ACSM Bulletin 249

What will it look like for geospatial professionals?

The future

Promoting Advancement in Surveying and Mapping No. 249

A C S M

BulletinBulletin

february 2011 ACSM BULLETIN �

ACSM BULLETINThe official professional magazine

of AAGS, 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�]

Geographic and Land Information Society (GLIS): Coleen M. Johnson (president), Cynthia (Cindi) Salas (vice president), J. Peter Borbas (immediate

past president), Stacey Duane Lyle (treasurer), William M. (Bill) Coleman (secretary). Directors: Francis W. Derby, Joshua Greenfeld, John Bean

[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)[www.acsm.net, 240.6�2.9716]

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

Photography: James Wengler, PLS, CFedS, Port Angeles, WA

© 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

GLISGeographic and Land Information Society

NSPSNational Society of Professional Surveyors

NSPS Foundation, Inc NSPS Foundation, Inc

ACSM Sustaining Members

Berntsen In te rnat iona lEnv i ronmenta l Land Survey ing & So lu t ions , Inc .

Es r i ♦SECO Manufactu r ing Sokk ia Corporat ion

V ic 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

http://www.webmazine.org

4 ACSM BULLETIN february 2011

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: 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.html. subscriptions: 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: Ilse Genovese, ACSM, Gaithersburg, MD.

A C S M

Bulletin

g a r y k . k e n t

(“Land Title Survey certification,” p. 11), The Schneider Corporation, Indianapolis, Indiana.

<[email protected]>

r . w . g l a s s e y (“Spanish Peaks,” p. 15) works for PLS Inc in Issaquah, Washington.<[email protected]>

s i m o n e f r i g e r i o (“RiskCity and WebRiskCity,” p. 19) is a Post-Doc researcher at C.N.R. -I.R.P.I, C.so Stati Uniti, Padova, Italy .<[email protected]>

c e e s j . v a n w e s t e n (“RiskCity and WebRiskCity,” p. 19) is Associate Professor, GEo-Information Science & Earth Observation, University of Twente, Netherlands. <[email protected]> p a t r i c k c h u r a (“Thoreau the Land Surveyor,” p. 24) is Associate Professor of English, University of Akron, Ohio. <[email protected]

s t e v e f o s s i (“How atomic clocks will improve undersea survey,” p. 21) is Director of New Business Development at Symmetricom

c a r l e s a . b u r r o u g h s (“Occupying the top of Haleakala,” p. 18) is retired Captain, NOAA. He lives in Chambersburg, PA.

<[email protected]>

Among our contributors

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




official magazine of the american congress on surveying and mapping

A C S M

Bulletinfebruary 2011 no. 249

www.webmazine.org

What will it look like for geospatial professionals? — By Ilse Genovese

Educating the public about risk management — By Simone Frigerio and Cees J. van Westen

The Future 27

Strategies to winn the battle against commoditization— By F. Scott Addis

31Association 3.0

19

13The 2010 Census From loading dock to downloading —By Carol Morello

RiskCity and WebRiskCity

21Symmetricom How atomic clocks will improve undersea survey — By Steve Fossi

The Eads Bridge 42 Smitten by St. Louis’ other arches— By Patrick McGuire

on the cover Front cover: GeoEye 1 satellite imagery taken on January 20th, 2011, of the mud slide at Nova Friburgo, Brazil. [Image courtesy of GeoEye, Inc.] Back cover: Topcon’s HiPer II ad.

A C S M

Bulletindepartment s

Around the Nation Call for innovation 10

Making room for a planet of cities 36Charting a more perfect Union 39

The one-day surveyor 41

Columns

ALTA / ACSM Land Title Survey certification 11The Savvy Surveyor: Spanish Peaks 15

Ask Dr. Map! On the consequences of erroneous surveys 37

Report

JGAC report: Issues survey results 35

TechBits

PolicyMap 12 Occupying the top of Haleakala 18

“Mobile first” 30kolekole markers 101 33

New Books Thoreau the Land Surveyor 24

Mapping the Nation: GIS for Federal Progress & Accountability 40

Reviewers wanted 43

www.webmazine.org

On this Presidents’ Day, as we look forward to the 2011 Surveyors Week, I am reminded of three past presidents among our forty four—George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Ronald Reagan. I think of Washington’s valiant defense of a young Nation and of Lincoln’s pursuit of a More Perfect Union. I read of the “significant contributions made by surveyors to the United States” Reagan cited in Proclamation 5151 establishing the Surveyors Week in 1984, and I see history meeting the future. At a national level, we are attempting to find a balance between curbing profligate spending and investing in our future. The future of our country and its people weighed heavily on Washington, Lincoln, and all the other presidents after them. In his State of the Union speech early February, President Obama called for investing in America’s future; he talked about another “Sputnik moment” we’re faced with. That moment has arrived in the geospatial world too. Before our eyes, expanding technological capacity is changing the way geo-graphic data are collected, analyzed, shared, and ultimately used by government and the public. The new kid on the block, GIS, is no longer so new or young. Geographic information systems have matured and moved, with ever more powerful computing and geodatabases, to the “cloud.” Eventually, all the layers in the NSDI (National Spa-tial Data Infrastructure), including the proposed land parcel data layer will be fed with data from geodatabases in the cloud. Surveyors have a great opportunity to ensure that these data conform to real-time ground truth—if they grasp it before it too migrates “to the cloud.” Undeniably, surveyors have made historic contributions to land development and land use in the U.S. But since “new technology is constantly modernizing this hon-ored and learned profession” (Proclamation 5151), it behooves surveyors and mappers to join other geospatial professionals and give “the idea of creating a national cadastre a fresh look” (see “The Future,” pp. 27-29). Designing and implementing a national cadastre layer will be met with the same demands for interoperability and standardiza-tion as is happening on widely distributed geographic reporting platforms being cre-ated by citizen cartographers, geocachers, and other members of the public. Increased demand for broader and/or different technical competencies will almost certainly cause shifts in program emphasis toward educating geospatial professionals capable of work-ing in multidisciplinary environments—and, by extension, in the demographics of pro-fessional associations. The young surveyors and mappers graduating from these “future-oriented” programs will increasingly put high premium on how much the professional organization they join can help them make the emerging new geospatial modality their own.

— Ilse Genovese

—from the editor

Register at SurveySummit.com/ACSM

http://www.SurveySummit.com/ACSM


Call for innovation

Google and the iPhone are American inventions. But the first mass-produced gas-electric hybrid car was made in Japan. And although the United States now fosters a nascent commercial space industry, if you want to speed from city to city on a smooth, fast train, you have to head to Europe. As for the world’s largest solar energy generator, you won’t find it in the American Southwest. It’s planned for Morocco.

Over the past decade or longer, U.S. innovation stalled in almost every sector except information technology and agriculture, say scholars who study innovation. Federal figures and industry surveys support their assessment.

In his State of the Union address in January, President Obama spoke at length about the need to reinvigorate American innovation. “This is our generation’s Sputnik moment,” he said, promis-ing new investments in biomedical research, information technology, and clean energy.

But in a deflating counterpoint to Obama’s soaring rhetoric, the nation’s third-largest maker of solar panels, Evergreen Solar, announced this week that it plans to cut 800 jobs, shutter its Massachusetts plant, and move to China.

“The way to make quantum leaps is to do some risky stuff,” said Alan I. Leshner, chief executive of the American Association for the Advance-ment of Science. “And that’s very hard when money is tight.”

Innovation scholars point to a “valley of death” where new technologies go to die. The federal government funds basic research. Private indus-try commercializes technologies springing from that work. But crossing the chasm between the two can be hugely difficult. “We have investors with lots of money, and we

have entrepreneurs with ideas that can get you across the valley of death,” said Michael Mandel, an economist who tracks American innovation for the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington.

“But it’s a lot easier when you have a big winner out there, a gleaming star in the distance.”

Outside the information technology sector, the United States has seen few of those huge suc-cesses of late. From 2006 to 2008, just 9 percent of American businesses innovated in either prod-ucts made or in the processes needed to make

them, according to a National Science Foundation report. Predictably, the software industry led the way, with 77 percent of those firms innovating.

And since 2004, federal research and devel-opment spending increased less than 1 per-cent above inflation, said Patrick Clemins, who watches the federal budget for AAAS.

In the biomedical research arena, the National Institutes of Health doubled its budget from 1998 to 2004, and drug companies followed suit, pour-ing huge sums into drug development programs designed to exploit the wash of data from the human genome project. Yet, turning DNA into drugs has proved a larger challenge than antici-pated, and the number of new drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration has stagnated in recent years. [The Washington Post]

—by Brian Vastag

a r o u n d t h e n a t i o n

february 2011 ACSM BULLETIN 11

Land Title Survey certification

Q: It seems to me that when we are requested to perform an ALTA/ACSM Land Title Survey, half the time those requesting this type of survey

do not know what they are asking for. They have never heard of Table A, for instance. Also we’re finding more and more that lenders are requesting an ALTA/ACSM Land Title Survey but, with their own re-written certifications to sat-isfy their legal departments. They demand their own certi-fication—one that in most cases goes beyond that which is mandated in the ALTA/ACSM Standards and beyond that promulgated by our State Board. Surveyors across the country and NSPS are doing their part in this “joint venture” but ALTA and attorneys and lenders (and everybody else) are changing the game plan to their own satisfaction. Sur-veyors have addressed the demands imposed on them by compromising on the language of the certification. It seems there needs to be some form of enforcement across the board. What would happen if surveyors changed the stan-dards to suit their personal needs? I think there would be a public hanging!

A: What you describe is well known and, in fact, the primary “problem” that surveyors run into on ALTA/ACSM Land Title surveys. However,

your statement that “ALTA and attorneys and lenders [and everybody else] are changing the game plan to their own satisfaction” is simply not true. The “joint venture” (i.e., the ALTA/ACSM Standards) is one between NSPS and ALTA, no one else. ALTA is a national organization that has adopted this set of standards—just as NSPS has—but ALTA has no more “control” over what their member companies do than does NSPS over what individual surveyors do. NSPS has no

“enforcement power,” and neither does ALTA. In short there

is no one to enforce the standards other than individual sur-veyors and title people.

In any event, the problem is not with ALTA, nor is it typi-cally with the title companies. It is mostly with the lenders and their attorneys—and they are not part of the “joint ven-ture.” But you are right to say that most of the problem is due to “complete ignorance over what is in the standards“ (I would say 95%, not mere half as you suggest).

The surveying community needs to educate title compa-nies every chance they get. I do. The problem you describe is endemic, and the solution lies in the surveying commu-nity doing a few simple things. This is what I passionately preach at my seminars:1. Use a written contract that specifics the required ALTA/

ACSM certification. 2. Make the client select the Table A items they want.

And make sure they understand there is a cost associated with each and every one of those items.

3. Be intimately familiar with the ALTA/ACSM Standards because those you are dealing with are not (it is most likely that they have never even seen them). Paragraphs 2 and 8 in the 2005 ALTA/ACSM Standards mandate the use of the certificate contained within the standards. The new 2011 ALTA/ACSM Standard goes a step further by requiring that only the unaltered certificate specified in Section 7 may be used (notwithstanding the fact that the surveyor may need to include some state-mandated wording which is allowed under Section 3 of the 2011 Standards, and under the first paragraph of the 2005 ALTA/ACSM Standards).

4. Almost everything lenders ask for in their separate requirements and certification is already covered by the standard certification (which states that the survey was done in accordance with the standards).

ALTA/ACSM Land Title Survey corner — by Gary Kent


my opinion, is for surveyors to stand up to the lenders’ attorneys and just say NO. Don’t fall for such pressure tactics as, “you’re the first surveyor in 20 years who would not sign this.” I believe if surveyors would enforce, in concert, the six things I mention here, the unreasonable demands for certification would go away in fairly short order.

By the way, I am not sure what was meant by “We’ve addressed the demands imposed on us by compromising on the language of the certification.” Surveyors have never had to address any “demands” by ALTA, nor have they com-promised on the certification wording in the 22 years that I have been involved with the ALTA/ACSM standards. The ALTA/NSPS relationship is not one of demands and com-promises; it is one of collaboration and working together. Anyone who thinks otherwise is ill informed.

Understand the reasons behind the wording lenders want, so you can point to those places in the ALTA/ACSM Standards which address their concerns.

5. Do not sign certifications that contain express warranties and guarantees. You may be violating the terms of your license to practice under your state law; and your E & O insurance may not cover such statements. Do not hesitate to tell attorneys both of these things. The 2011 ALTA/ACSM Standards do not allow any certification on the face of the plat or map other than that contained within Section 7 of the Standards.

6. Be confident, and engage with the attorneys if they are being unreasonable. Educate them. Most of the time, they know they are being unreasonable. I have this on good authority, from a lender’s attorney no less who knew that he was being unreasonable. But, he said, “85 percent of the surveyors completely fold under pressure,” so he figures, “what the heck, if they’re going to sign it, we’ll just keep asking.”

My experience has been that most (but, admittedly, not all) of the time, when you do the things listed above, you will find an attorney who will be flexible.

I agree there is a problem; it has been pervasive since prob-ably the mid-1980s. But, it is not a new issue, and the answer, in

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

PolicyMapAdditional Web 2.0 functionality to understand, use, and share good data

Four new PolicyMap tools were deployed last November to increase the availability and use of geographic data across web applications. The tools—Data Uploader, Data API, Widget, and Analytics—were developed in response to demand from PolicyMap’s government, civic, foundation, and for-profit customers looking for more ways to incorporate geographic data into their business and decision-making processes.

PolicyMap offers more than 10,000 indicators, including data on demographics, education, crime, health, real estate, mortgage finance, vacancy, transit, and school performance. All of the data can be visualized in fluid maps, plotted on tables and charts, or analyzed through reports.• Data Uploader—Organizations can upload their own data,

such as investment locations, loans, property surveys, etc. into PolicyMap, share it with the public or select others, cross reference with 10,000+ indicators, and produce custom maps, charts, and tables.

• Data API—Clients can incorporate PolicyMap’s data into other web applications, including Google and Bing Map plat-forms, to produce data rich, fluid, interactive maps for their websites.

• Widget—Users can easily embed multi-layer, interactive PolicyMap maps featuring selected data into their websites using a simple iFrame code.

• Analytics—PolicyMap identifies geographic areas that meet up to three criteria on a map so clients can identify and explore target markets quickly and easily.

Much of PolicyMap’s data and visualization tools are available to users without charge. The four new tools and proprietary data are available by subscription or with a license.

About PolicyMap: This comprehensive source of place-based data on the web was created by The Reinvestment Fund to help decision-makers access, evaluate, and analyze the most accurate data available. [www.Poli-cyMap.com] —Cassandra M. Oryl, Slice Communications


Not so many years ago, the task of sending census sta-tistics to the states so they could redraw voting districts involved trips to the loading dock. Cathy McCully, who heads the redistricting data division, often was on hand to oversee the mailing of boxes stuffed with computer printouts for politicians and cartographers to pore over. Virginia, with an off-year election around the corner, was always in a rush. It sent state troopers and, once, a helicopter to ferry its data to Richmond.

In January, the Census Bureau began sending states details collected in the 2010 Census, enumerating inhabitants down to the block level. The census data are far less cumbersome and more attainable than ever. The data are on the bureau’s Web site, available for anyone to download and even try their hand at redistricting themselves. But in a theatrical touch, the data were delivered overland to the states the day before it was made public, mostly via Federal Express.

McCully’s career of more than three decades at the Census Bureau is a window into the Bureau’s drive to make the massive amount of data it collects more timely, accessible, and useful. A District native, McCully, 56, is the daughter of an Air Force colonel who worked in defense intelligence in posts around the world. She attended schools in Alaska, Japan, Hawaii, Texas, Ala-bama and New York.

Shortly after graduating from what is now Frostburg State University with a degree in geography, she was hired by the Census Bureau in 1977 as a clerk-typist. She was assigned to help create state data centers at state agen-cies, universities, and libraries to disseminate census data, particularly for use by researchers and business people. Then she was promoted and worked for two decades in the geographical division, developing programs that tabu-late data, including one that could be used in redistricting and one that sorted areas by Zip code.

Bureau-developed technology was rapidly revolutionizing the labor-intensive process of redistricting. As recently as the 1970s, politicians drew new districts using colored dry-erase markers on acetate sheets over big maps spread across a floor.

Computer mapping was used in the censuses taken in 1970 and 1980, but its use in redistricting was limited because it was not good at defining small geographi-cal levels, and it was very expensive. Then in 1990, the Census Bureau introduced a digital mapping system known as TIGER (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing). It could pinpoint data down to the block level, allowing legislators to analyze potential dis-tricts and fine-tune them. After TIGER, redistricting became less of an art and more of a science. Do

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From loading dock to downloadingby Carol Morello


The technology has assisted states in making sure their redistricting complies with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and court decisions affirming the principle of one person, one vote. Some say it also has enabled incumbent gerry-mandering.

A map behind McCully’s desk at Census Bureau head-quarters in Suitland serves as a reminder that her work does both, ultimately helping determine who sits in Con-gress.

The map showing North Carolina’s voting districts in pastel shades was a gift from the man who drew it after the 1990 Census. Most of the districts were fairly compact. But one meandered across the northeast part of the state, narrowing in one point to the width of a pinhead. It repre-sented North Carolina’s attempt to draw a majority-black district in an effort to elect the first black representative from the state in the 20th century.

Some states already have proposed having public con-tests to come up with the best redistricting plan, and the Census Bureau is ready to help them. All the computer maps and data used by professionals are [or shortly will be] on the Bureau’s web site.

“Anybody could be in their basement, unload this and draw their own plan, using all the tools we have,” said McCully, who was assigned to the redistricting division just before the 2000 Census.

The detailed state data taken in 2010 will be released in spurts during February and March. Director Robert M. Groves has promised to get the data first to states that have the most pressing needs. That is expected to be the four states with state legislative elections next year—Vir-ginia, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Louisiana.

Other states have local elections that will be affected by redistricting, and McCully allows that she has received calls marked by discreet attempts at a sneak preview of the data. McCully said that Maine is the only state that never presses her to rush. The state’s constitution dictates waiting one election cycle before redistricting.

Once the collection of data leaves Suitland, it is out of the bureau’s hands. Although the Census Bureau is legally required to provide the data to the states for redistricting, the states can do with the statistics what they wish.

Some states have different rules dictating how they account for students and prisoners in redistricting. Kansas, for example, counts in-state college students as residents of their hometowns, not the town where they go to school. Maryland will count state prison inmates this year as residents of the towns where they lived before being con-victed.

“No law says they have to use the data we give them,” McCully said. “But they will, and they should. It’s the best data in town.”

Assistant Professor in Geomatics (Tenure Track) Department of Applied Sciences

Duties would include teaching undergraduate courses, recruiting students, developing courses, procuring instrument, engaging in scholarly activi-ties, developing a strong relationship with the Louisiana Society of Professional Surveyors and practicing land surveyors in Louisiana. Knowledge of ASAC/ABET (Applied Science Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engi-neering and Technology) assessment procedures is desired.

Required: Doctorate in Geomatics, Surveying or closely related field is required. Professional land surveying licensure or registration within the State of Louisiana or the ability to obtain one within a year of the appointment is desired. The successful applicant will have demonstrated teaching ability and work experience as a land surveyor or within a closely related field. Background in land surveying, boundary control and legal principles, state plane coordinate systems, route and construction survey-ing, subdivision design and platting is required. A successful candidate would have to be dedicated to undergraduate education and demonstrate lead-ership and vision for the continued development of Geomatics program.

To apply for this position, please visit: http://jobs.nicholls.edu

Online applications must be submitted for this posi-tion. Paper applications will not be accepted. Nich-olls State University is an EOE/AA/ADA employer. Women and ethnic minorities are encouraged to apply.

Downloading, from p. 13


The Spanish Peaks, located in south central Colorado, hold some very special memories for me. Please allow me to commence with a wee bit of history. The Spanish

Peaks are twin peaks, East and West, with the West Peak slightly taller at 13,626 feet. They have been major land-marks in the area, from the time of early Native American peoples who named them “Wahatoya,” meaning “Breasts of the World.” The peaks continued their landmark status with Spanish explorers, fur trappers, and mountain men in later centuries, and into the present. They can be seen for over a hundred miles when approaching from the Eastern plains. The area is, or should be, a destination for anyone interested in geology, and there is a local legend of buried

Spanish Peaks

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

Photo © James Wengler, PLS, CFedS

And my heart would nigh stop beating When I heard her tender greeting, Whispered soft for me alone --

“Mi amor, mi corazón.”Spanish is the Loving Tongue – Lyrics by Charles Badger Clark, Jr.

Spanish treasure that no one has yet located. This extremely beautiful and fascinating area is a treasure in itself!

My firm had been engaged by the U.S. Forest Service to resurvey about 40 cabin sites on leases in the Wahatoya Canyon. (For the record there are several other ways to spell “Wahatoya.”) We ran an extensive traverse to recover and tie all appropriate, found section and quarter corners, and then mapped several miles of the canyon bottomland, including all buildings, roads, and driveways. We compared our map with the section subdivision and legal descrip-tions, per USFS directions, and discovered that most of the descriptions, when plotted, would fall half a mile away from the bottomland, up on the ridge, inaccessible except on


foot or horseback, and generally unsuitable for cabin sites. Apparently, a previous surveyor, or possibly an early entry-man tied his description to a supposed quarter corner, which was in reality a section corner; (or possibly vice versa, as I have forgotten the specific details...). Other descriptions to follow, likely copied the original, and of course had the same half mile error. Correcting all of these errors was part of our work. I believe the entire canyon is on USFS land, and the Forest Service wished to reexamine and renegotiate the leases. This work lasted several months, but no one com-plained, as it was a marvelous place to spend the summer!

Although surveying the canyon was intriguing, educa-tional, and satisfying, this column is actually about a couple of other occurrences during the same time period. We rented rooms in a cheap motel in La Veta for the duration of the project. The town is a typical small Colorado mountain town with a population of maybe 800. We became quite friendly with the staff in both local restaurants and night spots. My friend and instrument man, Bob, and I shared a room. We often went back to Denver on weekends, more than three hours away, though sometimes we stayed over

for hiking or fishing. Bob was a very restless sleeper, often talking and sometimes walking in his sleep. The motel had small rooms, each with two double beds, linoleum floors, and a large cubical floor-mounted furnace—with a stove-pipe, of course. Although much of the work was during the summer, many nights were cool, and we needed the furnace with some regularity. One weekend, I returned to Denver but Bob stayed in La Veta to fish. Saturday night, he was par-ticularly restless. Apparently, he rolled over and threw his pillow on top of the furnace. It heated up, began smoldering, and filled the room with smoke. The fire department came, pulled Bob out, quickly put the fire out, and transported him to the hospital in Walsenburg, some 12 miles east. Bob was fine, or so he thought. They gave him oxygen and kept an eye on him. After some time, the doctor came in, looked in his eyes, took vital signs, and began asking him questions. You know the type, “Where are we?”, “How old are you?”,

“Where were you born?”Recounting the story, Bob said that he had felt fine and

answered every question correctly—until the deal breaker, “What year is it?” He confessed “I didn’t even know how

Spanish Peaks, a view southward [navajoranch-walsenburgco.com]

Spanish Peaks from La Veta, Colorado [dondennisfamily.com]


like islands poking above the surface of the ocean. You may have seen similar scenes while flying above the clouds. It was truly remarkable! After a lengthy stay, we reluctantly began our descent. It predictably brought us back down into the gloom and rain. We returned to La Veta and went out for dinner in the usual café/night spot. The waitress looked at our sunburned faces in disbelief, and asked, “Where in the world have you three been today?” We could only laugh and feebly tried to explain.

Pleasant surveying!

many digits it was supposed to have, so needless to say, I spent the night in the hospital.” He was re-oxygenated, refreshed, and good as new on Monday morning.

Later that summer, Bob went to Denver for the weekend, and I stayed over to climb West Spanish Peak. Two other friends came down, and we planned to climb early Satur-day morning. It was dark, dreary and drizzling that morning. We were somewhat less than enthusiastic, but determined, as it was the only day we all had available. We drove up Cucharas Pass to nearly 10,000 feet, parked the car, and started off up the peak. It was still dark and damp. At about 12,000 feet, we broke through the clouds to brilliant sun-shine and a deep blue and cloudless sky overhead. It was absolutely spectacular! We continued our climb up the ridge to the summit; I don’t recall ever staying longer on any summit. The top of the cloud layer was fairly level as far as one could see, and clouds filled all of the valleys below. Scattered summits like ours rose above the clouds, rather

A peek at West Spanish Peak from Cucharas Pass [sangres.com]

A view from Cucharas Pass [academic.emporia.edu]

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

East Spanish Peak [courtesy Brian S. Penn, Ph.D.]


I found this to be quite an amazing fact. Now I guess I know why we were turned back by a snowstorm on that stretch of road one evening in February, 1962, while headed for the top of Haleakala to occupy a geodetic station there for astronomic observations. At the time, I was in charge of a small geodetic party* with the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey and my junior officer on the party, John Bossler, was charged with making most of the astronomic observations. He had just come off an “Astro Party,” stateside. Another aspect of our work was to run an azimuthal survey from the south end of Hawaii to the north end of Kauai. We occupied three stations on the Big Island, one at South Point (KAUPUWAA), another on the side of an extinct volcanic crater along the west coast (KAPULEHU) and another (PUU AIEA) on the King Ranch not far from the north point of that island. From that last station, the angle was turned to KOLEKOLE atop Haleakula, before moving on to the island of Molakai. From a station at about the mid-point of that island in the midst of a pineapple field (MAUNA LOA), we next tied into station DIAMOND HEAD atop the feature of that name on the island of Oahu. From there, we proceeded on to a station (KAPU ASTRO) on the west side of Oahu before observing the longest line of the survey across to the east end of the island of Kauai. That station (KEOPAWEO) required a stream crossing (the Nawiliwili River), then an arduous backpack up to a high elevation. Because that island’s highest elevation, near its mid-point, claims to be one of the wettest spots on Earth, that station took the longest to occupy from the standpoint of astronomic observations. Of course, all observations, both azimuthal and astronomic, required night-time occupations.

*This was known as the “East Pacific Geodetic Azimuth Determinations - Project 40300 - Job #G-131A” with the stated objective of tying all the Hawaiian Islands into one geodetic datum, as prior to that time, most of the islands were on their own separate datums. The project was being conducted in conjunction with the U.S. Air Force. Their role in all of this was to determine the distances between the islands by the “line-crossing” method using flashing lights off aircraft. For logistic support on all the islands, we utilized National Guard vehicles. In one instance, we transported some of our geodetic instrumentation from Molokai to Oahu by Marine helicopter. Charles A. BurroughsCaptain, NOAA (Ret.) [email protected]

Occupying the top of HaleakalaRE: Steepest (Sea Level to over 10,013′) and shortest ascent in the U.S.; Dr. Map, August 2010

Haleakala creater

Haleakala National Park on Maui, Hawaii

USC&GS Triangulation Station KOLEKOLE atop Haleakala Volcano, Hawaii (see also p. 33) [Photographed by Kurt Lubke]


More and better training is needed to identify and prevent or mitigate risk presented by natural hazards. Too often, the concept of

risk is misunderstood, and neither responders nor the public may fully understand what is at issue here. Clear terminology is the first line of defence. But, in order to facilitate widespread sharing of information and knowledge necessary for the development of reli-able and extensible solutions for dealing with risk, one also needs to employ the web and its graphic commu-nication capabilities. Worldwide, many organizations provide short train-ing courses on multi-hazard risk (e.g. BE-SAFE-NET, DEBRIS, NAHRIS). However, few of the training materi-als they use are complete, as textbooks are usually restricted to specific case studies. Furthermore low-cost software solutions for identifying and responding to risk continue to be scarce. Open source approaches such as the multi-platform RiskCity and WebRiskCity are being developed to support education and training for risk detection, risk prevention, and risk amelioration. Availability of free licences will go a long way to har-ness the the training capacity necessary for efficient risk management. To demonstrate how such an open source software solution may work, we have selected a hypothetical urban risk case study populated with data from the Tegucigalpa area in Honduras. After the Mitch Hurricane in October of 1998, which dumped 281 mm of rain in three days, an old landslide was reactivated and an entire neighbour-hood was destroyed. The landslide dammed the river and caused a serious flooding for several weeks. The database available to us did not provide sufficient information about the effects of the hurricane on the entire area and so, “vir-tual” layers were used to complete the training reality.

The open source software we tested was the dual-plat-form RiskCity and WebRiskCity.

RiskCity is a distance education course based on a GIS environment for training in multi-hazard risk response. It is designed for several types of “students”—faculty, plan-ners, NGO professionals, or students learning about risk posed by natural hazards. RiskCity teaches students about the collection, analysis, and spatial evaluation of risk from natural and human-induced hazard. In RiskCity’s virtual classroom, students proceed step-by-step from receiving instructions and support by tutors to submitting home

exercises and test results. The course offers a sample of data requirements, hazard assessment procedures, generation of elements-at-risk databases, vulnerability assessment, qualitative and quantitative risk assessment, risk evaluation and hypotheses on risk reduction.

WebRiskCity is a WebGIS interface which can share every output built in RiskCity. Student can interact with the data created in RiskCity, compare the output, and plan decisions just like multi-hazard risk managers do. The advantage of WebRiskCity is that queries and commands are easy to use and expressed in unambiguous terminol-ogy (standard vocabulary is provided).

The primary goal of the training is to gain thorough understanding of the multi-risk concept. Through RiskCity and WebRiskCity, students are presented with different feasible scenarios for coping with different types of hazard risk based on spatial analysis. A series of exercise ses-sions then enables students to learn how to manage risk using the information available to them for a single or mul-tiple risk scenarios. The purpose of each action, as well as the spatial data used are listed for each action, and users have the option of going through the sessions in a logical progression or go directly to the session of most interest to them. The training consists of the following sessions.

Session 1: Introduction to WebRiskCity Definition of risk assessment and its constituents (e.g. high resolution image, hazard zones, element at risk).

Educating responders and the public about risk managementRiskCity and WebRiskCity

—by S. Frigerio and C.J. van Westen

Students at ITC (Enschede, the Netherlands) were the first to test RiskCity. They learned how to create a 3D view of the study area and buildings exposed to potential hazard, using anaglyph glasses (top). Below are boundary lines and areas extracted for spatial analysis.


starting point for planning where a future extension of the city would be most appropriate, for instance, or, evaluate the areas where the need for shelters would be highest in the event of a disaster.

A questionnaire was given at the end of the course to evaluate the usefulness of RiskCity and WebRiskCity as an option for dis-tance learning in risk management. Responders found the platform to be user friendly, praising such fea-tures as the customizable browser and online guide to essential theoretical concepts and concrete examples. They also appreciated the level of feedback provided. Some felt that in order to fully benefit from the course, some sessions could be allocated more time. They generally appreciated

the clear, focused topics. The initial testing of RiskCity and WebRiskCity platform has shown this to be a useful

option for training future disaster managers and increasing the awareness of risk management among the public.

Session 2: Spatial data for risk assessment and image interpretationAnalysis of hazards and vulnerability to hazard using time-series of multi-temporal images (stereo image interpreta-tion with 3D view).

Session 3: Hazard assessmentStudy of hazard maps for different periods, learn-ing the procedures for landslide and flood hazard assessment, and identification of potential hazard scenarios.

Session 4: Elements at riskExplanation of an elements-at-risk database, how it is built from high resolution imagery, and census or cadastral data.

Session 5: Vulnerability assessmentEstimation of physical, social, economic, and environmental vulnerability. Definitions and meth-ods used to characterize vulnerability.

Session 6: Risk analysisQuantifying risk in terms of losses for all possible scenarios that might occur with different strate-gies. It includes potential methods for calculating the consequences of vulnerability to a hazardous situation.

Session 7: Risk reduction Analyse the costs and benefits of different reduc-tion measures. The result of the analysis is the

A view of WebRiskCity [ http://geoserver.itc.nl:8181/cartoweb3/WebRiskCity/WebRiskCity.html ]. Here, students are calling up specific information from layers published on the web.

Examples of WebRiskCity online support functionality: “Activities,” often used in exercises, and “What can I do,” which provides information on online spatial tools and devices.

Training in risk management

http://geoserver.itc.nl:8181/cartoweb3/WebRiskCity/WebRiskCity.html

http://geoserver.itc.nl:8181/cartoweb3/WebRiskCity/WebRiskCity.html


How Atomic Clocks Will Improve Undersea Survey

First introduced in 2011, the chip scale atomic clock (CSAC) will likely see quick adoption by companies doing seismic surveys to look for oil and gas deposits

beneath the ocean floor. The CSAC can replace the OCXOs (oven controlled crystal oscillators) or TCXOs (temperature con-trolled crystal oscillators) currently used in underwater sensors deployed in large grids on the ocean floor.

Regardless of the type of oscillator employed, however, the function is the same: to measure the time for sonic pulses fired from a surface ship to reflect off subsea forma-tions and travel back to the sensors. These times vary depending on the types of subsea formations the pulses encounter—oil, gas, rocks, sediment, etc.—thus creating a 3D map of likely oil and gas locations. The more accurate the timing, the more accurate the map; hence, the likely shift to atomic timekeeping in undersea sensors.

Mapping precision is of obvious importance to those looking for oil and gas deposits under the ocean floor. The cost of drilling a “dry” hole, especially in deep water drilling, is enormous; but so is the opportunity cost of not fully exploiting an already producing field. Many operators report that up to a third of a field’s available oil and gas may remain untapped simply because surveys of the field lacked sufficient detail or were incomplete.

Another significant cost is the expense of crews deploying and retrieving sensor grids. If grids can remain unattended and underwater longer, crews can make fewer trips—giving more flexibility to operations and also reduc-ing operational expense.

Atomic clocks offer advantages on both counts: they enable more precise mapping and they can stay out longer underwater once they’ve been deployed. Let’s discuss precision first.

Precision AdvantagesFor an underwater sensor to provide precise timing, it must offer superior specifications in three areas: initial accuracy, drift (or aging), and frequency change with temperature (also known as temperature coefficient or “tempco.”)

Initial accuracy is just what it says. It is how accurate the clock keeps time right after it’s been set. Time is the reciprocal of frequency, so another way to look at initial accuracy is by the uniformity of the periods, or spacing, between clock “ticks.” In an ideal clock, all the periods would be identical in all sensors—it would be as if all sensors were operating on the same clock—so all sensor

reflections off each object would correlate perfectly, resulting in a super-clear image. To the extent initial clock accuracy is not perfect, correlation among sensors is not perfect, and the image detail becomes a bit blurred.

Another factor affecting precision is drift or aging, i.e., the rate at which a clock gains or loses time as time passes. As soon as it is set, a clock starts to drift. All clocks gain or lose time, some faster than others. Because aging is constantly occurring, it causes a steady change in frequency, which results in a time error that varies as the square of the elapsed time since the clock was last set. This means that the data from any two sensors running off different clocks will be further and further out of agreement the longer the sensors remain on the bottom. The more uncorrelated the clocks become, the blurrier the image.

Aging is less of an issue in timing applications like mobile telephone cell towers that have access to timing signals broadcast from GPS satellites, and so can reference a known accurate time source. In these applications, the local oscillator can be “disciplined,” i.e., brought back to the correct frequency by GPS. Underwater, however, sensors’ clocks have no access to GPS signals, and so they must rely on their own internal physics—atomic or quartz—to stay accurate over time.

A third metric that significantly impacts mapping precision is temperature coefficient, or tempco. Tempco describes how much a clock’s frequency changes (or shifts) in response to changes in temperature. A clock that produces a signal at one frequency on the warm deck of a surface ship will produce a signal at a different frequency when submerged into cold sea-water. The tempco specification indicates the maximum shift in frequency the clock is guaranteed not to exceed. Since the frequency shift of each sensor’s clock is different, this adds to the correlation errors caused by initial inaccuracy and aging. Some sensors use software models to correct for these errors, but the best approach is to minimize them to begin with.

— by Steve Fossi, Director of New Business Development


The superior initial accuracy and aging of atomic clocks compared to crystal-based oscillators are well known. And the CSAC brings that accuracy and stability to portable applications (e.g., subsea sensing) for the first time. In fact, the first commercially available CSAC—Symmetricom’s SA.45s—has an initially accuracy of ±5.0E-11, which is at least 100 times more accurate than most OCXOs, and 1000 times more accurate than most TCXOs. The aging rate is 3.0E-10/month; again, about 100 times better than most OCXOs and 1000 times better than most TCXOs.

An atomic clock also has better tempco performance than TCXOs or OCXOs. Here’s why: Atomic clocks work by exciting atoms of a particu-lar gas (typically cesium, hydrogen or rubidium) to resonance within a chamber, producing an extremely precise and stable spectral emission line. This resonance is also less sensi-tive to changes in temperature than are the mechanical phenomena used to generate frequencies in TCXOs and OCXOs.

The CSAC’s innovative design results in an atomic clock that is extremely small— the CSAC is less that 16 cubic centimeters in volume and weighs less than 35 grams. That means that sensor designers can easily integrate the CSAC into existing

sensor cards. But the CSAC’s design also surrounds its physics package with a high-quality vacuum for very high thermal isolation. As a result, the CSAC can specify a tempco of ±5.0x10-10 over its operating range of -10°C to +70°C. This is orders of magnitude better than what can be obtained from TCXOs or OCXOs.

Cost AdvantagesA key cost driver in this application is oscillator power consumption. That’s because the oscillator is by far the biggest consumer of power in the sensor, and this is why the vast majority of the sensor’s volume consists of batteries.

And here is where the Symmetricom SA.45s CSAC delivers an overwhelming advantage. With just 115 mW of power consumption, it has about 1/40th the power con-sumption of any other OEM atomic clock on the market. But underwater sensors typically don’t employ atomic clocks—precisely because of their power consumption—and so the more relevant comparison is with the OCXOs that most underwater sensors employ. Here, the Chip Scale Atomic Clock represents an incredible 80 to 90 percent savings in power.

The benefit for users is that they get to save money either of two ways: 1) by reducing battery cost and there-

fore sensor cost; or 2) by using the same batteries and extending mission life (10-15x longer than when using an OCXO-equipped sensor). Longer mission life means more flexibility in scheduling crews and deployments, saving money on operational costs.

So what about TCXO-based sen-sors? TCXOs do use less power than the CSAC, but they rely on software algorithms to correct for temperature changes and for aging performance, neither of which are intrinsically good enough for the intended application. Since these algorithms only apply an average correction factor, the map’s accuracy is less than it could be.

And For Even Lower Power Consumption …Marine survey teams which use sen-sors equipped with CSACs also have another way to further reduce power consumption. The CSAC’s ultra-low power mode turns off the CSAC’s physics package to operate the unit as a free-running TCXO. Of course, if left undisciplined the TCXO’s timing will start to degrade. But the phys-ics package can be periodically (also programmatically) turned back on so that, after warm-up (<100 sec), it re-disciplines the TCXO. Operating the SA. 45s in this mode enables average power consumption levels well below 50mW.

Consider Your Timing OptionsWith the introduction of the Symmetricom SA.45s CSAC, design-ers of underwater sensors have a new option in their ongoing efforts to increase mapping precision and decrease costs. The accuracy of sensor time stamps, the cost of sensor deployment and retrieval, and the length of time that sensors can remain underwater are all factors that can be greatly improved by using the CSAC.

Sonic pulses launched from a surface ship reflect off subsea formations and travel back to the sensors where they are time-stamped


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Patrick Chura, Thoreau the Land Surveyor, 2010, ix-xiii. ISBN 978-0-8130-3493-5. *Reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida.

Louis thirty years ago were not essen-tially different from the “graduated staff” made of birch sapling Thoreau used to sound the Concord River and conduct leveling experiments around Walden Pond.

My dad’s career accounts for my initial interest in surveying, but there were many steps taken to prepare for the book. In July of 2008, for example, I used Thoreau’s draft survey of Walden Pond to first reformulate the Walden field notes and then redraw the famous pond map itself. These simple tasks became a thought-provoking, at times moving experience. When, in repro-ducing the beautifully radiating lines of the survey, the lines began to intersect and the pond began to take shape, I derived a sense of accomplishment

and transit were not much more tech-nologically advanced than Thoreau’s compass. His steel measuring tapes were not much different from the sixty-six-foot iron-and-steel Gunter’s chain Thoreau used. The orange-and-white-striped range pole and “philly” rod I carried while helping my dad lay out strip malls in the suburbs of Saint

Not everyone knows that Henry Thoreau, author of Walden, ran a land surveying business for a good part of his life. Work-ing as a surveyor for about twelve years, Thoreau made over 165 surveys that resolved ownership disputes, laid out roads, lotted-off woodlands for sale and cutting, and regularized property bound-aries. In Thoreau the Land Surveyor, I recover this story and remake some of Thoreau’s boundaries, including physical lines he had created and intangible mark-ers—remnants of his life and character that had been lost or neglected.

The project began with a desire to know more about nineteenth-century surveying itself—about what Thoreau actually did to make a living from 1849 to 1861. In the book’s eight chapters, I reconstruct his measuring processes and explore their meaning. I also ana-lyze his journals, letters, field notes, and published works so that we may learn about his use of surveying as both a source of income and a creative way of studying the environment.

Since my father was a land surveyor and I accompanied him on many sur-veying outings in the 1970s and 1980s, I had an idea of what Thoreau’s field-work involved. My dad was a good surveyor and engineer, but his tripod

that became a strong incentive to con-tinue the project. To learn more about something Thoreau cared deeply about was important to me, but I was also thrilled to be recovering an unusual type of lost information. Poring over my copy of the survey, I thought I was reading a new Thoreau text.

In the process, certain things were

The author taking compass bearings at the site of Thoreau’s cabin

revealed. I had known that Thoreau was a meticulous worker, but I was now more deeply impressed with the time-consuming nature of his drafting and how much life and mental energy his many surveys had demanded of him. Reproducing the field notes took about twelve hours and drawing the Walden map another full day, during which I became completely engrossed in the tasks and lost all track of time. Doing what Thoreau did brought home the realization that the work required a type of focus, concentration and patience that is rare in this age of short attention spans.

As a result of my research into Thore-au’s life, I determined that the making of his literary masterpiece actually began with surveying work—that before Tho-

NEW BOOKExcerpted from the preface* to “Thoreau the Land Surveyor” — by Patrick Chura

reau wrote a line of Walden, he measured lines across the pond. In other words, Thoreau began his masterpiece not with the drafting of sentences but with the drafting of a landscape, and the first sup-porting manuscripts for his great book were his field notes. It was fascinating

to learn that the genesis of Walden was a materialization of the earth’s magnetic field, authored as much by the compass needle as by Thoreau. This meant that to some extent, nature itself wrote Walden.

Thoreau did a lot of surveying for its phil-osophic rather than economic value. No

one paid him for the hard work required to make his accurate map of the 61-acre Walden Pond in 1846, but he realized how well this survey expressed his way of seeing the world, so he included it in the pages of Walden. It is now one of the most important images in Ameri-

“Walden Pond. A Reduced Plan.” This image appeared opposite page 307 in the first edition of Walden.

Schematic of the Walden survey, showing the method of angle intersection Thoreau used to survey the sixty-one acres of Walden Pond by setting up his compass at points B, C and D on the pond’s frozen surface.

Patrick Chura is Associate Professor of English at the University of Akron, Ohio; [email protected]


can literary history. And in February 1851, Thoreau conducted a complex operation to sight the North Star and determine

“true north” or true meridian. Doing so made him a better surveyor but, as a transcendentalist, Thoreau also believed that “the laws of physics translate the laws of ethics;” that the guidance pro-vided by the star was not only directional but moral. This explains why he marked out his true-north line in an unusual loca-tion: the front yard of the house he lived in on Main Street in Concord.

Thoreau was one of our great envi-ronmental writers, but in his surveying business he often cut paths through the Walden woods and lotted-off land for sale to woodcutters. My book ana-lyzes this seeming contradiction to show how the best surveyor in Con-cord combined civil engineering with civil disobedience. If Thoreau was sometimes conflicted about how he made his living, it was because he had a muscular conscience. He resisted the process of being spiritually reduced by his employers, and he sought ways to use surveying for the highest purposes. While he did not transcend the realities of economics, he did something inspi-rational by confronting and channeling the tension between getting a living and living by values—a tension we all encounter in some form. The story of how the author of Walden so lived his life as to elicit the admiration of liter-ary scholars, philosophers, environ-mentalists, and future land surveyors is certainly an under-appreciated but significant measure of the man.

c. 1850 Broadside advertising Thoreau’s services as a land surveyor.

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“Chaining pins” made by Thoreau


Last December I took part in the New Jersey Geospatial Forum in Trenton. I was there on the invitation of Peter Borbas, then chair of the New Jersey Society of Professional Land Sur-veyors’ GIS / LIS Committee which has for years played an active role as NJSPLS’ representative in the Forum. Both the Forum and the meeting of NJSPLS’ GIS /LIS Committee after it were an opportunity to consider the expanding horizon of the “geospatial” world.

More often than not, changes to an established status quo announce themselves quietly, as part of seeking greater efficiencies, greater partici-pation, or more profit through innovation. The geospatial world is no different from other fields; it is experiencing an expanded technological capacity which is changing the way surveyors and GIS professionals work.

Listening to the officials speaking at the New Jersey Geospatial Forum, one could not but notice the push and pull between the need for better geographic data at the state level and the technology that is being employed to provide better surveying and mapping services to all the sectors dependent on accurate spatial data.

The 2010 census, not surprisingly, featured, in some shape and form in a number of presenta-tions, drawing attention to the imminent arrival of New Jersey’s data—via the Census Bureau’s web site—which are pegged to the block level.

The data collected by the decadal censuses expand our knowledge about our country and our people. They are the facts which power the socio-economic and political aspects of a democracy such as ours. Information gathered about our country is available on Census Bureau’s American Factfinder web site which is being re-engineered to expand its usefulness to everyone from scien-tists, to bureaucrats, to private business, to jour-nalists, to the public.

As a low-lying, coastal state, New Jersey has worked to improve its capacity for analyzing and

mitigating losses from natural climatic events such as floods and hurricane winds. But it also has a strong interest in obviating risk caused by hazard from economic activity. By virtue of its location on the Atlantic coast, New Jersey is the transfer point to shipping containers for certain hazardous material brought by rail from other parts of the country.

It should not therefore come as a surprise that New Jersey is invested in training its geospatial professionals in risk mitigation. Training in FEMA’s HAZUS software program is being given across the Hudson River, in New York, and New Jersey plans to send its professionals to benefit from this training opportunity.

HAZUS-MH, the most recent incarnation of FEMA’s HAZUS tool, combines current scientific and engineering knowledge with the latest geo-graphic information systems (GIS) technology and is thus one of the new capabilities geospatial pro-fessionals in New Jersey and the state govern-ment are interested in developing further.

Another idea taking hold in New Jersey is wide-spread uptake of FGDC-compliant GIS mapping standards. Currently produced GIS maps are adopted on the “as is basis,” with a caveat that the metadata “need to be provided.” Standardization of GIS mapping is an area where the survey-ing community could easily establish itself as a stakeholder. A workshop on metada which would bring together surveyors and GIS profession-als was given at New Jersey Surveyors’ Conference this February.

Efficient and open management of geospatial resources is necessary to extrapolate the work of geospatial professionals to new areas of application. In public forums as well as in professional gather-ings and congressional hearings, the voices advo-cating more meaningful sharing of geospatial data, services, and applications have been instrumental in the development, at the federal level, of Geospatial One Stop, Geospatial Line of Business, and other resource management platforms.

The Geospatial Platform [www.GeoPlatform.gov] highlighted at the New Jersey Geospatial Forum differs from the previous platforms in that it is a managed network of partners who have come together with the express purpose of exploit-ing geospatial Internet services in the sharing of geospatial data, applications, and services.

The GeoPlatform.gov could be held up as an example of a new GIS modality. Spearheading

The future: What wil l it look l ike for geospatial professionals?—by Ilse Genovese


ize what’s happening in their neighborhoods, their counties, and their states. Because of ubiqui-tous mapping of events, decision, and outcome, people can be more involved in government. Geographic information presented in the form of maps thus has a role to play in community think-ing and actions—e.g., in outcome measurement in schools, in crime prevention, in locating a new hospital, or planning a new development.

Integration of geographic information from multiple sources on the web is the domain of IT companies such as Google Earth. The magic that Google Earth delivers when a person asks, “show me my home,” has very prosaic roots—in GIS lan-guage which has imbued information technology with a spatial dimension.

In this new spatial IT paradigm, it’s not enough to measure but to analyze and integrate geo-graphic information and analytics into meaningful visualizations which can inform decision-making by private citizens as well as their government.

converging forcesWe have fast computers and even faster com-puter networks. We seek high web – cellphone connectedness which enables “pervasive com-puting.” We are moving toward the next big step of our times—”Geo on the web.” We use crowd-sourcing and cloud geo-databases to define relationships in time and 3D. Enhanced by Open Source access, these converging forces have the potential to make geospatial data available to scientists, educators, officials, and the citizenry to an unprecedented degree. Society will benefit from better leveraged sharing of geographic data.

emerging web-based gis Web-based geographic information (WGI) brings us into the era of geo-services powered by apps built on distributed, dynamically networked geo-platforms. Gov2.0 is an example of such a plat-form. The notion behind web-based GIS is that if there are enough good geospatial data and ser-vices provided by government, others will be able to leverage them to build new services. Clearly, this is an area where the involvement of the pri-vate sector will be crucial. Empowered by mobile GIS and open web access, private citizens, too, will become spatially

GeospatialWORLD

this new modality are advances in the technol-ogy used to acquire spatial data and advances in computing.

But, if the geospatial profession is moving into a new paradigm, the way all geospatial profes-sionals do business will change too, and with it their future. Colleges, professional organizations, businesses, and government, all need to give thought to the new ways of providing geospatial data and services.

At the New Jersey Geospatial Forum it was none other than the owner of the best known private GIS software company in the U.S., Jack Dangermond, who weighed in on this “new GIS modality.”

how we got to gisTo understand what’s just over the horizon, Dan-germond took us back a few decades when CAD (computer-automated drawing) burst on the scene.

The static CAD maps were, in those days, the new modality of mapping. They were the “new modality” because they were computer-drawn, based on data collected by surveyors. Then came computational geography (better known as GIS) which added a new—spatial—dimension to solu-tions, from layers of data stored in databases.

Geographic information systems incorporate spatial science into many fields: environment conservation, urban development, economic plan-ning, natural resource exploration, wireless com-munication, location-based services, and many more. In the past decade or so, GIS has ventured into certain applications of land management.

Good land management is the bedrock of society and its economy. GIS is doing a good job in monitoring ecological conditions on land, but it needs to do a better job in providing accurate parcel (and other assets’) information. The idea of creating a national cadastre deserves a fresh look by both surveyors and GIS professionals.

National discourse is also examining the role of GIS in human health, transportation planning, deliv-ery route planning, inventory management, agricul-ture ... A new area is government accountability. On www.recovery.gov, the public can track government spending of tax payers’ money—where the funds are being spent and where they ought to be spent.

Government accountability is the next chapter in an open democracy. Maps help people visual-


more involved. The “citizen cartographers” who have contributed geographic data and metadata to Ushahidi Haiti and Chile have demonstrated that web-based GIS mapping can be extremely useful in situations where timely local information is needed to save life and property. The rise of mashups, which Ushahidi and other web-based GIS mapping platforms basically are, reflects another phenomenon of our times—the move of social media into the spatial world, help-ing to beget volunteerism in cartography . Consider requests by local TV channels for photos of unusual climatic events. Consider reports on traffic flow during peak hours, or the WeatherBug icon above your email box letting you know what the temperature will be in your location on the day you access your e-mail. Con-sider the map you just pulled up on your iPod telling you which restaurants are in the vicinity of your hotel. Consider also the role of Google, Facebook Twitter, and other geocoded, real-time media in last year’s protest in Iran and the current upheaval in Egypt. Web-based geographic information provided in real time is a new type of geographic data. We need to learn how to use it, how to combine it with data from other “authors” to make it valu-able. We also need to learn how to share it better. We need to create a sharing ecosystem which would support web, desktop, and device apps using data stored in “the cloud.” The future for the geospatial world is being mapped now. It’s a future dramatically different from when CAD and GIS were invented. It’s a future which recognizes that there is at least one generation which is comfortable with the Internet and other technology. This generation is techno-logically very adaptable and eager to incorporate geospatial information into many parts of their lives. But they want geospatial data that is easily accessible and delivered on their terms. As this generation gains more control in society, we are likely to see demands from con-sumers, clients, and the citizenry at large for geospatial services that can leverage both social and economic capital for the benefit of all. Another kind of GIS professional will be needed to develop and provide the next genera-tion of geospatial services that are expected. It will be a professional who will need to adapt to meet the demand for geospatial data and ser-vices that solve real world problems.

This will require software and hardware that is open and modular and data that is easily acces-sible but secure. If the current developments are anything to go by, geospatial data will become more abundant and cheaper, and they should be of higher quality, The geospatial professional will thus be concerned with interoperability, stan-dardization, metadata, and meticulous inclu-sion of “ground truth” in GIS, i.e., accurate parcel data and the element of time from surveys and re-surveys of boundaries. The new modality of GIS is just round the corner; it behoves us to carefully examine not only the technological advances heralding it but, importantly, what these advance will mean for the broader “geospatial profession.” An across-the-board consequence of the new GIS modality is that the boundaries between different types of geospatial professionals will be blurred. Professional organizations need to reflect this impending multi-disciplinary nature of their mem-bers and clients. They need to encourage a more robust dialogue between professionals on divi-sive issues, such as why state plane coordinates and measurements on the ground may not match in GIS. They need to become more involved with the new generation of geospatial professionals and their education. The Internet, which propelled a different kind of mapping, is breaking down geographic limitations in education via distant learning. Coupled with involvement by professionals in local colleges, online courses will enable students to pursue education that really interests them rather than being limited to education locally available. The march toward a new modality in the geospatial world has begun and will continue far into the future. Esri’s Dangermond planted some thoughts about this new modality at the New Jersey Geospatial Forum in December. The time has come to get on board with this reality and carve a stake in that future. For, at some point, geospatial data will no longer be the product of skilled professionals, but a “commodity” much like clean water or sugar, while the need for more accurate geospatial data and better geospatial services accelerates. Herein lies the big challenge before all geospatial professionals: start rethink-ing the ways our craft and profession fit into that future, so that the data and services we produce continue to be of the highest integrity and of the greatest utility to our clients.

GeospatialWORLD


ence has ebbed and flowed, with annual declarations that “this is the year” location will be huge. Location-based services could generate potentially huge revenue through advertising in the search market once being the domain of Yellow Pages. This potential is driving the devel-opment of location-informed functionality which could be used to solve business issues (such as transport routing) and to increase our understanding of the built and natural world. The use of phones as application platforms is of interest in the provision of various geospatial solutions. The greatest gains could be realized in the realm of augmented reality, i.e., providing a window beyond what’s visible, and so enhance our understanding of a complex environment.

social & seriousThe “serious” domain of designing apps to improve business workflows is walled in by domain expertise; so is, for the most part, the collection of geographic data. This is about to change, however, as organizations realize that customers are vested partners in data collection and feedback, and can thus contrib-ute greatly to improved business operations, at little or no cost.

Young people are becoming much more active outside of their occupations because they’re finding that their participa-tion gives them a voice on issues that interest them. “Cognitive surplus” is the term coined to describe the desire to explore and participate in activities we like and care about— but not because of money. And there are many applications, such as foursquare and Gowalla, which were designed to satisfy this urge to discover and share information about our surroundings. As people “check-in” to their locations and try to find out where others are and what they are doing, all benefit from greater understanding about each place. This understanding benefits from mobile collective intelligence that is at once serious and socially motivated.

Geospatial functionality is a critical motivator for the “Mobile First” movement, and geospatial insight stands to be a pri-mary beneficiary of wider adoption of mobile communication platforms. As the constantly connected and location-aware capabilities become global, a rich pipeline of measurements will become available, and the abundant data will have to be validated, catalogued, and analyzed by experts.

ReferencesWorldwide mobile PC shipments: 49.4 million units in the first quarter

of 2010. Gartner, May 2010.Global mobile phone growth remains strong despite crisis. Radio Free

Europe, October 2009.Yahoo! acquires Koprol: Extends social and mobile strategy with loca-

tion-based community. Press Release, May 2010.The great cognitive surplus. Interview of Clay Shirky and Daniel Pink,

Wired Magazine, June 2010.Cell phones are the biggest platform ever created. Paul Jacobs, CEO of

Qualcomm, Keynote at 2010 International CES.

“Mobile First”Many companies are adopting a “Mobile First” approach to software application development, given the increasing computing capability of smart phones and the sheer number of application-capable handheld devices. The growth of the mobile market for platforms and applications has been huge, and the demand for solutions and services of a geospatial nature in the mobile space has been steadily rising.

Global phone growth is averaging 20% per year, despite the recession, and has reached more than 4 billion subscriptions worldwide, with 82 million in the U.S. alone. The trend also translates to mobile PCs or netbooks where the market has grown 71% over the last year to net a revenue of $36 billion; which will only accelerate with the growing interest in the iPad.

Many geospatial vendors have increased their investment in mobile platforms and mobile capabilities. For instance, Michael Jones at Google has just recently indicated that the emphasis for development work on Google Earth is now on mobile devices. This sentiment is echoed in other quarters, including Esri whose ARcGIS10 can run on an iPhone. What are the implications of this move away from the desktop to the handheld?

mobile feeds globalizationThe ubiquity of mobile devices is a global story, and it won’t be long before far more people own a smart handheld com-munication device than have access to a computer connected to the Internet. This phenomenon supports application develop-ment aimed at accelerating changes in the global economy and so improving quality on Earth.During the Haiti earthquake, the Iran unrests, and more recently in Egypt, the mobile platform proved to be critical for reporting conditions on the ground and coordinating people and resources in an efficient and effective manner. Handheld devices are also increasingly used for what has come to be known as “citizen science” where individuals act as sensors and record information about their changing environment.

Not only are mobile computing platforms largely location aware; they are being developed with sensing capabilities far more superior to those of a camera which go beyond an image or sound to include the ability to “sniff” chemical signatures and to sense and record vibrations such as from earthquakes. The fusion of these inputs, along with their location, into one message makes mobile devices a leading and active compo-nent of web GIS.

apps & adsThe inclusion of location in the consumer-oriented mobile world has been of interest for some time. Starting in 2001 there was white-hot interest in the term location-based services (LBS), with a large number of launches and a huge presence at the largest mobile phone conferences. Since that time the popular-ity of location to serve ads and content to the consumer audi-

—by Matt Ball , v1 Magazine


Steve McQueen starred in the 1963 movie entitled The Great Escape. This thriller is based on a true story of a mass escape from a World War II German POW camp. The Great Escape is about courage, commitment, communica-

To learn more, visit http://www.nspsmo.org

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Association 3.0: Strategies to win the battle against commoditization—by F. Scott Addis, CPCU

tion, focus, passion, positive attitude, problem solving, relationships, self-discipline and teamwork.

In 1944, the Germans built a special Stalag, or prison camp, designed to house their most troublesome inmates,

Is your association becoming a commodity? It is if your members can’t see the quantifiable difference the association brings to their life, business, or profession. Does the organization have a value proposition that clearly articulates the benefits of membership? If it doesn’t, you run the risk of falling into the commodity trap. The commodity trap is one of three traps associations as well as for-profit businesses can find themselves falling into if they aren’t diligent about continually giving members a reason to belong. As Scott Addis points out in this article, when the focus is not on value, price is the only differentiator. Although this article refer-ences the words ‘business’ and ‘consumers’, just replace those words with ‘association’ and ‘members’ and you’ll be able to see the practical application in the not-for-profit world.


the ones who repeatedly were attempting escape. The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps, built a high security “escape proof” camp in Silesia, halfway between Berlin and Breslau—up toward the Polish boarder and far away from any friendly or neu-tral border.

There is something demoralizing about being taken a pris-oner of war. At first it stuns the mind and one is overwhelmed with a feeling of helplessness, while hope is only a dim, dim shadow. The prisoner is sorely tempted to sit back quietly and cooperate with his captors. But it is the duty of any officer in the time of war, should he or she have the bad fortune to be taken prisoner, to do all in his or her power to escape. If escape is impossible it then becomes his or her duty to force the enemy to employ an inordinate number of soldiers to guard him or her. Such was evident by the officers whom the Germans had corralled in the north compound of Stalag Luft III during the war.

Stalag Luft III was grim – six low drab wooden barrack huts in a patch of sand surrounded by a double barbed-wire fence nine feet high. Spaced about a hundred yards apart just outside the barbed wire, the “goon boxes” stood up on their stilts about 15 feet high so that searchlights and machine guns could look down into the compound with clear vision and unrestricted field of fire. About 30 feet inside the barbed wire ran the warning wire on little posts about 18 inches high. It was to keep prisoners away from the fence, and it certainly did. If you put your foot over the line, several bullets would follow.

With only their bare hands and the crudest of home-made tools, the prisoners built underground railroads, forged passports, drew maps, faked weapons and tailored German uniforms and civilian clothes.

What does The Great Escape have to do with you and your business? Everything. There is a disease —an enemy—that is eating away at your knowledge, wisdom, and professionalism each and every day. This disease—known as—reduces your offerings to the lowest common denominator, the competitive bid. A stinking price!

Commoditization occurs when the focus of the consum-ers’ decision is on the offering rather than the quantifiable difference that you bring to their business. You cannot see commoditization. However, it can be felt in the negative impact on your confidence, reputation, time, and money.

After analyzing the results of over 3,000 Beyond Insur-ance® Surveys and discussions with over 500 insurance agency principals, sales managers, account executives, customer service representatives and producers, Addis Intellectual Capital (AIC) concluded that commoditization is comprised of three dangerous traps—the Commodity, Perception, and Anxiety traps.

the commodity trapThe “Commodity Trap” occurs when the consumer sees little or no distinguishable difference between products, services, or resources. When this happens, price becomes the differentiator. Getting caught in the Commodity Trap is not fun because your value proposition is reduced to a number. It also means that you have dozens, if not hun-dreds, of competitors who the consumer believes delivers a similar service or product.

the perception trapThe lock and key for the “Perception Trap” is housed in the consumer’s mind. This trap is based upon the consumer’s past experiences—their preconceived ideas of the value of your products and services. The Perception Trap alters what the consumer sees. When people view something with a preconceived notion, they link it with prior experi-ences. Their knowledge does not allow them to open their eyes to the value of your new offering. When concepts are viewed without understanding, the mind reaches for some-thing that it already recognizes, a baseline of understand-ing for which opinions are formed.

the anxiety trapAnxiety is a reaction to stress. The “Anxiety Trap” repre-sents a person’s fear of considering alternatives to the status quo. It represents a false fear that impedes one’s ability to explore alternative means of delivering a product or service. Moving outside your comfort zone can cause stress which leads to anxiety. The best way to avoid the Anxiety Trap is to play it safe. Unfortunately, this short-term strategy will leave you caught in the Commodity and Perception Traps.

If you are a member of a firm that’s developing value-added services to differentiate itself from its competitors, you are escaping The Commodity Trap. However, beware of the Perception and Anxiety Traps. They are most danger-ous and tricky. Changing the consumers’ perception takes time and energy. Giving a member of your staff the tools, training, and confidence to avoid the Anxiety Trap can also be quite a challenge. Be patient. The rewards are plenti-ful. The following three strategies have been developed to escape the Commodity, Perception, and Anxiety Traps:1. ValueProposition. Your value proposition represents

the reason why a customer should buy your particular product or service, how it exceeds that of your compe-tition, and why it is worthy of the price they must pay. Your value proposition must appeal to your customers’ strongest decision-making drivers. A differentiated value proposition goes beyond functional product or service descriptions to express the results a customer can expect to achieve. The value proposition must not As

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Charles Burroughs’ article on page 18 about “Occupying the top of Haleakala” triggered a search for an image of a marker documenting the survey he described. With the search came a reminder—the discs we put into ground all have a story. The “story” that I am about to narrate concerns two marks: An Azimuth Mark set in 1966, which readily comes up in Google searches for Haleakala, and a Triangulation Station mark recovered by Burroughs in 1962. The dates of both markers take us to surveys conducted by the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey (USC&GS), and after the name change in 1970, the National Geodetic Survey, (NGS). The standard procedure has been to set four disks at ground surface level—a TRIANGULATION STATION disk (where the survey observations were made), two REFER-ENCE MARK disks, and one AZIMUTH MARK disk. Under-ground marks may also have been set. So when Charles Burroughs called me to help shed light on the survey markers for KOLEKOLE (the name of the main traiangulation station in the Haleakala National Park), I went to work. I searched NGS’ on-line database (www.ngs.noaa.gov) for KOLEKOLE, expecting to find the date 1911 (Burroughs thought that the stamping on the photo of the Azimuth Mark looked like “1911”, “1011”, or “011”, followed by the year 1966), as well as 1962, 1966, and perhaps a few other dates. The data sheet provided the answers I was looking for and some I was not. To my surprise, the KOLEKOLE dates actually start with 1875. I also found 1950, 1962, 1969, and several more recent dates. Notably, 1911 (which Bur-roughs thought might have been stamped on the Azimuth

Mark, above) and 1966 (which is) are not recorded in the data sheet. To make sure that I am not missing something, I carefully re-read the description. The notes, comprising terse technical terms, nonethe-less read like a trip down geodesy’s history lane.

In 1876 an “IRON STAKE” marked the survey point. (USC&GS didn’t start using survey disks until about the year 1900.) The next recovery note (from 1950) states that the iron stake was replaced by a standard survey disk, and that three Reference Marks were set. The 1962 recovery note states that the main survey mark (called the “Station” or the Triangulation Station”) and all three Reference Marks were recovered. Very significantly, the Chief of Party initials in the 1962 recov-ery note are “CAB” (Charles A. Burroughs)! The first 1969 recovery note states that they again found the station and the three Reference Marks.

The second 1969 recovery note mentions three Recov-ery Marks and adds some new and key information:

“SATELLITE TRIANGULATION STATION 011 IS A STANDARD DISK STAMPED ‘SATELLITE TRIANG STATION 011 1966,’ SET IN THE TOP OF A 16-INCH DIAMETER CONCRETE MONUMENT FLUSH WITH GROUND. IT IS 9 FEET SOUTH OF THE EDGE OF A LARGE, CONCRETE CIRCLE, 53.5 FEET SOUTH OF SOUTH SIDE OF THE COMMUNICATIONS CO. BUILD-ING, AND 10 FEET LOWER THAN STATION MARK.”

—by George Leigh

KOLEKOLE markers 101

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Triangulation Station KOLEKOLE (set in 1950)

Azimuth Mark of 1966


be about you and your firm. Rather, it must be all about the customer. Your ability to articulate how you are uniquely qualified to help the consumer will distinguish you from others in the marketplace.

2. Createacultureofcreativityandinnovation. The ability to “think outside the box” is best supported in a flexible, open, nurturing environment. Creativity is the act of producing new ideas, approaches or actions, while innovation is the process of putting ideas into action. Creativity is always the starting point for inno-vation.

Establishing a culture of creativity and innovation is essential to your Great Escape. 3. Understandthecustomer. Research has shown that

consumers are willing to pay a premium, redefine the buyer/seller relationship, erect barriers to the seller’s competitors, and establish the seller as a trusted advisor when the seller reveals to the buyer an unrec-ognized problem and establishes for the buyer an unanticipated solution. Both are accomplished with a thorough understanding of the business.

The Great Escape is a story of achievement against impossible odds. And it proves that nothing can stop a group from achieving a goal once they agree to what that goal is. The 76 ragged, verminous men of all nationalities who climbed out of that stinking hole in the ground on that windy March 24, 1944 night challenged the Third Reich and all it stood for. Their amazing escape allows us to understand and appreciate that anything can be accomplished with purpose, passion, positive attitude, creativity, and innovation. Go for it. You have everything to gain—especially your freedom! about the author: Scott Addis is President and CEO of The Addis Group and Addis Intellectual Capital, LLC.

Association 3.0, from p. 32Markers, from p. 33

This description clarifies what is stamped on the disk of the Azimuth Mark and confirms that the photo of the disc initially considered to illustrated Burroughs’ article is that of a disk on the same Haleakala volcano and that it is related to the triangulation station KOLEKOLE! I also found a source for recent information about, and photos of, the Triangulation Station, the three Reference Marks, and the Azimuth Mark in question. In fact, the sta-tion, Reference Mark 2, Reference Mark 3, and the 011 Azimuth Mark were all recovered this year—by geocachers! The recovery note is from January 3, 2011 and contains another surprise: they found a Reference Mark for 011 Azimuth Mark! The type and function of disks normally set in the vicinity of a Triangulation Station mark are described in a brief article I wrote for pub-lication on the Geocaching web site [www.geocaching.com]. Given that markers are such an important part of all surveying, and because there continue to be questions about the differ-ent types of markers and their functions, I plan to write a more detailed article on this topic and publish it in a forthcoming issue of the ACSM Bulletin. [George Leigh can be contacted with questions at [email protected]]

Satellite Triangulaion Station 011 Azimuth

011 Azimuth Mark [pictured] and its Reference Mark were recovered on Jan. 3, 2011

Photos courtesy of Kurt Luebke <[email protected]>


ACSM Joint Government Affairs Committee Issues Survey Results

Recently, ACSM asked for members’ opinion about federal issues that the Joint Government Affairs Committee is working on and how we can improve our work on Capitol Hill. —by Laurence Socci

We asked background questions about the type of business ACSM members have, how many people are in their firms, and how many are

licensed surveyors. Next members were asked them to rate the issues we are working on and the coalitions we work with; the annual Lobby Day event was also rated. We ended the survey by giving members an opportunity to recommend other issues not discussed in the survey that we should be working on. The results of the survey are very interesting. The submission deadline for responses to the survey was December 31. A total of 681 people responded to the survey. This is probably a better-than-average response rate that should give us a good feel for ACSM members’ views on our issues. The first question asked was: “Please choose your type of business.” Of the 681 responses, 307 respondents (45.1%) chose “Engineering Firm (including surveying and/or map-ping services)” while 160 respondents (23.5%) chose “Sur-veying Firm Only.” As many as 100 respondents (14.7%) chose “Surveying and Mapping Firm” and 112 respondents (16.4%) chose “Other.” Most of the respondents who chose

“Other” appear to work for either a government entity (fed-eral, state, local) or an educational entity. When asked “How many people are in your firm/agency,” we learned that most respondents worked in firms with 21 or more people (292, 42.9%) or small firms with 1 to 5 people (197, 28.9%). A total 99 respondents (14.5%) said they worked in firms with 6 to 10 people, and 93 respondents (13.7%) said they worked in firms with 11 to 20 people. According to our survey, a majority (529 or 77.7%) of firms or agencies employing surveyors have 1 to 5 licensed sur-veyors. Sixty-eight respondents (10%) said they have 6 to 10 licensed surveyors and 46 respondents (6.8%) said they have 11 - 20 licensed surveyors in their firm. Nine respon-dents said they have no licensed surveyors in their firm. We asked respondents to rate 10 federal issues JGAC has been involved with, on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being not impor-tant and 5 being very important). Here is how they ranked, with the number in brackets indicated their rating average:

1. Flood Map Modernizaton (3.94)2. Qualifications Based Selection /QBS (3.79)

3. Preservation of Abandoned Railroad Monumenta-tion (3.75)

4. Definition of “Surveying” throughout the Federal government (3.73)

5. Funding for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineer-ing, Math) Programs (3.28)

6. Repeal of 3% Withholding Tax on Government Con-tracts (3.19)

7. Purchasing Surveying and Mapping Services off the GSA Schedule (3.09)

8. Labor Issues, i.e. Davis-Bacon (2.89)9. Federal Funding for the Trig-Star Program (2.73)10. Ocean and Coastal Mapping Issues (2.65)

We also asked respondents to rate the importance of the coalitions of which we are members. Again, the scale was 1 to 5, with 1 being not important and 5 being very important. Here is how the coalitions ranked (numbers in brackets indi-cate their rating average):

1. FEMA FloodMap Modernization Coalition (3.98)2. USGS Coalition (3.71)3. Business Coalition for Fair Competition (3.24)4. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math-

ematics) Coalition (3.18)5. Coalition of Geospatial Organizations (COGO) (3.13)6. Government Withholding Relief Coalition (2.86)7. COFPAES (2.74)

One question that surprised us and gives us some concern is the question seeking information about Lobby Day. We asked respondents to tell us whether or not they’ve ever participated in Lobby Day. Even though we’ve had them every year since 2004, only 31 respondents out of 681 say they participated in ANY Lobby Day. There could be several reasons for this low par-ticipation, including economic and time commitment reasons. But we will continue to promote annual Lobby Day events and stress the importance of holding them. Most of the respondents who had participated in a Lobby Day event in the past said that the traditional pre-Lobby Day Issues meeting was the most important part of Lobby Day. A close second most important event was “ACSM staff securing and scheduling meetings for participants.” Su

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[email protected]


Our final question of the survey asked respondents to tell us what issues we should be working on. There were 91 responses to this question; many cite issues that we have not thought of, others confirm the importance of the issues we are already working on. Here is a sample of what YOU think is important:

ACSM’s Joint Government Affairs Committee always seeks your input. Read the ACSM Bulletin for indepth reports on the work of the various coalitions ACSM is part of and prog-ress made by these coalitions on the various issues. Our monthly Government Affairs Updates brings braking news about we are doing on Capitol Hill at different times of the year. Read both to be up to date on our advocacy issues. [[email protected]]

“The federal government’s DBE program for profes-sional surveyors covered under the Brooks Act.”

“Financial relief for small surveying firms and/or uni-form rules/laws for the role of surveying in real estate transactions—federal and otherwise.”

“Survey monument preservation at the national level.”

“Preserve and support licensure requirements.”

“Four-year degree for licensing throughout the United States.”

“We need to be an organization that takes a common sense approach to issues with the interest of the surveying profession in mind but not so overboard (sic) that we come off looking like some union that is becoming less and less relevant.”

“The National Cadastre.”

“Search for ways to expand (nation wide) the defini-tion of ‘professional surveying’ to include design, topo, and construction layout/staking”

“Make all railroad right-of-way maps and the “actual” right-of-way maps for federally funded state high-ways available across the U.S.”

“Standards for surveying and mapping accuracies for GIS products.”

“National Parcel Dataset.”

Survey, from p. 35

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy released a major report on urban expansion worldwide—Making Room for a Planet of Cities—at an event hosted by Cities Alliance and the World Bank on January 27, 2011.at the World Bank’s Eugene H Black Auditorium in Washington DC.

Over half the world’s population lives in urban areas, including many millions in informal settlement. Urban popu-lation growth is expected to soar in the coming decades, requiring preparation and planning. Lead author Shlomo Angel, visiting fellow at the Lincoln Institute, presented analysis of the quantitative dimensions of past, present, and future global urban land cover to suggest a new para-digm for preparing for this explosive growth in cities the world over, particularly in the developing world.

Original data sets include 120 cities with 100,000 people or more, for years 1990 and 2000, based on sat-ellite images; historic population density data in digital images for 20 U.S. cities (1910–2000); a sample of 30 cities (1800–2000) based on historic maps; and urban land cover areas of over 3,600 cities in 2000, based on satellite images. The data will be made available on the Lincoln Institute Web site in a new addition to the Databases sec-tion of Resources & Tools.

The presentation reflected the key findings that on aver-age, density is declining, while the urban population of the developing countries is expected to double between 2000 and 2030, and the built-up area of their cities can be expected to triple. The research suggests that preparation for the sustainable growth of cities in rapidly urbanizing countries should include realistic projections of urban land needs; generous metropolitan limits; selective protection of open space; and an arterial grid of roads that can sup-port transit spaced one kilometer apart.

Making Room for a Planet of Cities provides both the conceptual framework and, for the first time, the basic empirical data and quantitative dimensions of past, pres-ent, and future urban expansion in cities around the world that are necessary for making minimal preparations for the massive urban growth expected in the coming decades. about the lincoln institute of land policy: The Institute is a leading resource for key issues concerning the use, regula-tion, and taxation of land. Providing high quality education and research, the Institute strives to improve public dia-logue and decisions about land policy. Anthony Flint can be contacted at <[email protected]>

Making Room for a Planet of Cities—Anthony Flint


Ask Dr. Map! Dear Dr. Map,

On the consequences of erroneous surveys

Q: If four states meet at a point at Four Corners in the U.S., where is there on Earth a national boundary where four countries meet at a point?

A: While there are many examples of four polygons meeting at a point at the county and even the state level (See the Wikipedia entry for

Quadripoint), it is possible, even likely, that no such point currently exists for national borders. If there is such a point, it is where the borders of Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe come together, at the confluence of the Cuando (Chobe) and Zambezi rivers (17 deg. 47’30.09”S 25 deg. 15’ 48.14”E. ) near the small town of Kazungula, Zambia.

At this point, Namibia is a slim sliver of land extending in a panhandle eastward, and narrowing to a point at the confluence (See map). The legal boundaries of the area were erroneously surveyed, and the path of a road toward the ferry from the south comes into play, if the Botswana/Zimbabwe boundary is extended without its terminal point, then it appears that the four lines should meet. The distance separating the two points is only about 84 meters. The indecision seems to be in the different definitions of

what constitutes the “middle of the river”. In 1970, an international incident was prompted by plans to improve the road through northern Botswana to the Kazungula ferry. South Africa, incorrectly assuming that a bridge was to be built at Kazungula, diplomatically informed Botswana that there was no common border between Botswana and Zambia since the borders met at a point and consequently the ferry was illegal. Botswana objected, and war was avoided in spite of shots being fired at the ferry. The two ferries are visible on the river in Google Earth, though not the bullet holes!

Q: What U.S. state could be called the battle ground of survey systems?

A: Here there is no doubt. The answer is Ohio. The reason is that Ohio got caught between land speculation, lousy surveying, changing regulations,

and some bizarre history. Starting with the feuding colonies, the north eastern “Western Reserve” of Ohio was

Major surveys in Ohio


north east corner of a township, ran west then dropped one row south then east again, and so forth. A new First Meridian was started at the western edge of the state, and the system we know today began its march westward. Yet the Ohio story was still not over. Another two divides exist at the Greenville treaty line, and the Michigan Survey in the extreme north. The former marks the Greenville treaty, in which the US received all of the land including the present day cities of Chicago, Detroit, and a large part of Ohio for $20,000 in trade goods after the Battle of Fallen Timbers

in 1796. The Ohio/Michigan dispute over the “Toledo strip” of land on the border between the two states is rumored to be the origin of the Michigan Wolverines/ Ohio State Buckeyes football rivalry, coming later in the bloodless

“Toledo War” of 1835-36. So Ohio has quite literally been a “battleground” or survey systems, at least 11, each with its own idiosyncracies. Thomas Jefferson believed that equal partitioning of the land was the key to future democracy. At least in Ohio, we’re left with the permanent cadastral fragments of that elusive dream.

first claimed by Connecticut, as its own western extension along the 41st parallel beyond New York. This included the

“Fire Lands”, to be given to residents of six Connecticut towns that had been burned by the British. After the war of independence, and with the Land Ordinance Act of 1785, Thomas Hutchins became the first Geographer of the U.S., beginning the now-familiar Township and Range survey in a district called the “Seven Ranges,” on the Ohio River in the south. This initial point of the U.S. Public Land Survey System is today marked with a monument, and on USGS maps. This work was slow, with progress beaten back by native attacks and poor surveying. Only 42 miles had been surveyed by 1787, when the land was auctioned by the U.S. government, raising a disappointing $117,108. In these early surveys, the boustrophedonic system was used, with township 1 at the lower right of a township, then proceeding north but starting again in the south at section 7. At that time, land speculation became rampant. Separate sales were made of lands between the Great and Little Miami rivers, to John Cleves Symmes, with a big chunk going to Jonathan Dayton, newly elected speaker in Congress. A prior error-prone survey by Ludlow caused chaos for this purchase. Other pre-existing surveys in Ohio include the Ohio Company purchase, the U.S. Military Survey and the Virginia Military District. Then after the Pubic Land Act of 1976 came the USPLS that we know today, with its square mile sections, north-south geographers lines and E-W baselines, and boustrophedonic section numbering that started in the

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

Look for comments on previous Dr. Map topics in various issues of the ACSM Bulletin.

In this issue (on p. 18), we have a comment on Dr. Map’s note about the steepest slope in the U.S.

Public Land Survey System in Ohio

Ohio Point of origin


War maps and charts, “Charting a More Perfect Union,” which contains over 400 documents gathered in one place to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

“The map was among the first to use shading to represent the human population,” explains retired NOAA Corps Capt. Albert Theberge, the chief of reference for the NOAA Central Library.

“It is a prime example of how Coast Survey science aided the Union cause during the Civil War.”

In addition to initiating a trend of statistical cartography, the map’s thematic display of “moral statistics” was revolutionary in affecting political change.

Northern audiences were able to see that the first states to secede were those with the most slaves. Using shading to rep-

NOAA: U.S. Coast Survey Civil War map among first to visualize slavery, influence Lincoln’s strategy

It isn’t often that a map visually displays a moral issue facing a divided nation and then affects a President’s response. Yet nearly 150 years ago, the U.S. Coast Survey—NOAA’s prede-cessor organization—produced such a map that, according to historians, President Abraham Lincoln used to coordinate mili-tary operations with his emancipation policies.

Created in September 1861, the map, entitled “Map showing the distribution of the slave population of the southern states and the United States,” is based on statistics from the eighth census. It is included in NOAA’s new special collection of Civil

—Ben Sherman charting a more perfect union

The map was created to understand the secession crisis, by providing a visual link between secession and slavery. The mapmakers con-sciously limited the map to just the Southern states, including the Border States of Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, but not the Western slave states of Nebraska, New Mexico, and Utah. During and after the war, the map then could be used by the Union to argue that the destruction of the Confederacy meant the destruction of slavery. There is a strong message in the banner at the top of the map that reads

“For the Sick and Wounded Soldiers of the U.S. Army.” [NOAA’s Historic Coast & Geodetic Survey (C&GS) Collection, Washington, D.C. Map created: September 1861]


ported by the NOAA Preserve America Initiative, part of a federal initiative to pre-serve, protect and promote our nation’s rich heritage.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environ-ment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Visit us online at www.noaa.gov or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/usnoaagov.

On the WebCharting a More Perfect Union: http://www.nau-

ticalcharts.noaa.gov/history/CivilWarPainting Showing Map, Lincoln’s Cabinet: http://

www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/cgs05195.htm

NOAA Preserve America Initiative: http://www.preserveamerica.noaa.gov

History of the U.S. Survey of the Coast: http://cel-ebrating200years.noaa.gov/events/survey/

National Archives History of the Coast Survey: http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/events/survey

resent the human population, the dark-est areas of the maps show the highest density slave populations, and the order of secession corresponds closely to the shade densities of the map. Moreover, a table in the corner of the map shows the number of slaves in each state and the proportion of slaves to the total popula-tion.

The 1860 Census was supervised by Joseph Camp Griffith Kennedy who had wanted to include slaves by name in the U.S. Census Report, but Congress refused. Alexander D. Bache was the U.S. Coast Survey superintendent at the time, and the map was created under Edwin Hergesheimer, a cartographer with U.S. Coast Survey’s drawing division.

It was Francis Bicknell Carpenter, painter of “First Reading of the Emancipa-tion Proclamation of President Lincoln” in 1864, who first noticed that President Lin-coln frequently consulted this map in con-sidering the relationship between eman-

cipation and military strategy. Carpenter had spent the first six months of 1864 in the White House preparing the portrait and noted that Lincoln would look at the map and send his armies to free blacks in some of the highest density areas in order to destabilize Southern order. The Emancipation Proclamation became law on Jan. 1, 1863.

The NOAA connection to the map had been lost over the decades. John Cloud, Ph.D., a historian and NOAA employee who was recovering significant Coast Survey cartographic products in NOAA’s Climate Database Modernization Pro-gram, recently discovered the connection with Edwin Hergesheimer and the U.S. Coast Survey. Historian Susan Schulten made important historical contributions in connecting the map to Francis Bicknell Carpenter’s painting and, in extension, to President Lincoln’s strategy.

The Office of Coast Survey’s “Charting a More Perfect Union” project is sup-

First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by the artist Francis Bicknell Carpenter. The map in the lower right hand corner is Edwin Hergesheimer’s Map Showing the Distribution of the Slave Population while the map on the table is Map of the State of Virginia compiled at the Coast Survey Office. These two maps illustrate an influential politi-cal role for the Coast Survey in the Civil War. [NOAA’s Historic Coast & Geodetic Survey (C&GS) Collec-tion, Washington, D.C. Photo Date: 1862]

This latest book from Esri Press presents a dynamic collection of maps that graphically illustrate some of the many ways GIS tech-nology is being used throughout the federal government. The book is divided into seven strategic areas of government that use maps cre-ated with GIS technology: land and natural resources; health and human services; science and exploration; law enforcement, public safety, and homeland security; global affairs; tribal interests; and defense. Mapping the Nation also highlights how GIS is being used to embrace new initiatives, such as the

Mapping the Nation: GIS for Federal Progress and Accountability

Gov 2.0 movement, which uses information technology to: Improve government services, Increase transparency and accountability, and Promote citizen engagement. The U.S. government was an early adopter of Esri’s GIS technology, first implementing it more than 30 years ago. GIS has since become an essential part of the federal decision-making process. [Mapping the Nation: GIS for Fed-eral Progress and Accountability (ISBN-13: 978-1-58948-286-9, 140 pages, $19.95) is available at online retailers worldwide, at esri.com/esripress, or by calling 1-800-447-9778.


left to wonder what would have happened if it hadn’t rained that day. One take on the incident was that Reagan saw the hand of Providence in the downpour. Either way, he re-enrolled at Eureka, went on to be President, and never did become a surveyor.

Surveying came to play from time to time in Reagan’s other occupations—when he was an actor, a governor of California, and President of the United States.

As a movie star, he portrayed surveying, even though his role was not that of a surveyor. In the com-pletely fictional, Santa Fe Trail, he played George Armstrong Custer who, in real life, led a surveying crew into Native American territory.

As Governor, Reagan appointed county and state surveyors, but it was as President that he left an indelible mark on surveying. His biggest contribution to the profession came in 1989 when he focused on privatizing certain functions of the government, including mapmaking, and so increasing “efficiency, quality, and innovation.” As a result of this action, the private sector and within it private surveying and mapping firms, have seen considerable increase in business volume and profitability.

Mt. McKinley, also known as Denali, “the great one”, in the native Athabaskan language

is Reagan’s involvement with sur-veying came full circle on Febru-ary 13, 1984, when, as President, he issued Proclamation 5151 declaring the week of March 11 as the “National Surveyors Week.”

The commemoration was “in recognition of the significant con-tribution made by surveyors to the United States,” and Reagan urged the people of the United States to “look back at the his-toric contributions of surveying and look ahead to the new tech-nologies which are constantly modernizing this honored and learned profession.”

The Springfield, Illinois, based National Museum of Surveying was founded with those princi-ples in mind. To honor surveyors, the Museum will observe this year’s National Surveyors’ Week (March 20-26) with ceremonies and activities paying tribute to professional surveyors and their contribution to society. All are invited to participate.

But, any time you happen to be in Springfield, come and visit the National Museum of Surveying (located at 521 East Washington Street) to learn the history of sur-veying and discover its significance to the growth and development of the United States. Meet the other American presidents who worked as surveyors, and explore the science of surveying through the exhibit “Science on a Sphere,” a unique digital display that will delight and fascinate kids of all ages.

Ronald Reagan’s perhaps most important contribution to the surveying profession was the declaration of National Surveyors’ Week, designated as the week of March 11. Less known is his brief surveying career.

After Reagan’s freshman year at Eureka in 1929, the future presi-dent needed money for the next semester’s tuition. Even after working his usual summer job as a lifeguard, Reagan was still short of cash. With no prospects of paying for college, Reagan decided to drop out of Eureka in order to make some extra money.

One of Reagan’s high school friends worked as “a rod man” in a surveying company that did work in Lowell Park, north of Dixon. He advised Reagan to quit his job as a lifeguard and apply for work on the surveying crew, which paid more money.

Reagan got the job. The sur-veyor promised that after a year’s worth of surveying, he would pay all of Reagan’s expenses to attend the University of Wiscon-sin. With such a golden opportunity at hand, Reagan resolved to apply himself seriously to surveying.

His first day on the job, how-ever, was also his last. He awoke that morning to torrential down-pour that washed out the job. Reagan never even left for work. Instead, he called his girlfriend, Margaret Cleaver, and spent the rest of the day reminiscing about football and Eureka. He missed the small liberal arts college and life on its campus. That fall he was able to work out a financial aid package with his football coach to stay at Eureka.

As often happens with seren-dipitous events as this one, one

The one-day surveyor Ronald Reagan’s brief career as a “rod man”

—by Matthew Parbs As featured in Illinois Heritage, edited by William Fury

Open Tuesday through Saturday,

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visit the Museum online at:

www.surveyingmuseum.org


T.S. Eliot, a native of St. Louis, may have been thinking of the Mississippi when he wrote in “The Four Quartets,” “the river is a strong brown god: sullen, untamed and intractable.” I happened to see that brown god go berserk when I visited St. Louis in 1973. In the dead of night, crossing the Poplar Street Bridge, the bus driver announced to those still awake that there, to our right, was the St. Louis Gateway Arch. But my eyes were drawn to something else. Farther away and lower, a bridge stood parallel to the one we were on. I saw three arches outlined in the shimmering reflection of moon-light, and I was utterly smitten. I didn’t know then that the river had risen well beyond its usual flow. My first view of the Mississippi’s partnership with the three arches was entirely false. The water was way too high.

The floodwaters of 1973 reached unheard-of heights, more dangerous and damaging than the epic flood of 1927. The river tossed tugboats about like toys in a bathtub and inspired President Richard Nixon to call out the Coast Guard to shore up the levees. A New Jersey urbanite, I didn’t know what a levee was but soon found out when I joined volunteers in sandbagging the Mississippi. There, I learned the span’s name: the Eads Bridge.

Daylight increased its loveliness. The arches, now, were steel reticulations of open triangles that gave airiness to what I had thought solid in the dark. These arches were only part of the bridge; the stone abutments on each end were made of a tower

and five small, open arches. These were topped, like ancient aque-ducts, by a smaller series of arches. Thus, the heavy stonework had been rendered as airy as the steelwork itself. But even more alluring was the perfect symmetry. The roadway above the arches rose gently till it peaked at the center of the bridge’s middle arch, which was slightly longer than the other steel arches. The Eads Bridge, thus, stood with quiet strength above the rambunctious floodwaters, a Titan over a lesser god.

When Walt Whitman saw it in 1879, he called the Eads a “structure of perfection and unsurpassable beauty.” The bridge was a mere five years old then, but had already become a worldwide symbol of America’s genius and promise.

But the Eads Bridge is more than a beautiful structure: it represents a moment of unending importance. Bridges made of steel already existed in Holland, yet even Dutch engineers refused to certify the efficacy of steel in large architectural designs. American engineers agreed. The stubborn builder of this bridge insisted, against all wisdom, on alloy steel. And when Capt. James Buchanan Eads was finished, he had cre-ated the largest steel structure in the world. His work ushered in the age of the great steel bridges—including the Brooklyn Bridge, which, in less than a decade, unseated the Eads in symbolizing American genius.

Eads overcame many obstacles to achieve his dream. He knew better than Mark Twain how destructive the river could

The Eads Bridge (1974). Michael Maslan Historic Photographs/Corbis

Smitten by St. Louis’ other arches—Review by Patrick McGuire


be. The captain was born in 1820, and by 1868, when he began building his bridge, he had spent most of his life on or in the Mis-sissippi, amassing a fortune by salvaging wrecks from the river bottom in a diving bell, which he designed himself. Eads made more than 500 trips to the riverbed. He knew that the violent undertow displaced mud and sand and scoured all that it touched. His piers and abutments would have to be indestructible.

The creation of those stable parts involved difficulties never before solved. To create the abutments, Eads’s men worked in caissons, or pressurized air compartments, at 136 feet below the river surface—a depth that is still the record for such work. For the piers, the workers had to go down 93 feet to find bedrock. Despite their airy solidity above the surface, the piers and abutments are huge blocks of cement and limestone. They were expensive, too.

Building them led to an outbreak of “the bends,” or decom-pression disease, among workmen after they returned to the surface. Some cases were crippling; others, fatal—15 in all. Eads employed Dr. Alphonse Jaminet to study the problem. Jaminet posited that the diggers were surfacing too quickly, and their ascent was slowed; the occurrence of the bends was lessened though not eliminated. The doctor’s reports, however, were the first steps in understanding the disease.

The bridge arches jumped the river uniquely. All arches until the Eads Bridge used falsework over which the arch was constructed. Such a false center would have disrupted traffic on the river, so the captain found a different solution. After the piers were completed, he built temporary towers atop each and extended cable rods from them toward each shore. He then built the arches, step by step, out from the piers, stabilizing them with the cable rods and balancing one side against the other. A similar construction from each abutment was used until the six halves of three arches met at the center. It’s called cantilevered construction, and Eads was the first to use it this way.

Most people prefer the drama of tall suspension bridges, and indeed between the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge (1883) and 1917, America went on a craze, building some 95 suspension bridges, of which 80 could easily be called major. But I am still smitten with the Eads Bridge, and I still hold it to be America’s finest bridge.

Its quiet symmetry validates the last of Eliot’s dicta about that “strong brown god.” The river becomes “a problem confronting the builder of bridges,” and then it is “almost forgotten.”

The Mississippi has flooded unforgettably several times since 1973, but Eads showed us, with an elegance that still stands, that it need not be a problem for people, wagons, cars and trains to cross. [The Wall Street Journal]

Patrick McGuire is a member of the English Department at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

His website is http://mcguirehimself.com.

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ACSM Bulletin 249

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