March 14, 2011 – On March 19th 2011, a first-ever simultaneous nationwide Global Positioning System (GPS) survey will be conducted by Surveyors across Pennsylvania to commemorate National Surveyors Week and promote the numerous benefits of GPS. This effort, called NSPS Surveying USA, will include volunteer surveyors from all 50 states and numerous U.S. Territories whose work will ultimately reinforce the accuracy of GPS systems world-wide. In addition to strengthening GPS data points, the goal of the project is to give the public an opportunity to observe local surveyors in action and to learn more about a profession that was practiced by George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Boone, and Henry David Thoreau, among many others.
In Pennsylvania, the project will be coordinated by Alan Chyko, Professional Land Surveyor, the Chief Surveyor of the Hazleton office of Barry Isett & Associates, a surveying and engineering firm with additional Pennsylvania offices in the Lehigh Valley and Valley Forge.
At exactly 1 p.m. scores of volunteer Pennsylvania surveyors across the Commonwealth will record GPS observations on horizontal or vertical monuments established by National Geodetic Survey (NGS) as part of the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS). The collected survey data will be a valuable contribution to the National Spatial Reference System, a nationwide survey control network which links and improves federal, state, and local surveying and mapping activities.
While the surveyors are collecting the data at multiple locations across the commonwealth, advanced Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment will be on display. Professional surveyors will be available to answer questions. Anyone with a GPS unit (hand-held or otherwise) is welcome to join in the fun and to collect data that will be useful to our nation. A Google map with locations of where the public will find surveyors with GPS units can be found at http://www.barryisett.com/surveying-usa.
For more information, please contact:
Alan Chyko, PLS – State Coordinator, NSPS Surveying USA
Office: 570-455-2999
achyko.surveyingusa@gmail.com
For more information on Surveying USA in Pennsylvania:
http://www.barryisett.com/surveying-usa
For more information on National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) and the surveying profession:
http://www.nspsmo.org/
http://www.psls.org
http://www.acsm.net