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 Surveying
is a general category for many fields. Census takers are
surveyors, surveys are made for political reasons,
surveys are taken for the most popular cars or skis or
cosmetics, but as far as this page is concerned, surveys
are conducted to measure land.
Land Surveyors (LS) or Registered Land Surveyors (RLS)
or Professional Land Surveyors (PLS) in New York State
are all one and the same.
I use (and prefer) the simpler (LS)
designation myself. For a legal description of a LS,
refer to NYS Education Law; Article 145; ENGINEERING
AND SURVEYING.
That law basically sets the minimum standards of
education, experience and testing to provide surveying
services to the public involving property. It is
due to these minimum requirements that many developers,
government agencies and companies demand that a (LS)
provide the survey expertise for projects under their
governance or responsibility.
Sub sets within the surveying community are many.
A few, but certainly not exclusive to the list would be
surveyors involved in construction activity both heavy
highway and building. There are surveyors that
only work underground in tunnels and mine shafts.
There are geodetic surveyors and deformation surveyors.
The list just goes on; there are really very few
activities that, at some point, do not require the skill
of a surveyor.
 I primarily confine myself to the following
applications:
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Property line work.
This is very broad category and would take a page in
itself, but basically I either establish and
describe new lines or follow in the footsteps of my
predecessor on the land and re-establish his or her
original line or corners to the best evidence
available to me.
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Construction work.
This would include “as-built” surveys, (surveys to
verify that the actual construction matches the
design plans); it would include stake out work, it
would include topographic surveys (3 dimensional
aspect inclusive of contours) and I have performed
deformation surveys of buildings. I restrict myself
to small projects.
-
Deed research and analysis.
This is the most important first step in a property
survey. Does the deed close mathematically? Does it
have a Point of Beginning (POB) or Point of
Commencement (POC) that can be identified? And most
importantly, does it fit or match the adjoining
descriptions?
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FEMA Elevation Certificates.
I find more and more requests coming for elevation
certificates, for those structures in or near a
flood zone.
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Public Awareness.
This is a non-profit activity yet is one that we as
surveyors help keep the public informed in what we
do. This WEB site is part of that awareness.
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