What do we expect from a dynamic world?
Geospatial technology is changing with time. Over time, the reasons for which we use technology change too. We are presented with challenges, we learn, we grow, and we develop new thoughts about spatial data and their applications. New expectations for and of geographic information systems drive a multitude of different “geo” applications, many of which require data of survey grade accuracy. Suddenly, a new role emerges for surveying and mapping. more >>

SMART TECHNOLOGY

For a smart environment,
smart survey monuments

by Bill Rushing

Ubiquitous Cartography, the ACSM Bulletin’s October, 2009, article by Georg Gartner, has sparked much conversation at Berntsen on how survey monuments—and surveyors—fit into the “smart environment” which Gartner had outlined. It may come as little surprise that we think monuments and surveyors fit into smart environments very well indeed… but we also think that monuments will themselves have to get smarter for that to happen.
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Do It Yourself GIScience

by Eric Wolf

In this first installment of Do It Yourself GIScience (DIY/GIS), we’re going to take a lesson from Benjamin Franklin and go fly a kite. Aerial photography predates the invention of powered flight by almost half a century. Before the airplane, balloons and kites were regularly used to capture all sorts of aerial photographs. In a return to these older ways, the hobbyist, the artist, and the occasional professional or researcher, can employ inexpensive digital cameras to create his or her own aerial imagery. This article will show you how. more>>

EDUCATION

The role of the Surveying Profession in education

by N.W.J. Hazelton

The role of formal education in any profession is generally well understood. You go to college, get a degree, take the professional examinations, and that’s your education over and done. There is, in reality, a bit more to it than that. more >>

LAND DEVELOPMENT

Field notes from Vietnam

by Frank Lenik

February 20th - 23rd
I arrived safely in Hanoi, Vietnam, and spent the weekend adjusting to time and climate change. On Monday, I turned my attention to the primary mission of my trip--to learn about humanitarian demining initiatives undertaken to help rid the land of unexploded ordinance in order to protect lives and restore contaminated land to productive use. more>>

HISTORY

A walk through the woods and a swamp

by William J. Morton

Andrew Ellicott, perhaps the most famous of the United State’s surveyors, yet unknown to millions of Americans. The same Andrew Ellicott—well known to Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin—who finished surveying the incomplete Mason-Dixon line, surveyed the District of Columbia and then finished laying out the streets of the District after L’Enfant was dismissed. Ellicott taught Lewis and Clark about astronomy and how to use field instruments such as the compass, sextant, and altimeter. He was also the first professor of mathematics at the fledging West Point Academy. And that’s just a small list of his accomplishments! more>>

EDITORIAL

Dynamic world