Land surveyors once used tape measures and transits to measure distances and positions. Because the 1980s, electronic distance measurement, or EDM, devices have allowed for much more efficient and accurate measurements. Building Surveys Fleetwood with a wave of energy that is shot between the EDM instrument and a reflector. The time the beam takes to come back is then calculated as distance. Today, such calculations can be done using sophisticated GPS systems.

The Global Positioning System runs on the network of satellites to precisely pinpoint the device's location on the planet at any moment. GPS uses the principle of trilateration, utilizing the location of several satellites to pinpoint an exact location. A receiver can determine the latitude, longitude, and elevation of a point using four or more satellites; there are a total of 24 Global Positioning System satellites currently in use. First created by the U.S. Department of Defense as a navigational aid in 1994, today it is found in many devices, tracking everything from cell phones and delivery vehicles to the movement of the tectonic plates of Earth's crust.


Land surveyors use Global Position Systems to note the complete coordinates of spatial locations. Exact measurement of these positions is one of the fundamental elements of land surveying. The benefit of is that it's a lot more accurate than hand-measuring these locations. There is some extent of error in every land surveying measurements, due to human errors, environmental characteristics like variations in magnetic fields, temperature, and gravity, and instrument errors. GPS allows for much more precise measurements than previously available to land surveyors using measuring tape and an angle sight.

Another benefit of the use of its use as a land surveyor is that the coordinates can be located precisely, while other ways of land surveying depend on measurements from other known locations, including the edge of the house line, the corner of a house, or another landmark. These locations could change as time passes, such as if a house is torn down or another obstacle is made between the structure and the measured point; even a surveyor's stake could be removed prior to the land is re-surveyed. The coordinate of a given location on the planet, however, remains exactly the same. Therefore, using GPS as a land surveyor produces measurements that will be accurate whatever happens to the surrounding land.

Although Global Position System receivers enable very precise measurements, there is still a degree of error involved. A receiver on a tripod will record the location slightly differently each time; when many measurements are taken, these data points will form a cluster round the actual location. Better-quality receivers, needless to say, reduce this amount of error. Survey-grade receivers, instead of those designed for non-surveying uses, may produce a band of measurements clustered within just one centimeter of the specific location. Today's receivers are steadily gaining used, but is probably not as accurate because the surveyor want, especially in areas which are heavily wooded or that have other large obstructions. However, the technology is rapidly advancing and gaining a foothold in the available equipment for land surveyors. Since 1994, the accuracy available when using GPS units has improved steadily.