas. However, what must remain fundamental in the quest to map the universe is an understanding of the limitations of data. The billions of captured laser scanned measurements only have value when they are processed into meaningful information, and that information is applied to more informed decision making.

instruments, heritage preservation specialist CyArk is creating animated videos, architectural drawings, and 3D visualizations of sites such as Mount Rushmore, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and an ancient Egyptian temple at Thebes (modern day Luxor). The computer-generated models provide visually stunning content for educational and tourism materials and serve as a foundation for conservation, restoration, and management works.

CyArk is a non-profit entity that digitally preserves cultural heritage sites by collecting, archiving, and providing open access to data created by laser scanning, digital modelling, and other state-of-the-art technologies. CyArk is currently working on projects to document the four missions of the San Antonio Missions National Park in Texas, and has just completed a joint venture project at Mount Rushmore involving the U.S. National Park Service and Scotland’s Centre for Digital Documentation and Visualisation.

The value of CyArk’s work was highlighted recently in Africa. In 2008, a CyArk partner in Uganda laser scanned a portion of the Kasubi Tombs, the royal tomb of the last four Bugandan kings

and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Earlier this year, the wood and thatch structure of the tomb was destroyed by fire; the now invaluable scan data is being reviewed by the experts in charge of rebuilding the structure.

“The superior rendering abilities of Pointools enable us to create stunning

3D visualizations for education and outreach work, while the highly accurate models, such as brick-by-brick elevation, provide information for conservators and restoration experts,”

Scanning lava tubes in El Malpais National Park, New Mexico

3D-R1 robot scans the South Crofty mine [photo @ Bernie Petersen]

The 3D-R1 “in action” in Mexico

Back pack laser scanner

A scan of Kasubi Toms in Uganda


Chesapeake Bay Restoration trackedGIsWORLD

2011 GLIS Ballot

FOR GLIS PRESIDENT

JAN. 1 - DEC. 31, 2011COLEEN M. JOHNSON, RPLS, PMP

FOR GLIS VICE PRESIDENT

JAN. 1- DEC. 31, 2011CYNTHIA R. (CINDI) SALAS

FOR GLIS SECRETARY

JAN. 1- DEC. 31, 2011WILLIAM M. (BILL) COLEMAN, RPLS, GISP

FOR GLIS TREASURER

JAN. 1 - DEC. 31, 2011STACEY DUANE LYLE, RPLS, PH.D

FOR GLIS DIRECTOR

JAN. 1, 2011 - DEC. 31, 2013JOHN BEAN, P.E.

The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) launched in July a geographic information system (GIS)-enabled web site, CHesapeakeStat, to provide the public, decision makers, and restoration stakeholders with up-to-date information about the progress of government-funded restoration and conservation projects for the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Apart from promoting accountability, the site, which was developed in collaboration with Esri is used by CBP partners to analyze data so they can better assess progress and adapt new strategies and tactics.

“GIS is a tool that can be used to show people what agencies are doing and how they are spending money,” said John Wolf, USGS, and GIS team leader of CBP. “But this project takes

it a step further. People can see in a geographic context how an agency’s goals, strategies, and outcomes are being accomplished.”

Developed as part of the Strategy for Protecting and Restoring the Chesapeake Bay Watershed initiated in response to President Barack Obama’s May 2009 Executive Order 13508, ChesapeakeStat organizes information around the CBP goal areas of sustainable fisheries, healthy habitats, water quality, healthy watersheds, and Chesapeake stewardship.

“The Chesapeake Bay affects 64,000 square miles of habitat and 17 million people. Restoration efforts are crucial,” says Robin Smith, Ph.D., Esri’s environmental management solutions manager. “CBP’s ChesapeakeStat makes government information

easily discoverable and simple to use. Tracking expenditures and progress with GIS is another step forward in geo-enabling government programs to meet their goals.”

The site meets various levels of consumer need. The public and media may only want to see aggregated interpreted data for general information, whereas a scientist can access highly detailed data for research. Local watershed groups can use the site to better understand how their actions relate to the overall restoration efforts for the bay. A government agency may want to use the site as an adaptive management tool to evaluate success and decide if resources should be shifted from one location to another or possibly even from one program to another.

THE CANDIDATES’ BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND AT

WWW.GLISMO.ORG


Sunspots come and go, but recently they have mostly gone. For centuries, astrono-mers have recorded when these dark blemishes on the solar surface emerge, only to fade away after a few days, weeks or months. Thanks to their efforts, we know that sunspot numbers ebb and flow in cycles lasting about 11 years.

For the past two years, though, the sunspots have mostly been missing. Their absence, the most prolonged in nearly 100 years, has taken even seasoned sun watchers by surprise. “This is solar behav-ior we haven’t seen in living memory,” says David Hathaway, a physicist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

The sun is under scrutiny as never before, thanks to an armada of space telescopes. The results they beam back are portraying our nearest star, and its influence on Earth, in a new light. Sunspots and other clues indicate that the sun’s magnetic activity is diminish-ing and that the sun may even be shrinking. Together, the results hint that something profound is happening inside the sun. The big question is: What?

Groups of sunspots forewarn of gigantic solar storms that can unleash a billion times more energy than an atomic bomb. Fears that these giant eruptions could create havoc on Earth and disputes over the sun’s role in climate change are adding urgency to these studies. When NASA and the European Space Agency launched the Solar and Helio-spheric Observatory almost 15 years ago, “understanding the solar cycle was not one of its scientific objectives,” says Bernhard Fleck, the mission’s project scientist. “Now it is one of the key questions.”

Sunspots are windows into the sun’s magnetic soul. They form where giant loops of magnetism, generated deep inside the sun, well up and burst through the surface, leading to a localized drop in temperature that we see as a dark patch. Any changes in sunspot numbers reflect changes inside the sun. “During this transition, the sun is giving us a real glimpse into its interior,” says Hathaway.

When sunspot numbers drop at the end of each 11-year cycle, solar storms die down and all becomes much calmer. This “solar minimum” doesn’t last long. Within a year, the spots and storms begin to build toward a new crescendo, the next solar maximum.

What’s special about this latest dip is that the sun is having trouble starting the next solar cycle. The sun began

to calm down in late 2007, so no one expected many sun-spots in 2008. But computer models predicted that when the spots did return, they would do so in force. Hathaway was reported as thinking the next solar cycle would be a doozy: more sunspots, more solar storms and more energy blasted into space. Others predicted that it would be the most active solar cycle on record.

The trouble was, no one told the sun. The first sign that the prediction was wrong came when

2008 turned out to be even calmer than expected. That year, the sun was spot-free 73 percent of the time, an extreme dip even for a solar minimum. Only the minimum of 1913 was more pronounced, with 85 percent of that year clear.

As 2009 arrived, solar physicists looked for some action. They didn’t get it. The sun continued to languish until mid-December, when the largest group of sunspots to emerge in several years appeared. Even with the solar cycle finally underway again, the number of sunspots has so far been well below expectations. Something appears to have changed inside the sun, something the models did not pre-dict. But what?

The flood of observations from space- and ground-based telescopes suggests that the answer lies in the behavior

Calm before a storm of energy—by Stuart Clark

Sunspots and activity [ultraviolet on the left] captured by NASA in July 2000 and March 2009. [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov]

s c i e n c e


2011 NSPS Ballot

for nsps area 3 director joe h. baird

of two vast conveyor belts of gas that endlessly cycle material and magnetism through the sun’s interior and out across its surface. On average it takes 40 years for the conveyor belts to complete a circuit.

When Hathaway’s NASA team looked over the observa-tions to find out where their models had gone wrong, they noticed that the conveyor-belt flows of gas across the sun’s surface have been speeding up since 2004.

But the circulation deep within the sun tells a different story. Rachel Howe and Frank Hill of the National Solar Observatory in Tucson have used observations of surface disturbances, caused by the solar equivalent of seismic waves, to infer what conditions are like within the sun. Analyzing data from 2009, they found that while the sur-face flows had sped up, the internal ones had slowed to a crawl. These contradictory findings have thrown the best computer models of the sun into disarray. “It is certainly challenging our theories,” says Hathaway.

These changes are raising questions not just about the sun itself but also about the extent to which the sun’s

activity affects our climate. There are those who believe that the solar variability is the major cause of climate change, an idea that would let humans and their green-house gases off the hook. Others are equally convinced that the sun plays only a minuscule role in climate change.

The extended collapse in solar activity these past two years offers the possibility of an experiment to resolve this dispute, allowing scientists to examine what happens when you switch off one potential cause of climate change and leave the other alone. With so few sunspots, the amount of solar radiation bombarding our planet has signif-icantly changed. “As a natural experiment, this is the very best thing to happen,” says Joanna Haigh, a climatologist at Imperial College London. “Now we have to see how the Earth responds.”

Frigid Europe Michael Lockwood, a professor of space environment physics at the University of Reading in England, may already have identified one response: the unusually frigid

for nsps vice president w. lamar evers, pls

for nsps area 5 director jan s. fokens, ps

for nsps area 7 director kim h. leavitt, pls

for nsps area 7 director warren d. ward, pls

vote for one

for nsps area 9 director carl cdebaca

the candidates’ biographical information can be found at www.nspsmo.org

Calm

bef

ore

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but at significantly depressed levels of activity, similar to those last seen in the 19th century. However, there is also evidence that the sun is inexorably losing its ability to produce sunspots. By 2015, they could be gone altogether, plunging us into a new Maunder minimum—and perhaps a new Little Ice Age.

Of course, solar activity is just one natural source of climate variability. Another is volcanic eruptions, spewing gas and dust into the atmosphere.

Nevertheless, it remains crucial to understand the precise changeability of the sun and the way it influences the various regional patterns of weather on Earth. Climate scientists will then be able to correct for these effects, not just in interpreting modern measurements but also when attempting to reconstruct the climate stretching back cen-turies. It is only by doing so that we can reach an unassail-able consensus about the sun’s true level of influence on the Earth and its climate. Clark holds a PhD in astrophysics and writes regularly about astronomy. The author of “The Sun Kings” (Princ-eton), he blogs at http://:www.stuartclark.com. This article is adapted from one that appeared in the New Scientist; it can be viewd in full at http://www.newscientist.com.

European winter of 2009-10. He has studied records back to 1650 and found that severe European winters are much more likely during periods of low solar activity. This fits an idea of solar activity’s giving rise to small changes in the global climate overall but large regional effects.

Another example is the so-called Maunder minimum, the period from 1645 to 1715 during which sunspots virtually disappeared and solar activity plummeted. If a similar spell of solar inactivity were to begin now and continue until 2100, it would miti-gate any temperature rise caused by global warming by no more than 0.3 degrees Celsius, according to calculations by Georg Feulner and Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.

However, something amplified the impact of the Maun-der minimum on northern Europe, ushering in a period known as the Little Ice Age, when colder-than-average winters became more prevalent and the average tem-perature in Europe appeared to drop by between 1 and 2 degrees Celsius.

A corresponding increase in temperatures on Earth appears to be associated with peaks in solar output. In 2008, Judith Lean of the Naval Research Laboratory’s space science division published a study showing that high solar activity has a disproportionate warming influ-ence on northern Europe.

What the sun will do next is beyond our ability to predict. Most astronomers think that the solar cycle will proceed

Chilly temperatures during the Maunder minimum 1680-1780. [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov]

Calm before a storm of energy, from p. 43

Astor Crowne Plaza New Orleans February 7-9 2011

Submit a 250-word abstract at http://www.lidarmap.org/conference/submit_papers.aspx


We’ve been aware for a long time that Americans view science with a great deal of scepticism. Surveys that

measure the public’s views on evolution, climate change, the big bang, and even the idea that the Earth revolves around the sun yield a huge gap between what science tells us and what the public believes.

But that’s not the whole story. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences convened a series of workshops on this topic over the past year and a half, and many of the scientists and other experts who participated concluded that, as much as the public misunderstands science, scientists misunder-stand the public. In particular, they often fail to realize that a more scientifically informed public is not necessarily a public that will more frequently side with scientists.

Take climate change. The battle over global warming has raged for more than a decade, with experts still stunned by the willingness of their opponents to distort scientific conclu-sions. They conclude, not illogically, that they’re dealing with a problem of misinformation or downright ignorance—one that can be fixed only by setting the record straight.

Yet a closer look complicates that picture. For one thing, it’s one’s worldview—not education—that seems to motivate one’s belief on this subject. According to polling performed by the Pew Research Center, more conserva-tive members of the public who are college graduates are considerably less likely to accept the scientific consensus on climate change than those who have less education. These better-educated members of the public aren’t ignorant about climate science; a more likely explanation is that they are politically driven consumers of climate science information. Among the centrists and those on the left, the relationship between education and beliefs about global warming is pre-cisely the opposite—more education leads to greater accep-tance of the consensus climate science.

It thus appears that, on contested subjects, more information does not necessarily mean acquiescence. In fact, more education probably makes a global warming skeptic more adept at collect-ing information and generating persuasive arguments sympathetic to his or her point of view.

A similar story unfolds with public opposition to vaccination, for fear that it can cause autism. The body of epidemiological evidence overwhelmingly shows that vaccines don’t cause autism. Furthermore, the principal agent accused of having this effect (a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal) has long since been removed from most childhood vaccines. Yet, autism rates have not declined, and the public is skeptical of the science.

Once again, the skeptics aren’t uneducated. If anything, they seem to be more voracious consumers of the relevant medical information than the nation as a whole. According to a 2009 study in the New England Journal of Medicine, children who go un-vaccinated by parental choice (rather than because of inadequate access to vaccines) tend to be from well-to-do families and with married, college-educated mothers. Parents in such families are more likely to go onto the Internet (the so-called “university of Google”) to “research” the health risks of inoculation than are other groups of parents.

Or consider the long-running controversy over plans to dispose of the nation’s nuclear waste at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. Although many technical experts have long argued that the repository would be safe, this has hardly convinced frightened and angry Nevadans. In 1991, the American Nuclear Energy Council even launched an ad campaign to educate the public about the Yucca Mountain plan—but it backfired. Nearly a third of viewers became more resistant to the repository, and among those who were already opposed, their resolve strengthened. (Just 15 percent had a more favor-able opinion of the repository after seeing the ad, and half of viewers did not change their minds.)

These three controversies have a single moral, and it’s that experts who want Americans to take science into account when they form opinions on contentious issues need to do far more than just “lay out the facts” or “set the record straight.” What science says is important, but in controversial areas, it’s only the beginning. It’s critical that experts and policy makers better understand what motivates public concern in the first place; and in this, they mustn’t be deceived by the fact that people often appear, on the surface, to be arguing about

scientists should start listening If they want to educate the public,

Scie

ntis

ts, p

. 46

Whenever controversies arise that pit scientists against segments of the public—the evolution debate, say, or the fight over vaccination—a predictable dance seems to unfold. The non-scientists become almost entirely impervious to scientific data that undermine their opinions and are prone to arguing back with technical claims that are of dubious merit. In response, the scientists shake their heads and lament that if only the public weren’t so ignorant, these kinds of misunderstandings wouldn’t occur. But what if the fault actually lies with both sides? — by Chris Mooney

o p i n i o n

scientific facts. Frequently, their underlying rationale is very different.

Thus, for instance, people who resist what experts tell them about global warming often appear, at heart, to be most worried about the consequences of increased govern-ment regulation of carbon emissions. Similarly, based upon my observation, vaccine skepticism seems closely connected to distrust of the pharmaceutical industry and of the medical research establishment. As for Yucca Mountain, much of the outrage appears to originate in the perceived unfairness of having Nevada proposed as the sole dump site for the waste of an entire nation.

For this reason, initiatives that engage the public about science policy in a two-way conversation—before controver-sies explode—show great promise. In Canada, for instance, the national Nuclear Waste Management Organization spent three years listening to the public’s views about how to handle nuclear waste disposal and promised that no dump or repository would be sprung on a community without its consent. Throughout the process, even critics of waste stor-age efforts remained engaged and supportive of attempts to come up with the best possible solution. In the United States, meanwhile, the federally funded National Nanotechnology Ini-tiative has sponsored a great deal of social science research

to explore possible public concerns that may arise as this new field of technology advances.

Experts aren’t wrong in thinking that the public doesn’t know much about science, but given how little they them-selves often know about the public, they should be careful not to throw stones. Rather than simply crusading against uninformed stances, the defenders of science should also work closely with social scientists and specialists in public opinion to determine how to defuse controversies by addressing their fundamental causes.

They might, in the process, find a few pleasant surprises. For one thing, the public doesn’t seem to disdain scientists, as scientists often suppose. A 2009 study by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that Ameri-cans tend to have positive views of the scientific community; it’s scientists who are wary of the media and the public.

[Editor’s note: This is an adaptation of the original article published in The Washington Post. Chris Mooney ([email protected]) is the author of a paper on the relationship between scientists and the public released by the American Academy of Arts and Sci-ences this summer. He is also the co-author, with Sheril Kirshen-baum, of “Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future.” This is an adaptation of the original article published in The Washington Post.]

Scientists, from p. 45

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Don’t miss Trimble Dimensions 2010—the positioning event of the year! It’s the one place where you can make connections and gain insight into positioning solutions that can transform the way you work. Be inspired by our panel of visionary guest speakers. Increase your knowledge base from hundreds of educational sessions that focus on surveying, engineering, construction, mapping, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), geospatial, infrastructure, utilities and mobile resource management solutions. Register now and you’ll learn how the convergence of technology can make collaborating easier and more productive to gain a competitive edge.The Mirage, Las Vegas

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CONNECTIONS THAT WORK FOR YOU.

To find out more about Dimensions 2010, visit www.trimbledimensions.com

Don’t miss Trimble Dimensions 2010—the positioning event of the year! It’s the one place where you can make connections and gain insight into positioning solutions that can transform the way you work. Be inspired by our panel of visionary guest speakers. Increase your knowledge base from hundreds of educational sessions that focus on surveying, engineering, construction, mapping, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), geospatial, infrastructure, utilities and mobile resource management solutions. Register now and you’ll learn how the convergence of technology can make collaborating easier and more productive to gain a competitive edge.The Mirage, Las Vegas

November 8–10, 2010

©2010 Trimble Navigation Limited. All rights reserved. PN# 022540-039 (6/10)

10TM169_ACSM_060910.indd 1 6/17/10 10:05:27 AM

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ACSM Bulletin 246

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