Easement disputes are on the rise across the nation, as illustrated by the ease with which they can be found in modern court records.

What safety features are incorporated in a structure beyond the usual designated tornado shelter and evacuation signage? How well documented is the final build, and what is available to first responders who might have to assist in an emergency?

The day-to-day problems of surveyors would be easier to handle if they were only the technical and mathematical ones that can be systematically solved. Many of the demands placed upon us, however, do not have a formula for the answer.

Surveyors and geospatial professionals can help measure and quantify the impact we are having on our environment and the positive potential of steps to intervene and, as Esri Founder Jack Dangermond would say, "design our future."

Finding where a property boundary line has become established on the ground requires gathering the best available evidence that the reasonably prudent surveyor would find, evaluating that evidence, and then rendering a well-reasoned opinion on the factual question of location.

The complexity of training and licensing and the lack of public awareness of the surveying profession combine to make it difficult to adopt some of the strategies employed by other professions to attract new talent.

With the current run to technology, much of the "Art of Land Surveying" is disappearing.

A surveyor's seal stands for a long time, and the brand represented by that simple instrument will be firmly attached. Make sure your brand is solid.

Many court disputes over easements created for transmission lines and other utilities involve easements that are not appurtenant to any particular tract, commonly known as "easements in gross."

Earl F. Burkholder, PS, PE, F.ASCE, admits to developing an early interest in some of the core topics and concepts that have served him well every day of his professional land surveying career.