ASCE Publications: How do you differentiate the Journal of Surveying Engineering from similar journals in the civil engineering field?

Baselga: Georeferencing, or geographically pinpointing real objects in a specific coordinate system and frame, has become a need not only in civil engineering but in many aspects of everyday life. Georeferencing can be made with respect to a global, regional, or local reference frame, and the additional use of standard or user-defined map projections. With the technology available today, all this can be realized with accuracies of a few millimeters, which opens room –purposely or unintentionally– for many geodetic challenges that require the intervention of the expert in geomatics.

The excellence in surveying and mapping activities, which can be the key to the success of a multidisciplinary project, is manifested by the rigor with which the various steps involved in the collection, storage, processing, analysis, and delivery of geospatial information are carried out. The rigorous treatment of measurements and coordinates, and the sound estimation of their corresponding accuracies, is what sets the professional surveying engineer apart from other engineers working with coordinates. This journal is the venue for contributions in such spirit.

ASCE Publications: What are the critical topics you want to see covered in this journal?

Baselga: The journal covers a broad variety of topics that represent the day-to-day work of the surveying engineering professional, such as, geodetic surveying, photogrammetry (including the new developments in terrestrial laser scanning and lidar, and computer vision-enhanced photogrammetry), deformation monitoring, precise alignment, boundary surveying, adjustment computations, mapping, satellite positioning, remote sensing, geographic information systems, building information modeling and others, as well as the role of surveying engineering professionals in a geospatially empowered information society.

Some of these topics became highly specialized in recent decades, such as remote sensing, satellite positioning and geographic information systems, and have specific journals dedicated to them. Contributions on these topics may still be welcome in the journal, but only if they come with a focus on surveying engineering.

On the contrary, some topics in the aims and scope list are scarcely represented among the journal articles and there appears to be room for improvement to increase visibility by attracting new readers and contributors in the field. This is the case of precise alignment. I would be glad to see the journal become a reference on this topic, again with a focus on surveying engineering. For this reason, the special collection titled Precision Surveying and Alignment has been opened, covering the most recent ideas applicable to the profession in this field. It is quite likely that additional special collections will also be opened in the coming years to stimulate fields of special interest. I invite readers to send their suggestions either to the editor in chief or to the associate editors.

ASCE Publications: What are the biggest challenges facing researchers working in your field of engineering today / in the coming years?

Baselga: Some decades ago, surveying engineering was certainly a rather different discipline from geodesy –the science of determining the shape and orientation of the Earth and its gravitational field– when the surveyor only had to know about the area of the project at hand and solve it using the narrow range of classical instruments at their disposal.

With the advent of global technologies –Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), earth observing missions, etc.– this is no longer possible: surveying engineering has gone global. Now the engineer needs to deal with different coordinate frames, different observation epochs, different observation types of disparate origin and quality, and a long list of upsetting questions that, if handled improperly, can ruin their work.

The proliferation of automated products and solutions provides a false sense of security along with the ease of acquiring geospatial information. Quite often the expert in geomatics is regarded unnecessary in the deceptively simple process of obtaining coordinates… until it becomes clear that something has gone wrong. Not only in the private sector but also in public administration and academia it is often forgotten that, now more than ever, the solid knowledge of geodesy must underpin the entire edifice of geospatial technology.

The black-box approach to science and technology, for example through the blind application of Artificial Intelligence, is also a situation to be avoided: this is not true knowledge! The tools are there to help the expert, but just getting some results and losing the understanding of the processes involved is certainly something that needs to be combated. In the field of surveying engineering, since low quality in georeferencing is often not so evident at first sight, the effects of bad practices may only be seen when it is just too late.

ASCE Publications: What aspirations do you have for the future of the journal?

Baselga: The main one is that the journal reinforces its position, achieved after years of hard work by the editors, authors and reviewers, as the leading international reference in the field of surveying engineering.

In this regard, I would like the journal to be respected for valuing fundamental knowledge and best practices while ensuring technical accuracy, and maintaining rigor in quality and an honest applicability, rather than for presenting spectacular results with little usability.

I would also like the journal to open up to other fields to reflect the multidisciplinarity that is not only possible, but also becoming more and more a reality in the profession: from computer science, environmental engineering or archaeology to metrology, the hallmark of the expert in geomatics brings a distinctive added value to a project.

ASCE Publications: What emerging technologies are impacting your area and how do you address these in the journal?

Baselga: The dense coverage obtained after the complete deployment of the four global navigation satellite constellations along with regional augmentations, the earth’s observing missions providing open access to satellite imaging and products (such as digital elevation models), and the advances of communications favor that idea of the digital world, where georeferencing plays a vital role.

In recent years there has been an explosion of automated technologies with low cost and increased portability which has enabled the development of portable navigation systems incorporating imaging, laser scanning, GNSS positioning, accelerometers, and gyroscopes. Unmanned aircraft systems (drones) are the best example of the fusion of these data sources in a compact instrument.

New techniques, such as structure from motion that enables photogrammetric solutions with a standard smartphone, facilitate new avenues such as augmented and virtual reality, building information modeling (BIM) and civil integrated management (CIM) platforms.

A compromise between accuracy and productivity must be reached in every project, but both, not only on the productivity side, must be transparently known. The use of emerging technologies with a focus on surveying engineering is very welcome in the journal, as long as they come with the rigorous processes and the proper assessment of accuracy that characterizes the surveying engineering professional.

ASCE Publications: What advice do you have for new researchers?

Baselga: The first one is certainly to be passionate about Research: be curious, be enthusiastic about learning, build little by little, have fun and congratulate oneself for improving day by day. These qualities or abilities are not only present in adult life; in fact, people with a good predisposition for research may have already felt this driving force since their childhood; in any case, it is never too late to find the pleasure of research!

The next piece of advice is to try and try again, and to strive to keep working and keep your aspirations high even if the results are not immediate. Work and faith, with the conviction that the deserved fruits of good work will come sooner or later.

Do not be captivated by the latest fashion and go, like a leaf in the wind, from one field to another without ever delving into any of them. As in everything in life, one has to bet on things, and put in an honest effort to make the bet succeed. Never mind not being the first to use a technology, often the consolidation of the technique comes after years of careful study.

As a final, more concrete recommendation: take advantage of the invitations to review manuscripts, they give you the opportunity to deepen your technical knowledge and learn about the journal editorial process, while you offer the necessary feedback to authors.

Share your research in the Journal of Surveying Engineering.