Cartographers are skilled at mapping the earth, but they don’t necessarily pay attention to precise and exact boundaries. Surveyors, on the other hand, collect exact measurements of the earth, marking boundaries particularly in areas where people may have vested interest. It is a land surveyor’s duty not only to measure properties purchased or sold, but also to locate roads, buildings, utilities, and other such land structures or features for real estate developers, as well as to measure the exact limits or extents of mining claims, while mapping their precise locations on the map. Without them, land ownership, development, and construction would turn to chaos. Surveyors play an enormously important role to the public.
Engineering projects are much like puzzles, the design and planning of which are largely based upon the different surveying instruments land surveyors use. The construction of buildings and other establishments and structures such as bridges, highways, dams, and tunnels, require properly surveyed areas. Without professionally calculated and evaluated measurements, engineers, designers, and constructions would not know how each piece of the puzzle fits together. Execution of projects also rely greatly on the lines, points, and boundaries that are established through land surveying.
This said, land surveying in Los Angeles is a basic requirement for all building projects and surveyors are typically expected to:
- Collect accurate field data
- Prepare maps or plans of the surveyed area (either an orthographic or a graphical representation of the features or structures on or close to the surface of the earth
- Analyze and calculate field parameters for setting out actual engineering, design, or construction works and operations
- Set out field parameters on site for additional or further works
- Fix property boundaries and establish control points
- Ascertain specific locations of earth or property features
- Write legal description of parcels; and
- Delineate boundaries of interest according to their on-site survey and the records available in land offices