Journal of Surveying Engineering

A very sensitive tiltmeter developed by the writers is used to study the small movements in civil engineering structures such as retaining walls, dams, foundations, etc. The use of this instrument, made of silica, is demonstrated to record small movements of structures where the use of ordinary available surveying instruments is limited due to their low sensitivity. The small temperature effect on different types of structures has been measured and analyzed using different techniques, the effect of which is important while monitoring the movement of structures. To eliminate the effect, three different methods are suggested.

Many large utility companies are using computerized graphics to assist in managing their facilities. The acronym AM/FM was coined by Henry A. Emery, a well‐known utilities consultant, over nine years ago to describe utilities' geographical information systems (GIS). The term, which stands for automated mapping/facilities management, is used in city and county disciplines as well. This paper will attempt to describe the uses that some large utility companies have for interactive graphics in their AM/FM and GIS systems.

Surveying and mapping are fundamental technologies in conducting the U.S. foreign assistance program. Mapped data play a key role in policy decisions made by the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID). These data also affect the well‐being and economic development of people in the 71 nations that AID assists. Management of the rapidly evolving technologies in the mapping field is made even more complex by their application in remote, often harsh environments typically found in developing countries. The mapping component of a project and its level of technical sophistication are products of the development strategy of the country and the economic sectors it hopes to address. Examples include mapping for irrigation management in the Nile delta, crop forecasting for famine in Sudan, severe storm warning and flooding in Bangladesh, and highland forest development in Peru. Surveying and mapping services are contracted by AID through the U.S. private sector. AID considers technical competence, experience, understanding of the role of natural resources in developing economies, and language skills important assets of contracted firms.

This paper describes the design and development of an efficient, inexpensive, and fully automated method of generating accurate off‐line digital charts from microcomputers. The method involves the integration of existing data acquisition systems, both analog and digital or a hybrid of the two, with a Micro‐computer‐Aided‐Design (MicroCAD) workstation. Software bridges link three different, but related, phases of the digital production cycle into a continuous chain of activities. These three phases are data capture (represented by modules EDIT‐DAT and ED1TCON), data processing (represented by modules SEAFIX and SEA‐DEPTH), and data presentation (represented by module SEAPLOT). The end products of this work cycle are CAD based digital charts ready for engineers to use in their design and construction work cycles. Accuracy testing on charts prepared by the software with those prepared manually reveal that the proposed method is an acceptable method of generating off‐line charts for marine construction activities.

The future of surveying and mapping, as envisioned by the strategic plan of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM), is presented. Based on underlying forces for change already at work, the plan outlines how professional surveyors can exploit these inevitable changes for the benefit of society and themselves.

Managers of surveying organizations concerned about speed and return from investing in a modern electronic surveying systems should consider advantages such as greater accuracy, time savings, higher productivity, improved morale, satisfied clients, and a more favorable bottom line in selecting a system. Thorough analysis is required of the job the system is to do. The pattern of data flow must be analyzed to determine the relative sophistication of components, the order of components in the system, and whether data flow should be bidirectional. Attention must be paid to the flexibility of the design, the compatibility of components, and vendor support. The writer reviews hardware and software design considerations as well as major sources of trouble in total surveying systems: communications, hardware, data format incompatibility, and data translation problems. Well‐designed surveying systems mean economic benefits due to enhanced efficiency from limiting overhead, reducing personnel and equipment costs, and speeding up delivery to clients. Studies cited demonstrate a 40% improvement in time in one; almost $5,000 per month in time in another. A third study cited shows that software can interpret and plot topographic data in 1/37 of the time required to do the same manually.

The Information Age is upon us. What seemingly just yesterday was a passion—or at the very least a search for excellence in business management—has suddenly become the ability to “thrive on chaos.” New events and advances in technology are occurring so fast in today's high‐tech society that our only hope of coping with this rapid change is to define it as the norm. Like the theory of relativity, where there are two frames of reference—one stationary and the other moving in time—the successful surveying engineering firm of the 1990s will require a business management strategy that is both stable and dynamic, accommodating new technologies as they are made available to even the smallest of firms. What has taken more than 4,000 years to evolve is now being so radically changed in less than a decade that surveying firms that prospered in the 1980s may not be able to survive in the 1990s, to say nothing of the 21st century. This paper will investigate the forces surrounding today's surveying engineering firms, and present a model for successfully implementing a business management strategy that will enable small to medium‐sized firms to move from managing the manual surveying technicians of the past to the automated land information specialists of the future.