Plowman Craven Surveyor Wins European Award

Plowman Craven has proudly announced that one of the company’s surveyors - Marineli Dancheva - has been awarded a very prestigious prize by the Council of European Geodetic Surveyors (CLGE). Marineli’s Masters thesis (on the movement of Bulgaria as part of the Eurasian tectonic plate) won first place in the Geodesy/Topography category. The prize included an all-expenses-paid trip to the Intergeo trade fair in Stuttgart for a ceremony in front of many industry professionals, including Bernhard Richter, GNSS business director at Leica Geosystems, who presented the award. The CLGE Student Competition is a pan-European event that rewards young people for... (read more)

2019-10-02 09:20:25

YellowScan Unveils UAV Lidar System Surveyor Ultra

YellowScan has introduced their new lidar system, the Surveyor Ultra, which integrates the Velodyne VLP-32C scanner & the Applanix APX-15 IMU. Thanks to its high-density (600,000 shots per second), the system is ideally suited for high speed UAVs & long-range needs (100m). Its light weight (1.7kg) makes it easy to mount on any drone, including VTOLs. The Surveyor Ultra also has a turn-key system fitted for under vegetation 3D modelling, and fast data processing. “The Surveyor Ultra shows great potential to safely and efficiently operate lidar on lightweight fixed wing UAVs.” said Tristan Allouis, PhD & YellowScan CTO. For more... (read more)

2018-02-09 01:44:18

Who Wants to be a Surveyor?

GW Technical Editor Richard Groom presents a personal view, with contributions from others, of issues surrounding the promotion, education and training of surveyors. A particular problem he identifies for the profession is that of the part-time surveyor. Thanks to technology, we are now able to survey more detail, faster and more cheaply than ever before. The surveying profession has expanded well beyond its origins in ‘Land’ to encompass ‘Geospatial’ and ‘Spatial’. If it’s physical we can measure it in 2D, 3D, 4D and more. It’s an exciting world, above and below water, made even more stimulating by our ability to... (read more)

2017-08-22 03:37:41

Surveyor 2.0, Land Administration and More

Richard Groom provides pointers to articles from the FIG Congress in May. Papers can be downloaded from https://bit.ly/2yz8xlB. Changing Survey Muller and Klein (TS06C) look at moves to update the role of the surveyor – known as ‘Surveyor 2.0’. Surveyor 2.0 measures, models and manages geospatial data. Although many of us already manage data, the paper formalises this and therefore helps clarify what is probably a grey area for many. The paper covers methodological and social skills as well as the nuts and bolts and is well worth reading. Buxton and Harrington (TS08G) asked “Will technology ever replace the human... (read more)

2018-11-07 03:48:51

Leica Geosystems Offers New Utility Surveyor Course

Leica Geosystems, part of Hexagon, has announced the launch of a new five-day Utility Surveyor Course provided at its Detection Training Campus in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, UK. To answer the global surge in demand for fully trained utility surveyors, the course has been developed to provide instruction on digitised utility survey workflows. The course aims to teach the most novice of students how to efficiently and accurately conduct a utility survey from initial client specification through to delivering a fully marked map detailing what lies beneath. The course is conducted through a series of classroom and onsite modules led by trainers with... (read more)

2018-11-27 10:10:50

The Evolution of the Smart Surveyor

5 Trends Affecting Surveying, Bringing about the Next-generation Surveyor

Surveyors are a versatile and flexible bunch. As the current COVID-19 situation has proven, this group, like others, has had to find new ways of operating. Even this article is an adjustment. Originally planned as a presentation, Sensor Fusion for the Smart Surveyor, for the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) Working Week 2020, adapting to a new platform for information sharing is becoming the new normal. In FIG Commission 5 – Positioning and Measurement and FIG Commission 6 – Engineering Surveys, the focus is an ever-evolving adoption of new technologies and integrating methods with various instruments and sensors to help... (read more)

2020-05-08 02:17:02

From Hairdresser to Surveyor - Interview with Francesca Little

How The Survey School Prepares Students for Challenging Jobs

Since 2001, more than 400 students have successfully completed the TSA Surveying Course at The Survey School in Worcester. The syllabus, which was written by The Survey Association, gives students a thorough grounding in both the practical and theoretical elements of land surveying. Francesca Little graduated from The Survey School in July 2017. At just 23 years old, she has the drive and ability needed to take her to the very top of the profession. With promotion to senior surveyor now in sight, she explains why she thrives on extra responsibility and new challenges. The Survey Association: How did your... (read more)

2018-05-14 02:05:52

Surgeon, Explorer and Surveyor - Dr John Rae Celebration

As part of the institution’s 150th-anniversary celebrations, the RICS hosted an event to award Dr John Rae posthumously as an honorary Chartered Surveyor, in London on 13 September. The award was presented to Andrew Appleby, president of the John Rae Society by John Hughes, President of the RICS. Both gave speeches outlining Rae’s achievements and the aims of the John Rae Society, which has very nearly bought Rae’s home in Orkney and has plans to turn it into a world-renowned centre for Arctic studies. Rae the Doctor Dr Rae studied as a surgeon at Edinburgh University. He returned to his... (read more)

2018-11-08 12:05:16

Young UK Surveying Stars Battle for ‘Young Surveyor of the Year’ Title

Eighty of the UK's most inspiring young surveyors will compete for the esteemed 'RICS Matrics UK Young Surveyor of the Year' title after being recognised as influential leaders in their sectors, having made the shortlist of this year's Young Surveyor of the Year Awards. The annual awards celebrate the vast range of young talented surveyors, trainees and apprentices – aged 35 and under – who are role models in leading and managing exemplary built projects and initiatives. They also recognise the ambitious and astute future leaders of the surveying profession who have made a significant contribution to their workplace, including... (read more)

2019-09-11 11:27:22

Virtual Surveyor Introduces Enhanced Cut-and-fill Mapping in Drone Surveying Package

Virtual Surveyor has added cut-and-fill mapping capabilities to Version 7.0 of its popular unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV or 'drone') surveying package. The new functionality enables users to quickly perform volume difference calculations and generate cut-and-fill maps from drone images captured on two or more different dates. “Calculating volume differences between surface models derived from drone imagery now takes less than a minute instead of hours…and the results are more accurate,” said Tom Op ‘t Eyndt, CEO of Virtual Surveyor in Belgium. “The entire workflow of cleaning the surface models and subtracting one from the other can be accomplished in Virtual... (read more)

2019-09-12 01:24:18