... A specialization in Geospatial Technology

The Geomatics Technology is a crossroads of land usage by civil engineering, GIS, GPS, municipal and corporate planning, residential development, architectural planning, construction, and drafting. Land surveying is the second oldest profession in the world and today there is still a growing demand for survey technicians. New technology is changing the way surveyors and surveying technicians do their work. Surveyors are still measuring the distance and determining spatial relationships, but the why and how has changed. The surveyor's instrument and chain have given way to electronics. Distance is measured with an electronic clock and the speed of light. Angles, distances, and notes are automatically recorded in a “data collector” to be down loaded, plotted, and analyzed later. One purpose is still location of private property lines, but that purpose has been broadened to cover infrastructure and public well-being.

The surveyor is a collector of facts and disseminator of usable information. The collection may be bounced from a satellite using Global Position Systems (GPS), scanned in from GIS data he generated last week, or raw data obtained by more conventional methods. With the use of lasers in an electronic angle and distance-measuring device the data is more precise. The data is linked to an automatic recorder, making it more reliable. It may also be connected with wireless communications equipment and transferred to an office computer where a rough map plot is made as fieldwork progresses.