Article of the Month -
March 2018
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A case for Geospatial Surveyors
Brian COUTTS, New Zealand
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| Brian Coutts |
This article evaluates whether the term
"geomatics"
has met the original needs and if its use is still valid or if a better
term is available. While widely used in academia, the surveying
profession has been more reluctant to adopt the term and controversy and
confusion have grown up around its meaning. Brian Coutts is
Chair of FIG Commission 1, Professional Standards and Practice.
SUMMARY
In the 1980s a number of countries began using the term Geomatics in
relation to surveying. While first adopted in bilingual Canada it spread
to a number of other English speaking countries. The reasons for its
need were commonly given at the time a) it embraced a field wider than
surveying b) land surveying had a poor public image, and c) a more
modern term was needed to attract students to university surveying
programmes. While widely used in academia, the surveying profession has
been more reluctant to adopt the term and controversy and confusion have
grown up around its meaning. This paper re-evaluates whether the term
geomatics has met the original needs and if its use is still valid or if
a better term is available. It concludes that “geospatial” surveying
better meets the modern requirements for defining the role and practice
of what has traditionally been “land” surveying.
1. INTRODUCTION
The art and science of the measurement of land and its depiction in 2
dimensions, be it on clay tablets, maps, plans or charts, has a long
tradition. The “Blau monuments”, held in the British Museum, and
which date from approximately 3100 BCE, describe a piece of land and its
owner. Cuneiform tablets dating back to about 2150 BCE, which now
form part of the Yale Babylonian Collection, record measurements and
calculations giving the area of a field. They record the work of
those we would now call land surveyors. Cooper describes the form
of mathematics used by these surveyors as “geometric algebra” and
suggests a range of applications beyond cadastral surveying to which
they may be applied, such as the volume of conical piles of grain (for
valuation) or the number of bricks required for a proposed building
(quantity surveying) (Cooper, 2009).
The Roman agrimensores, or measurers of the land, also worked with
civil and military authorities. They were influential in the
mapping and recording of land (Dilke, 1971) but also were needed to
assist in the construction of the Roman roads, aqueducts, and other
engineering works (engineering surveying) as well as the site selection
and laying out of garrison towns, both temporary and permanent
(planning surveyors).
2. THE ORIGINS OF THE MODERN SURVEYOR
Ballantyne (1996) attributes the first use of the word survey in the
sense that it is used in the surveying profession, to 1550, based on a
definition of “survey” in the Oxford English Dictionary. This
coincides with the beginning of the developments referred to above but
clearly indicates a beginning to the idea of the surveying of land.
It is likely that the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, the
resumption of their lands by the Crown, and the subsequent sale, rather
than feudal allocation of land, encouraged the development of land
surveying as an occupation. New owners wished to enclose what they
“owned” and boundary demarcation became important. The
standardisation of measurements by Elizabeth I added further need for an
individual with an understanding of measurements.
It was not until the Renaissance that England saw the development of
what was to become the now traditional land surveyor. New
equipment became available in the form of telescopes with cross-hairs,
Gunter’s Chain, accurately machined graduated angular measurement
circles and Vernier scales. New knowledge of mathematics in the
form of algebra, geometry and trigonometry had found its way to England
from China, India and Arabia through the Moorish invasion of the Iberian
Peninsula, and the travel of English scholars to study in Cordoba and
Toledo (Joseph, 1987; Usvat, 2013).
3. SURVEYING AS A PROFESSION
The original professions, the church, the law and medicine, began
being added to following the Industrial Revolution, and the trend grew
in impetus in the mid to late 19th century and early 20th century.
Professions were seen as of higher status than the trades and their
guilds, but of a similar nature. Professional status and
recognition was being sought by many occupations through this period.
The Surveyors Club was formed in London in 1792 and was the precursor to
the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) which was founded in
1868 (RICS, n.d.).
Land surveying as an occupation spread throughout the British Empire
during the era of colonial development. While the technical
aspects of the occupation were common through the developing areas, some
additional skills were added to those relating to measurement as local
conditions required. As land surveyors were often the explorers
with mapping expertise of new territories, they arrived early in the
settlement schemes. They had the task of identifying plots of land
that had been allocated to the settlers, and often had to lay out
pre-planned towns. Additionally, as towns grew the land surveyors were
required to design and supervise the construction of utility services
such as roads and drains, and design additions to the planned towns as
they grew with the influx of new migrants. Hence, in many cases
skills that were usually the ambit of other professions were acquired,
such as town planning and engineering.
The tools used in this era of land surveying were much the same as
those that had been invented or designed in the 100 years around 1600.
Land definition and land ownership were also largely unchanged,
although the Torrens system aided the creation of a systematic recording
of the rights in land that came with ownership. Thus it was that
the colonial land surveyors also developed expertise in the law relating
to rights in land. Consequently, land surveying, met all of the
requirements defined in the literature as prerequisites for an
occupation to be recognised as a profession (Coutts, 2017).
4. THE IMAGE OF THE LAND SURVEYOR
From talking to many surveyors in several countries, it has become
clear to me that the profession of land surveying has an image problem.
The image portrayed, including by many surveyors, is usually a man,
although now women are beginning to make a more regular appearance,
standing around a device mounted on a tripod. It does not matter
very much whether the device is an optical theodolite, a total station
or a GNSS antenna. The picture is one of someone in outdoor
clothing and who is likely to be wearing boots. Their purpose is
unclear although the backpack and GNSS antenna does resonate more with
the public than earlier measurement devices. The image is thought
nit to be of someone who is a member of a profession, but some
technician or technically qualified person. Educational
institutions often reinforce this image, and some promote the outdoor
activity of the land surveyor’s work as an attractive aspect of the
profession.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that land surveyors often under-sell
their work and their contribution to society through their expertise in
measurement, and have a tradition of undervaluing their outputs, even to
the point of giving them away (Coutts, 2017). Additionally there
is often the complaint that land surveying is not understood by the
public. Three questions arise from this view. Firstly, is it
actually true? Secondly, how much do the public understand of any
profession, and thirdly, if the claim is valid who is responsible for
changing that perception. To answer the first question it would be
helpful if rigorous research were conducted to test whether or not the
perception is correct. The response to the second question is
likely to be inconclusive. The greater the number of people who
have had first-hand dealings with any particular profession, the greater
is the likelihood of there being some understanding.
The answer to the third question is more complicated.
Universities have an interest in attracting students to their programmes
in order to keep their programmes viable. Professional
institutions have an interest in ensuring that there are enough active
professionally qualified practitioners to meet societal demand.
The interests of the universities and the professional bodies are
therefore aligned. The problem arises, where there are multiple
tertiary programmes, or competing professional societies, in getting
them all together and then coordinated to develop a coherent, consistent
and communicable message. New Zealand is fortunate in this respect
in that it is one nation (no states or provinces), has one principal
professional body, and has one National School of Surveying. These
are considered here to be the principal reasons why New Zealand has an
ongoing programme that fills its quota every year.
Many land surveyors are unhappy with the image that they perceive the
public have of their profession, but the question may be asked if this
is indeed the public image of the profession. There are no known
studies where this question has been specifically asked and a rigorous
answer found. Is it therefore the self image of the land surveyor
that is the more of a problem than the imagined public image of the
profession? It may then be asked that, if the image is faulty then who
might take responsibility for changing it and how can this be achieved?
The answer to each of these questions comes back to the profession
itself. But first, the professional land surveyors have to improve
the image they have of themselves.
5. THE ARRIVAL OF GEOMATICS
In 1975 Bernard Dubuisson referred in a scientific paper to a new
discipline, geomatique. It is not clear who first coined the word,
but geomatique is translated as “geomatics” and is accepted by the
International Standards Organisation. Little attention appears to
have been paid to the term, but it reappeared in Quebec City, Canada in
1981. Michel Paradis “created” the word as an umbrella term to
include all methods of acquiring and distributing data. At this
time the term did catch on and spread throughout Canada (Bédard, 2007).
From Canada it jumped to Australia, where it was ostensibly used to
define this “new” discipline which was a collection of new technology
used to gather and process data added to the academic discipline of
surveying. The surveying profession was less than enthusiastic
about the adoption and use of the term geomatics. However it is
apparent that a more important reason for the adoption of geomatics to
define what the universities were doing was its use as a marketing tool,
in an attempt to attract more students into struggling surveying
courses. In the long term it has not been successful.
Australian schools of surveying are disappearing into engineering
schools and parts of the profession have adopted “spatial science” as an
umbrella term, but it is unclear if the umbrella includes surveying.
The principal national surveyors’ society, the Surveying and Spatial
Sciences Institute, would appear to be unsure. However, there
appears to be a developing preference for names that refer to geospatial
rather than spatial science(s).
The United Kingdom followed Australia in adopting the term geomatics.
While many tertiary institutions adopted it in some form, once again,
the professional bodies did not. Its use by the profession’s
practitioners has been minimal and its use by academia inconsistent.
Some consider geomatics to embrace land surveying while others do not.
Advocates for its adoption used similar points to those debated in
Australia, namely the embracing of new technology and attracting of
young people into surveying programmes struggling to remain
independently viable.
Advocates of the use of geomatics instead of land surveying in the UK
seemed unaware that it already had a definition and a meaning.
Frequent mention is made in the literature of “being able to make it
mean anything”, as if it was had no pre-existing meaning. An
apparently serious argument was made that since it had no meaning it
would give those who use it an opportunity to explain what it meant.
But then they were already concerned that when they said they were a
surveyor they then had to explain that to people!
The reasons for its adoption do not appear to have been any more
successful than in Australia. In support of changing the name of a
profession that had existed under an agreed name for over 400 years, and
had existed as an occupation for several millennia, Professor Paul
Cross, a proponent of the adoption of geomatics, is quoted as saying “A
profes1qsion that cannot even agree a name is unlikely to be taken
seriously” (Cross, 1997. p5).
It might be noted that one English speaking country, New Zealand,
debated and refuted the use of the term geomatics when it was becoming
fashionable in the 1980s. Nevertheless the New Zealand National
School of Surveying still continues to fill its 60 allotted spaces each
year on a competitive basis, gaining more applications for entry than it
can accommodate. It retains surveying as its name and within its
core requirements for a surveying degree, teaches courses in all of the
new technologies that geomatics was intended to embrace, all without the
need of a new identity.
6. THE GEOSPATIAL IDENTITY
There is unrest about the use of geomatics to describe surveying.
Practitioners in England, Canada and Australia, despite the wide-spread
use of the term have not adopted it to describe their profession.
Those coming nearest are the Australians whose professional body was the
Spatial Sciences Institute, established in 2003; it changed its name in
2009 to the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute. A
superficial consideration of the name change would suggest that
Surveying, therefore, must not have been considered a spatial science.
Nevertheless, those of the land surveying profession, be they in Canada,
Australia or the UK still, in the main, proudly refer to themselves as
surveyors.
Coutts and Grant (2016) used the term “geospatial surveyor” in a
paper presented at the FIG Working Week in Christchurch. It is
interesting to note that it raised not a single comment. There are
reasonable grounds to suggest, that at least in the English speaking
countries, geomatics has not only been ineffective in bringing the
changes desired when it was adopted, but it has raised the ire of many
practicing surveyors. The evidence suggests that the use of the
term geomatics is diminishing in those countries named above.
Where, then, does this leave the land surveying profession?
The word surveying to describe those who measure aspects of land,
particularly its location, dimensions, shape, topography and occupation
has had centuries of use and reasonable understanding. The
qualification “land” has been useful and relevant in the past.
However the descriptor “land” is now a limiting factor in describing the
capabilities of the surveying profession following the evolution and
revolution of technology that occurred during the last century.
Furthermore, location data gathering, analysis management and the
distribution of information are highly valued and growing requirements
of the digital age.
Given that limitation, it is suggested that land surveyors rebrand
themselves as geospatial surveyors, a term that is more likely to
succeed where the adoption of geomatics has failed. The term
geospatial is already in wide use internationally, and in some places
has already begun the takeover of geomatics as well as spatial science.
It is also reasonably easy to interpret by the public as it can be
related to devices they already have in their pockets. Never has
mapping been so ubiquitous.
7. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The New Zealand surveying profession was wise not to join the global
trend in adopting geomatics in place of surveying or to represent a
discipline wider but inclusive of land surveying. The reasons
others adopted the term geomatics were not relevant to the New Zealand
profession at the time, namely; the need to find a term broader than
surveying to include new technologies, the need to modernize the image
of the profession, and the pressing requirement to attract greater
numbers of students.
The reasons geomatics was not necessary are quite simple. Firstly,
the Bachelor of Surveying at the University of Otago has continuously
evolved to include the new technologies referred to in the original
definition of geomatics under the canopy of surveying, namely, remote
sensing, photogrammetry and GIS. Secondly, while not having a high
profile, the general public did and do have some understanding of the
history and functions of land surveyors in New Zealand, and in
particular the qualification of Registered Surveyor were held in high
regard by the general public, even if the activities of a professional
surveyor were not well understood. Thirdly, the National School of
Surveying at the University of Otago was undergoing growth in its
student numbers and entry to its flagship course, the Bachelor of
Surveying, the only surveying course in the country leading to
professional status, was competitive. As a consequence the annual
intake rose from 40 per year in 1992 to 65 by 2006.
Geomatics as a term has failed to achieve the stated purposes of its
adoption in the United Kingdom, Australia and even in Canada where it
originated and was adopted by academia. Neither has it resonated with
the public nor with professional surveyors in any of those countries.
University programmes in each have largely been absorbed into larger
departments, almost exclusively engineering. In the United Kingdom
and Canada the programmes are more commonly branded as Geomatic
Engineering. Not using the word surveying to describe the skill
set being offered by universities is viewed now by many as a
disadvantage, and some programmes have reintroduced surveying into their
publicity, particularly their websites, so as to be findable by search
engines (Coutts, 2017).
Continuing to refer to the profession as “surveying” is important for
historic and consistency reasons. However the qualifier “land” has
outlived its usefulness. Nevertheless some qualifier is necessary
to distinguish what historically has been the land surveyor from other
types of surveyors e.g. quantity surveyors. The term “geospatial”
is already in use in university programmes, e.g. at RMIT in Melbourne,
Australia. It is becoming more widely used and understood
generally as smartphone technology becomes ubiquitous. The issue
is that the “land” descriptor now undersells the capabilities of the
land surveyor. What is more, the need and demand for accurate
location data is increasing and will continue to increase as current
technologies continue to advance.
It is not suggested here that there needs to be a sudden adoption of
new terminology, nor that institutions will need to change their names,
at least in the short term. Nor is it necessary that changes be
made by “statute”. No one needs to mandate that the new term be
used. It is as much a mindset as anything else. It can be
implemented on business letterheads and cards in an incremental way so
that there are no costs in its adoption.
Furthermore, with some compromises, the term geospatial surveyor can
be inclusive of the traditional land surveyor, the technologically
advanced land surveyor, and those professional GIS practitioners who
work in the geospatial landscape. International and local
definitions already allow for this. However, all parties need to
feel comfortable with the new appellation; that land surveyors are in
the geospatial area, and that the appropriate GIS practitioners can feel
comfortable being called surveyors.
REFERENCES
- Ballantyne, Brian. (1996, March). A polemic against 'geomatics':
Buttering no parsnips. Survey Quarterly, 5.
- Bédard, Yvan. (2007). "Geomatics": 26 years of history already.
Geomatica, 61(3), 4.
- Cooper, M. A. R. (2009). Who did they think they were? or
Land Surveyors in Society. Christmas Lectures. Royal
Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
- Coutts, B.J. & Grant, D.B. (2016). Geospatial surveyors –
what are they good for. Paper presented at the FIG Working
Week "Recovery from Disaster", Christchurch, New Zealand.
- Coutts, Brian J. (2017) Land Surveying: has
technology fundamentally changed the profession. PhD thesis.
University of Otago. (Unpublished).
- Cross, Paul. (1997, Nov/Dec). Paul Cross - explaining geomatic
engineering. Surveying World, 6, 3.
- Dilke, O. A. W. (1971). The Roman Land Surveyors: An
Introduction to the Agrimensores. Newton Abbot, Devon, UK:
David & Charles.
- Dubuisson, Bernard. (1975). Practique de la Photogrammetrie
et des Moyens Cartographiques derives des Ordinateurs. (K. J.
Dennison, Trans.). Paris: Editions Eyrolles.
- Joseph, George Ghevarughese. (1987). Foundations of Eurocentrism
in mathematics. Race and Class (28), 15. doi:
10.1177/030639688702800302
- Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. (n.d.). Retrieved 19
July 2013
www.rics.org/nz/about-rics/who-we-are/history-and-mandate/history/
- Usvat, Lilianna. (2013). Medieval Times Mathematics. Mathematics
Magazine.
www.mathematicsmagazine.com/Articles/MedievalTimesMathematics.php#.UqUvnuK9LMk
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Brian Coutts, is a Senior Lecturer at the New
Zealand National School of Surveying and is a professionally qualified
surveyor and planner. He has held the offices of President of the
New Zealand Institute of Surveyors (1999-2000), President of the
Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land Economy (2004-07)), Chair
of the Cadastral Surveyors Licensing Board of New Zealand (2002-10) and
Deputy Head of New Zealand National School of Surveying in (2007-12).
He was Chair of the FIG Working Group on Voting Rights (2011/12), Vice
Chair of Commission 1 (2012-2014), has been its Chair since 2015 and was
the ACCO representative on the FIG Council in 2015/16.
