Hasn’t GPS made conventional surveying obsolete?
With Global Positioning System applications as widespread as they are today, one might wonder why surveyors can’t just enter the coordinates of the property corners into their GPS units to find and/or set property corners. While surveyors make extensive use of GPS, and while it has increased the accuracy and speed with which we can accomplish many tasks, it is still subject to limitations. The most significant practical issue with GPS is that acquiring positioning data of sufficient accuracy and precision for boundary work requires open skies (no trees or buildings) and long occupation times (GPS receiver positioned above the point). This is no problem under the open skies of the Great Plains on large tracts that would otherwise take a long time to survey. However, it is either impractical or impossible on most parcels in Georgia. Real Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS technology, which we use extensively at Inland, can produce positions that are generally within 1″-2″ of reality instantaneousl
