How to become a Surveying and Mapping Technician 2024

Surveying and Mapping Technician Perform surveying and mapping duties, usually under the direction of an engineer, surveyor, cartographer, or photogrammetrist, to obtain data used for construction, mapmaking, boundary location, mining, or other purposes. May calculate mapmaking information and create maps from source data, such as surveying notes, aerial photography, satellite data, or other maps to show topographical features, political boundaries, and other features. May verify accuracy and completeness of maps.

Surveying and Mapping Technician is Also Know as

In different settings, Surveying and Mapping Technician is titled as

Aerotriangulation Specialist
Engineering Technician
Geospatial Analyst
Mapping Editor
Mapping Technician
Photogrammetric Compilation Specialist
Photogrammetric Technician
Stereoplotter Operator
Survey Technician
Tax Map Technician

Education and Training of Surveying and Mapping Technician

Surveying and Mapping Technician is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Surveying and Mapping Technician

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Education Required for Surveying and Mapping Technician

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Degrees Related to Surveying and Mapping Technician

Training Required for Surveying and Mapping Technician

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Surveying and Mapping Technician in different industries are

What Do Surveying and Mapping Technician do?

Position and hold the vertical rods, or targets, that theodolite operators use for sighting to measure angles, distances, and elevations.
Check all layers of maps to ensure accuracy, identifying and marking errors and making corrections.
Design or develop information databases that include geographic or topographic data.
Monitor mapping work or the updating of maps to ensure accuracy, inclusion of new or changed information, or compliance with rules and regulations.
Produce or update overlay maps to show information boundaries, water locations, or topographic features on various base maps or at different scales.
Determine scales, line sizes, or colors to be used for hard copies of computerized maps, using plotters.
Compile information necessary to stake projects for construction, using engineering plans.
Identify and compile database information to create requested maps.
Operate and manage land-information computer systems, performing tasks such as storing data, making inquiries, and producing plots and reports.
Compare survey computations with applicable standards to determine adequacy of data.
Analyze aerial photographs to detect and interpret significant military, industrial, resource, or topographical data.
Research and combine existing property information to describe property boundaries in relation to adjacent properties, taking into account parcel splits, combinations, or land boundary adjustments.
Calculate latitudes, longitudes, angles, areas, or other information for mapmaking, using survey field notes or reference tables.
Compare topographical features or contour lines with images from aerial photographs, old maps, or other reference materials to verify the accuracy of their identification.
Trace contours or topographic details to generate maps that denote specific land or property locations or geographic attributes.
Provide assistance in the development of methods and procedures for conducting field surveys.
Trim, align, and join prints to form photographic mosaics, maintaining scaled distances between reference points.
Answer questions and provide information to the public or to staff members regarding assessment maps, surveys, boundaries, easements, property ownership, roads, zoning, or similar matters.
Complete detailed source and method notes describing the location of routine or complex land parcels.
Adjust and operate surveying instruments such as prisms, theodolites, electronic distance measuring equipment, or electronic data collectors.
Collect information needed to carry out new surveys, using source maps, previous survey data, photographs, computer records, or other relevant information.
Conduct surveys to ascertain the locations of natural features and man-made structures on the Earth's surface, underground, and underwater, using electronic distance-measuring equipment, such as GPS, and other surveying instruments.
Enter Global Positioning System (GPS) data, legal deeds, field notes, or land survey reports into geographic information system (GIS) workstations so that information can be transformed into graphic land descriptions, such as maps and drawings.
Perform calculations to determine earth curvature corrections, atmospheric impacts on measurements, traverse closures or adjustments, azimuths, level runs, or placement of markers.
Prepare cost estimates for mapping projects.
Prepare topographic or contour maps of land surveyed, including site features and other relevant information, such as charts, drawings, and survey notes.
Record survey measurements or descriptive data, using notes, drawings, sketches, or inked tracings.
Search for section corners, property irons, or survey points.
Set out and recover stakes, marks, or other monumentation.
Supervise or coordinate activities of workers engaged in surveying, plotting data, drafting maps, or producing blueprints, photostats, or photographs.

Qualities of Good Surveying and Mapping Technician

Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.

Tools Used by Surveying and Mapping Technician

3D laser scanning systems
Alidades
Automatic optical pendulum leveling systems
Axes
Barometers
Chain saws
Clinometers
Community base station global positioning systems GPS
Desktop computers
Digital cameras
Digitizers
Distance meters
Drafting compasses
Drafting kits
Drafting templates
Echosounders
Electronic digital/bar-code leveling systems
Electronic distance measuring devices
Electrotapes
Engineering scales
Extensometers
Fathometer sonar equipment
Four wheel drive 4WD vehicles
Geodetic leveling rods
Geological compasses
Global positioning system GPS receivers
Ground vibration sensing equipment
Hand levels
Handheld data collectors
Hatchets
Jackhammers
Laser distance measuring equipment
Laser printers
Laser scanner coordinate capturing equipment
Leveling bubbles
Levels
Machetes
Magnetic field pipe locators
Mallets
Measuring chains
Measuring rods
Measuring tapes
Metal detectors
Multibeam sonar equipment
Notebook computers
Optical pendulum levels
Personal computers
Plane tables
Plotters
Plumb bobs
Pocket personal computers PC
Portable hydrographic surveying equipment
Pre-programmed coordinate geometry COGO calculators
Prism poles
Prisms
Programmable calculators
Protractors
Ranger data collectors
Real-time kinematics RTK global positioning systems GPS
Robotic survey measuring instruments
Scanners
Side scan sonars
Sight targets
Survey instrument control units
T-squares
Tablet computers
Telescoping pole saws
Tellurometers
Templates
Theodolites
Total stations
Transit levels
Triangles
Tribrach level bubble adjusting blocks
Tribrach optical plummet adjusting cylinders
Tripods
Two way radios
Vertical/target rods
Wheeled measuring devices

Technology Skills required for Surveying and Mapping Technician

3D Nature LLC Visual Nature Studio
3D Nature LLC World Construction Set
Adobe Acrobat Writer
Adobe FreeHand MX
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Autodesk 3d Studio Viz
Autodesk AutoCAD
Autodesk AutoCAD Blue Sky
Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D
Autodesk AutoCAD Map 3D
Autodesk CAiCE Visual Transportation
Autodesk Land Desktop
Bentley GeoPak Bridge
Bentley GEOPAK Civil Engineering Suite
Bentley MicroStation
Bentley Systems InRoads Suite
CARIS HIPS
CARIS SIPS
Carlson SurvCADD
Carlson Survey
Computer aided design and drafting software CADD
Computer aided design CAD software
Coordinate geometry COGO software
Database software
Datalog with guidance DLWG software
Desktop digital photogrammetry system DDPS
Digital elevation model DEM software
Email software
ESRI ArcCatalog
ESRI ArcEditor
ESRI ArcGIS (analytical or scientific feature)
ESRI ArcGIS ArcPy
ESRI ArcGIS software
ESRI ArcGIS Spatial Analyst
ESRI ArcIMS
ESRI ArcInfo
ESRI ArcSDE
ESRI ArcToolbox
ESRI ArcView
ESRI ArcView 3D Analyst
ESRI Maplex
ESRI MapObjects
ESRI Personal Geodatabase
Foresoft CDS Cogo
Foresoft CDS Model
Geographic information system GIS software
Geographic information system GIS systems
Geomechanical design analysis GDA software
Global positioning system GPS software
Graphics software
Hexagon Geospatial Imagine Photogrammetry
Hexagon Intergraph
Hypertext markup language HTML
IMAGINE OrthoBASE
JavaScript
Leica Geosystems ERDAS IMAGINE
Low-level driver LLD software
MapInfo
Mapping software
MENSI 3Dipsos
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Exchange
Microsoft Office software
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft SharePoint
Microsoft Visio
Microsoft Visual Basic
Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications VBA
Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition VBScript
Microsoft Word
MicroSurvey FieldGenius
MicroSurvey OfficeSync
MicroSurvey Star*Net
MicroSurveyCAD
Modeling software
Muncy Plat Pronto
PCI Geomatics eCognition
PCI Geomatics software
Project management software
Python
QuarkXPress
QuickCogo
RockWare ArcMap
SiteComp Survey
Software libraries
Spreadsheet software
Structured query language SQL
TELEDYNE CARIS
Traverse PC
Trimble Digital Fieldbook
Trimble Geomatics Office
Trimble GPS Pathfinder Office
Trimble Terramodel
Trimble TerraSync
Trimble Total Control
Tripod Data Systems COGO
Tripod Data Systems Foresight
Tripod Data Systems software
Triton Elics International Isis
TRS Software TomCADD
Web browser software
Word processing software

US Universities

How to become Surveying and Mapping Technician in 2024