TABLE OF CONTENTS Since the second edition of the Land Development Handbook, there has been an astonishing transformation in the equipment available to land surveyors, including robotic reflector-less electronic distance meter EDM total stations equipped with integrated global positioning systems (GPS), digital self-reading levels, terrestrial laser scanners, GPS real-time networks, and GPS-controlled construction machinery
Alongside these equipment advances, survey accuracy standards have shifted to three-dimensional geospatial positional standard error formats. To support these new accuracy standards, least squares adjustment software for survey data of all types is now commonly available and is very robust in its handling of problematic data sets, negating any reason to use prior adjustment methods such as the Crandall rule. In fact, least squares adjustment of data is required as a best practice for ALTA/ACSM boundary surveys as well as all GPS data processing and the integration of multiple terrestrial laser scan point clouds.
The land surveyor establishing survey control of appropriate quality that encompasses the entire land development project, including all current and future phases, has the following key objectives to support with the control:
Ground and aerial topographic mapping of existing physical features within the tract, as well as any external areas influencing the permitting process.
boundary recovery, determination, and monumentation.
Construction stakeout: Practically, the level of accuracy of the survey control is determined by the...
