The Public Land Survey System (PLSS) forms the foundation of the land tenure system for the predominance of the United States west of the 13 original colonies. The collaborative Jeffersonian system was established in theory to eliminate gaps and overlaps that virtually plagued England and the British Colonies that adopted a metes and bounds system of land definition. Similar to a Torrens system, the PLSS provides the spatial provenance of title from its sovereign government. But unlike it, the PLSS cadastre contains a system of rectangular framework permitting definition of aliquot smaller tracts which can subsequently be performed beyond governmental surveys/ors.
This project required precised geodetic positioning for 10,800-acres of remote Nevada alpine and playa imagery and LiDAR acquisition. The project also integrated positioning of spectral scanning for plant identification and classification for near-infrared remote sensing study. LiDAR was chosen as a manner of increasing and augmenting digital elevation model creation for subsequent imagery drape. Elevations on this project spanned from 5,000 to 13,063 feet. Challenges surrounded access among federal, state and private interests as well accounting for and modeling micro-atmospheric condition variations raning from heavy snows, rain and also arid conditions.
Geodetic Control Project Management
Art's experience has benefitted many projects. A few representations of that experience include NGS and NALS' Liaison to the National Geodetic Survey for the 1999 High Accuracy Reference Network; the erection of many Continually Operating Reference Stations (CORS); gold mine operations control network; water reclamation system improvement and monitoring control; Water Facility Control Network; Hoover Dam, etc. There is no subsitute for accurate spatial measurements in any application. Static GPS procedures yield millimeter results. No one has complained that a measurement is too accurate. Many wish they had considered higher accuracy.
Geodetic control is extremely important - especially when your project rests upon a $240 Million budget and spans two states (in this case Arizona & Nevada). Placing improvements of this magnitude on this 1/16th of an inch tolerance project, or on any project requires accurate measurements and sound geodetic principals. Placing improvements in the wrong location, on an ajacent neighbor's lands, or in locations where they do not work with the design can be expensive. High Accuracy has no substitute nor is achieving the proficiency to be able to repeatedly perform.
Art has been an integral part of providing key products to promote responsible ranch transactions. Ranch sales require an assessment of assets, improvements, burdens, restrictions, covenants, title, unwritten rights and more. Spatial measurement sciences assist in mapping these items as well as to provide georeferencing for imagery that can depict many intangible characteristics. Once georeferenced, the mapping lines can be seamlessly overlaid on top of an orthorectified aerial photograph. If a picture is worth a thousands words, then perhaps an aerial image of one's land and estate including adjacent land cover are worth magnitudes more.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) - Geodetic Imagery & Remote Sensing Georeference Project
DARPA has many functions. However, this project supported georeferencing of satellite imagery and remote sensing datasets for one of the world's premier unmanned vehicle terrain race called the DARPA Grand Challenge. The project required the provision of spatial accuracy across a vast area used for a race event. Universities and groups across the world compete for a $ 1 Million prize to see who can develop a platform that can navigate hostile and unforgiving terrain upon a course in the shortest time. The general area is known beforehand. However, the specific course is not provided to the contestants until 1-hour before the event.
Digital Orthography Image Support
Many communities across the state are busy with the business of developing Geographic Information Systems to assist in asset inventory and resource management, tax assessment and the like. Digital imagery plays an important role in verifying spatial quantities and geometry. Utilizing accurate imagery, algorithms can be developed to secure specific datasets, analyze change detection and more - all on an spatially-conscious platform. Other benefits include critical path anaylsys, emergency planning and awareness, as well as service and sequence maintenance plans. The benefits continue to emerge on what seems to be a circadian basis.
Global Positioning System (GPS) Reference Station Construction
Art has been in the business of designing and erecting GPS Reference Stations since 1995 when the first station of it's kind was built in NV & Las Vegas. Our experience spans in excess of a decade, bridging a time when GPS vendors didn't have a solution on into today where GPS Reference Stations across the world are sharing information on the Internet. We spanned CDPD, Spread Spectrum, VHF and others arriving at UHF. Art has installed a total of eight (8) Continually Operating Reference Stations (CORS) providing data to a multitude of cross-functional users from science, engineering, construction, remote sensing, GIS to others.
Water Rights play a key role in any project - especially in the Mojave Desert, Great Basin and the arid western U.S. The value of water as a finite resource is extremely crucial. Although we are not alone, growth in sourthern Nevada has prompted water purveyors to develop improved means of being responsible water stewards amongst a flurry of varying demands. The acquisition of water as a function of supply and demand on a finite resource has increased costs. Our services include water rights mapping, hydrologic abstract study and mapping, geographic mapping, potentiometric study support, water level and quanity measurement, use Change Application support and more.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) play a vital role in managing our resources. Art makes maps and databases for water, land ownership, improvement feature and attributes, lithology, hydrography, air polution, airport runway and protection zones, zoning regulations, utility, accident site and transportation information, terrain feature, housing development and more. GIS is an invaluable tool for integrating geometric shape files that are spatially accurate at varying levels while merging that information with databases and statistical outlay therein.
Artisan is working to provide a framework to assist others to better understand the effects of sublimation - the continually changing evaporative effects of the atmosphere upon an area and/or region. The acquisition of snow vehicles coupled with spatial measurement technology provides a unique opportunity to acquire and attempt to understand emperical datasets as they relate to natural recharge cycles. The dataset and tests can also be developed to acquire samples to better understand water quality issues such as acidity and alkalinity as well as to establish remote sensing devices to capture continual evaporative indices that can be correlated as a function of time.
The Nevada Association of Land Surveyors (NALS) took on the task of monumenting the 2000 Nevada Geographic Center of Population as an indicator and memorialization of where our population center was in the year (according to our national census). The project included a great deal of negotiation surrounding where the monument would be placed and how to obtain the rights for the public to therein subsequently view this monument. Through much discussion and ultimate approval, surveyors can now use the spatial position of the monument for their work and access the Beatty High School for GPS occupation. Artisan's CEO designed the monument and was the frontman for Las Vegas' Channel 8 Eyewitness News coverage of the event.