CA Land Surveyor study guide
CA Land Surveyor · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
Licensure as a California Land Surveyor is granted by the Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists (BPELSG), the state body that regulates engineering, land surveying, and geology practice in California. The credential is intended for surveyors who take professional and legal responsibility for boundary determinations, geodetic work, subdivision mapping, and water-boundary questions, and it is generally pursued after substantial field and office experience under a licensed surveyor. The CA Land Surveyor study guide has 5 sections and about 2,073 words.
01Boundary Determination and Evidence Evaluation
A retracement survey does not create a boundary; it locates the boundary already created by the original conveyance or survey. California follows the common-law hierarchy of evidence: natural monuments, artificial monuments, courses and distances, and lastly area or quantity.
350 words, about 2 min02California Coordinate System and Geodetic Surveying
California Coordinate System of 1983 (CCS83) is based on NAD83 and consists of six Lambert conformal conic zones numbered 1 through 6 (for example, Zone 3, Mount Diablo, and Zone 6, San Diego). The Lambert projection keeps scale distortion small across an east-west zone.
340 words, about 2 min03Public Lands and Subdivision Map Act
California's federal lands were subdivided from a principal meridian and base line into townships six miles square containing 36 sections of nominally 640 acres, numbered from the northeast corner (section 1) boustrophedon to section 36 in the southeast. Standard parallels or correction lines, generally every four townships, control for meridian convergence.
369 words, about 2 min04Water Boundaries and Riparian Rights
California water boundaries turn on navigability and tide. The state holds title to tidelands and the beds of navigable waters in trust for the public.
344 words, about 2 min05Field Survey Procedures, Measurement Analysis and Monumentation
Field work begins with record research - deeds, subdivision maps, GLO notes, corner records - followed by reconnaissance. Calibrate instruments, verify prism and EDM constants, record the datum and epoch for GNSS, and check control by tying to at least two independent monuments or published control points.
670 words, about 3 min