Hawaii Land Surveyor Exam key terms

The federal rectangular system for dividing land into townships and sections, established by the Land Ordinance of 1785 and used across most of the United States outside the original thirteen colonies and Texas.

The north-south reference line from which a PLSS survey area is measured east and west. Each meridian governs its own set of townships and ranges.

The east-west reference line that, together with the principal meridian, forms the origin of a PLSS survey area. Townships are numbered north and south from it.

A PLSS unit nominally six miles square containing 36 sections, identified by its position north or south of the base line and east or west of the principal meridian.

A column of townships measured east or west from the principal meridian. Range numbers combine with township numbers to identify a specific six-mile-square tract.

A one-square-mile PLSS subdivision nominally containing 640 acres, numbered 1 through 36 within a township beginning in the northeast corner and proceeding boustrophedon.

A fractional subdivision of a section described by halving, such as the NE 1/4 or the SW 1/4 of the NW 1/4. Each halving divides the area by two.

A fractional parcel within a section created when regular subdivision is impractical, typically along meanderable water bodies, reservation boundaries, or correction lines. It is numbered rather than described by aliquot parts.

A point determined by the survey where two or more boundary lines meet, including section corners, quarter corners, and meander corners. Its physical monument controls the location.

A physical object set or accepted at a corner to mark its position, such as a stone, iron pipe, concrete post, or cap. Monuments are the best available evidence of an original corner location.

Physical traces of the government survey remaining on the ground, including original monuments, bearing trees, pits, mounds, and line blazes, used to reestablish corners in a retracement.

A tree marked by the original surveyor with a blaze and scribe recording the corner it references, its species, and distance. It serves as collateral evidence for reestablishing a lost corner.

A monument placed at a known offset from a true corner when the corner itself cannot be occupied, such as at a water body or road. The offset distance and bearing are recorded in the field notes.

A traverse run along the bank of a meanderable water body to compute the area of adjoining fractional lots. It is not the legal boundary of the water; the water itself is generally the boundary.

A corner established where a surveyed section line intersects a meanderable water body. It is set at the intersection and referenced in the field notes.

A survey performed to recover and follow the lines and corners of an existing survey, without establishing new boundaries, in order to determine where the original survey ran.

A survey of an area previously surveyed that reestablishes or restores corners and lines, often performed where the original survey evidence has been lost or destroyed.

The practice of recording and preserving the location of monuments and other survey evidence so future surveyors can recover them, typically by filing corner records, ties, or a record of survey.

A map filed with the county recording authority depicting the results of a survey, including monuments found or set, bearings, distances, and ties, as required by state statute.

A document filed to record the location and description of a corner monument, often including ties to nearby permanent objects and the method used to determine the position.

A method of describing land by starting at a known point and following a sequence of courses (bearings) and distances around the perimeter, closing back to the point of beginning.

The starting point of a metes-and-bounds description from which all courses are run and to which the boundary must return. Its location must be tied to a recoverable monument or reference.

The horizontal direction of a line, expressed as an angle measured from a reference meridian such as north or south, toward east or west, in degrees, minutes, and seconds.

A horizontal direction expressed as an angle measured clockwise from a reference direction, usually north, through 360 degrees. Unlike a bearing, it does not require a quadrant letter.

A series of connected survey lines whose lengths and directions are measured to determine the positions of points. It may be closed, closed on a known point, or open.

The difference between a computed position and a known or starting position in a traverse. It is expressed as a linear error or a ratio of error to perimeter length.

The northing (latitude) and easting (departure) components of a course, computed from its length and bearing. Summing them around a closed traverse reveals the misclosure.

A permanently marked point of known elevation, often set by a government agency, used as a reference for vertical control in leveling and topographic surveys.

The process of determining elevation differences between points by taking backsight and foresight rod readings on a level instrument set between them, then reducing the readings.

A reference surface from which elevations are measured, such as the North American Vertical Datum of 1988. It fixes the zero elevation used for all heights in an area.

A system of planar coordinate zones defined for each state, based on a map projection, allowing survey positions to be expressed in feet or meters on a grid.

A mathematical transformation that converts positions on the curved earth to positions on a flat map, inevitably introducing scale and direction distortion that must be accounted for.

The distance between two points as measured on a map projection plane, which differs from the ground distance by the combined scale factor.

The ratio between a distance on the projection grid and the corresponding distance on the reference ellipsoid, used to convert between grid and ground distances.

The horizontal distance measured on the earth's surface at the project elevation, as opposed to the distance reduced to the ellipsoid or the projection grid.

A location expressed as latitude and longitude, or as state plane coordinates, referenced to a defined datum and ellipsoid rather than to local monuments.

A boundary formed by a water body, such as a river or stream, where the location of the boundary may shift with gradual changes in the water's position.

The gradual and imperceptible addition of land along a water boundary through natural deposition. Under the common-law doctrine, the boundary moves with the water.