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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Subject: | RE: GISList: GPS data collection spawns court case! |
| Date: |
03/07/2002 03:49:18 PM |
| From: |
Anthony Quartararo |
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Wow, what a free for all this could be. I can hear it now..."In this
corner......".
What, as if a Licensed, bona-fide land surveyor has never made an error, let
alone a catastrophic mistake? I can appreciate the concern of some
official, government or commercial entity, that their data may have some
error in it and would seek to mitigate any potential or foreseeable
litigation as a result of that error. But then we all need to freeze in our
spot right now, because there is absolutely NO data that is free of error.
In this case, the GPS field data collector does not, and should NOT be
required to be a licensed surveyor, that's what the GPS is for and if the
operator is properly trained and qualified to use the equipment, and then
post-process if needed, then there should be no more error than if a
licensed surveyor did it. To what end would the requirement of a licensed
surveyor's involvement be, would it be so that some elected official doesn't
get creamed in the next election because a licensed surveyor didn't do the
work? It certainly would not make any sense (economical, technical or
common) to require a licensed surveyor to be the GPS data collector by law,
because error will still be incorporated and passed along with the surveyor
does the work too. What can we possibly be talking about in terms of
horizontal accuracy with a GPS anyway? 1-2' off ? Guess it depends on
whether the GPS operator was straddling the fire hydrant, standing at an
offset, using a laser range finder from 100' away, etc. If a firefighter
cannot locate a fire hydrant while standing 1-2' away, then no licensed land
surveyor with a transit is going to make a difference anyway, sorry.
But this then begs the question right, if it doesn't matter where the
hydrant is as long as the map records it within a few feet of it's
"absolute" position (there really is no such thing), then why bother with
the precision of GPS? Of course there are plenty of useful and needful
applications of this technology, even for fire hydrant locations, and it
should be employed anywhere and everywhere, but is it necessary to raise a
ruckus about a few inches of potential error at the expense of additional
contracting requirements or service providers?
I do hope this example is RARE rather than commonplace in the future, and I
also hope the presiding judicial authorities get an education first, then
consider the negative precedent they would set if they ruled that GPS field
data collection had to be done by licensed surveyors.
Anthony
-----Original Message-----
From: Glenn Letham [mailto:editor@geocomm.com\
Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2002 4:13 PM
To: gislist@geocomm.com
Subject: GISList: GPS data collection spawns court case!
An interesting post on another list poses the question, should GIS people be
conducting land surveys?
Imagine, a local government has a field crew recording fire hydrant
locations with a GPS... the problem, the data collectors are not licensed
land surveyors. What are the issues here? I imagine that every local
government around will have different issues here to deal with, including
which department is responsible for getting that data: what are the accuracy
requirements: what happens to the data?
I'm sure this will be more common in the future as the use of GPS - coupled
with the end of selective availability - becomes more commonplace.
Any comments or thoughts regarding this... i'd be interested.
Gee.. I mapped some natural gas pipelines about 10 years ago and I'm no
licensed surveyor... do I need a lawyer!
cheers
Glenn
the original message is below
>>
In January, I was contacted by an investigator ... They had received
a complaint from a surveyor stating that I was surveying without a license.
I was using a Trimble Pathfinder Pro XR GPS unit to collect fire hydrant
locations and then plot them on a reference map.
Two investigators met with myself, our planning director, and our county
attorney. The investigators were unfamiliar with GPS and GIS and were
basically on a fact-finding mission. The investigation has progressed, and
today we met with the two investigators, an attorney from the Office for
Professional Discipline and a surveyor. The state's attorney told us at the
beginning of the meeting that after reviewing the facts in the case, they do
feel that we are guilty of practicing surveying without a license. She then
gave our county attorney a chance to state our case, which I thought he did
very well. We were informed that the board will make a decision within the
next week. The outcome of today's meeting basically boils down to two
issues:
1) Were we practicing surveying illegally in this particular instance
(collecting fire hydrant locations)? If we are found guilty,
we will be either asked to stop, or asked to stop and then referred to the
Attorney General's office for prose
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