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Land Surveying as a Career

Peter Stewart, a former Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering graduate student, with a GPS receiver connected to a personal computer. (Bob Wilson/The Daily Gleaner photo)

Land surveyors no longer appear in public laden down with heavy equipment which is usually set up on a tripod in an inconvenient spot for automotive traffic and pedestrians. Now land surveyors can do that aspect of their job using a total station. Peering through an instrument and taking measurements, however, is not the sum total of a land surveyor's career.

Today, the activities of land surveyors include the following [Hartley, 1997]:

• Geographic Information System (GIS) services. Performing computer-based queries through a link between digital mapping and map-related databases.


• Global Positioning System (GPS) services. Undertaking GPS observations, data processing, consulting, and training. As seen in the photo, today's tools are small, easily transported GPS receivers and table top or lap top computers.
• Urban and rural planning. Preparing municipal plans, consulting on zoning bylaws and subdivision planning, and performing duties as a planning development officer.


• Precise engineering surveys. Offering precise survey measurements for alignment of equipment in pulp and paper mills and power stations.


• Software development. Working with other professionals to develop software that links geographic databases to digital mapping from the N.B. Geographic Information Corporation (NBGIC).


• Municipal engineering services. Along with other Professional Engineers, providing engineering consulting for road, water system, and sewerage system design and construction.


• Highway design services. Providing route planning, location, and surveying.


• Real estate appraisals. As a member of the N.B. Association of Real Estate Appraisers, land surveyors would be elegible to do appraisals.

Employment opportunities exist with federal, provincial, and municipal government departments and agencies. There are opportunities to be community college and university instructors, GIS managers, and survey managers.

Hartley, S. (1997). Land surveyors must seek to diversity. Association of New Brunswick Land Surveyors Supplement to The Daily Gleaner, Thursday, 23 January, p. 8a.