Several years ago, ESRI became actively engaged with the surveying community, and this relationship has grown and developed considerably.  We consider surveying a fundamental component of GIS, including geodetic control and cadastral survey.  On the GIS side, we have worked to integrate survey technology and methodologies into managing GIS and to help GIS professionals understand the value surveyors bring. 

Specifically, ESRI works closely with GPS and survey equipment manufacturers, some of which have embedded ESRI technology into their systems.  Also, we continue to enhance our core software with input from these partners and the entire survey user community.  Last fall ESRI released the Cadastral Editor application which is part of the ArcGIS Survey Analyst extension. This software includes a new complete workflow to manage parcels using fundamental survey methodologies.  This technology introduces a new data type into the geodatabase known as the cadastral fabric. This feature class uses survey rigor to manage parcel information and has won significant praise from the survey and GIS communities. 

This new workflow and technology ties the cadastral fabric to survey control and utilizes least squares adjustment to adjust parcels to best fit and deliver the best representation of parcels.  Because this is a mathematical solution and it utilizes the geodatabase, it is possible to preserve history and the original survey record.  Much the same way a surveyor adjusts traverses and preserves field measurements, the Cadastral Editor adjusts the parcel and preserves the survey record.  The results of the adjustment are stored in the geodatabase and used to spatially adjust data layers that are associated with the parcel layer.  In the past, GIS users would adjust surveys to fit the landbase.  In this workflow, the GIS data is adjusted to fit the survey data, preserving the survey-level accuracy.  This builds a framework for utilizing survey data to manage the accuracy of data in a GIS.   

We continue to see more and more surveyors using GIS in new and innovative ways to manage their data internally, plan and estimate their work, and deliver new services to the GIS community.  ESRI has dedicated a lot of resources to help surveyors network with each other and share experiences with the broader GIS community. 

We invite you to attend the Survey & Engineering GIS Summit (held the weekend prior to the UC). We will be discussing all of this and demonstrating the many ways surveyors are integrating GIS in their work. ESRI will continue innovating new technology to integrate GIS technology with surveying tools and methods. We would like to get feedback from our users about how best to continue to bring these two communities together.

For additional information, please contact Brent Jones bjones@esri.com.