Happy Leap Year!!

Happy Leap Year ! It's amazing how precise our calendar actually is, but what's even more amazing in my opinion is the ability to calculate leap seconds. Unfortunate for NAVSTAR that GPS doesn't have a leap second function, but it's interesting to see the world slow down its rotational velocity over time as GPS time and UTC diverge....

Degree of Precision

"It is the mark of an instructed mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness when only an approximation of the truth is possible."
Aristotle BC 384-322, Greek Philosopher

This has come up recently in conversation with respect to precision and accuracy of survey work. With the advent of GPS surveying, accuracy and precision can be achieved to a level that is so far beyond the abilities of past survey era equipment. Something comparable to the Wright Flyer and the Stealth Fighter. But we can so overdo things now as well. Spending hour upon hour to eek out an extra hundredth or thousandth of a foot, in my opinion, really is a waste of time depending on the application (much of land surveying applications fall within this category). Sometimes approximation, especially educated and rigorously derived approximation, is just fine. Save those extra hours and spend them with your family...

Charter Statement

Although the survey operations at BHI has been operating as a regional presence over the past year and a half, I have had the realization recently that we are lacking some key items to our team. Those being a charter statement and a mission statement. When we embarked on a regional approach in 2006, we immediately jumped into an operational and administrative approach without really defining our charter. I believe this is part of our continued struggle to obtain momentum across the southwest region of the US. We're going to start today on our video conference meeting to write our charter and mission statement. It will be interesting to see how each office participates (or not) and who is truly interested in creating a unified team with similar focus and purpose. I hope there will be value in backing up to the beginning to try and work through some of these issues.

Fence Hopping

Regardless of your views on illegal aliens/illegal border crossing, I would think that everyone could agree that there are negative impacts involved with the ease of crossing the border. We've had survey crews working along the Columbus, NM port of entry area directly across the border from Puerto Palomas, Mexico. There are issues with the drug trade here and I'm sure with any border crossing locations, the drug lord activity south of the border here is flowing over into the US side of the border. (See my post from several days ago about Kevlar vests).



This photo shows the U.S.A. / Mexico border, a nicely kept barbed wire fence. My guess is that someone frequently crossing the border, most likely involved with drug traffic, was spotted by Border Patrol and was quickly leaving jurisdiction by crossing back over into Mexico. Problem was that there was a mud puddle at this particular location and he lost his shoe in mid stride over the border. Dilemma: to cross back into America to get his shoe and risk being tied up in the bureaucracy of being deported or leave the shoe. Apparently the shoe lost out...

Grand Canyon Flood

We recently did some photogrammetric mapping for the Grand Canyon. It would be an interesting before and after look to compare the orthophoto images of the third proposed Grand Canyon Flood. It would be even more interesting to raft down the Grand Canyon at 41,000 cfs. Maybe someday....

Beauty in Engineering and Surveying??

"There is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments and railways and iron bridges and engineering devices to oblige them to be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection."
H.G. Wells

What do you think? I tend to agree, however, we are in an industry today where nobody wants to pay for aesthetics - or at the very least a pittance is paid or it is an afterthought. If ugliness is the measure of imperfection in engineering, then is beauty the measure of perfection? If it is, how should we as engineers and surveyors move along the spectrum towards perfection of beauty. While exceptions might exist, beauty isn't something that we as humans can command and it happens - it takes time and thought and focus.

The same can be said for surveying and mapping I believe. An "ugly" product shows lack of focus and thought, and a lack of ingenuity. A map or plat is something that can show beauty if given or provided the time to create. Something we strive to do here at BHI although there is always the tension of time and budget and the pull to show data as it has always been shown rather than try something new. I think we do an exceptional job at pushing the envelope to create and develop new ideas and develop a product that shows beauty.

I think it can be done…

Caught in the act

For those not familiar, from the standpoint of environment, survey crews often have a difficult job. They can work long hours (whenever the sun is up – and sometimes when it’s not) and they work in any environmental conditions – both weather and locale. Maybe not to the US Postal Carriers level (Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds), but they certainly battle snow, rain and heat plus some other weather phenomenon. They also have to go where the projects are, whether it’s in the urban war zone, or in the middle of nowhere miles from the nearest road. The project may be near hazardous materials or hazardous land owners – which is worse? Who knows. They work tough hours in sometimes harsh conditions. That being said, it’s always nice to catch one of our crews in the act of working hard. Case in point, here’s an aerial photo (taken from several thousand feet) of one of our crew members controlling an aerial control panel (ATV is in the upper right). This project cut it close, the last panel being set as the flight began but he met his goal and got the job done…

Which way is North

When creating a map of the north pole or south pole, which direction should the north arrow point on the map?? Not a problem away from the poles, but north pointing up on a map is convention only. Many of the oldest maps were oriented such that east was pointed up. And for that matter, why is 0° Longitude based on Greenwich meridian? Many of the older USA maps show 0° Longitude through New York City. Simply put - it is convention. An agreed upon standard that all can base their starting point from. While standards are important, I'd also challenge you to think beyond standard convention. North isn't always up...

Bohannan Huston, Inc. - Where I work

Thought I'd let you see where I work ... Bohannan Huston, Inc. I've worked here since 1994 - it's been a great company to work for and we have many great projects to work on. More to follow on BHI down the road. Just a quick intro.

Kevlar Vests

According to Mark Marrujo, our Survey Operations Manager in the Las Cruces Office:

"US Customs at the Columbus Port of Entry felt it necessary due to the kind of activity over the past few weeks in this area [on the US / Mexico border] that our field crew opt for wearing Kevlar Vests instead of Surveying Vests. Since our field crew was being escorted by Customs police with M-16s they made sure not to say “shoot it” to one another while collecting field data conventionally."

Shown is Johnny, one of our Surevy Crew Chiefs ready for action...

First Blog Post Ever

This is my first blog post ever. Pretty basic stuff here - I'm hoping that this will serve as a forum for ideas on the surveying industry and our business specifically as we embark on expanded regional survey services for Bohannan Huston Inc. More to come later - I'll leave with a parting shot east of Grants, NM.