KY Land Surveyor cheat sheet

Kentucky follows the general rule that a surveyor may locate and monument boundaries but may not convey title; boundary location is a judicial question, and the surveyor's opinion is evidence, not a conveyance.

Priority of calls in Kentucky retracement: natural monuments, then artificial monuments, then courses and distances, then area or quantity; area yields first when it conflicts with monuments.

Adverse possession in Kentucky requires actual, hostile, open and notorious, exclusive, and continuous possession for 15 years (KRS 413.010); color of title plus 7 years of possession is not the Kentucky rule.

KRS 322 governs licensure of land surveyors in Kentucky; practice or offer to practice without a license is unlawful, and the Board of Licensure may impose fines, suspension, or revocation.

An easement by prescription in Kentucky requires continuous use for the 15-year statutory period, and use is presumed permissive where the use is not adverse or not known to the servient owner.

Riparian boundaries: Kentucky follows the common-law rule for navigable streams that gradual accretion belongs to the riparian owner while avulsion (sudden change) does not move the boundary.

Kentucky recognizes boundary by acquiescence and practical location where adjoining owners treat a line as the boundary for a long period, even absent a written agreement.

A recorded plat or deed controls over an unrecorded survey; constructive notice arises from recording in the county clerk's office, and unrecorded interests may be cut off under KRS 382.

Retracement does not create new boundaries; it re-establishes the original survey by recovering original monuments, and the original government survey corners control over later resurvey measurements.

Proportionate measurement is used to restore a lost corner between two existing corners by distributing the record distance error in proportion to the measured distances to each controlling corner.

Single-proportion method restores a lost corner on a line between two found corners; double-proportion restores a lost corner at the intersection of two lines when corners exist at both ends of each line.

A found original monument (e.g., a marked stone or bearing tree) is conclusive over a record bearing or distance; a record distance that conflicts with a monument is held erroneous.

Meander lines along a watercourse do not bound the tract; they are approximations for area computation, and the water itself is the boundary unless the deed states otherwise.

When a deed calls for a monument that is missing but reliably witnessed by bearing trees or accessories, the accessory evidence may be used to re-establish the corner position.

Closing a boundary requires that the traverse close within acceptable error; a misclose indicates a blunder or systematic error, and the angular and linear misclose should be distributed by compass or transit rule.

Total station horizontal angles are measured in theodolite mode and distances by EDM; the instrument and prism constants must be set to the same values, and the atmospheric correction factor is applied to EDM distances.

Traverse closure: linear misclose = sqrt((sum of latitudes)^2 + (sum of departures)^2); relative precision = perimeter / linear misclose.

GNSS RTK provides centimeter-level positions in a local datum after transformation from WGS84; the base station must be on a known point or a network RTK service must be used.

Static GNSS observations require longer occupation times than RTK, and the baseline vector is processed in the WGS84 reference frame for accuracy.

Leveling loop misclose is compared to the allowable error; the allowable error for ordinary leveling is often expressed as 0.05 ft times the square root of the distance in miles.

Photogrammetry and LiDAR produce point clouds that must be georeferenced to control; checkpoints not used in the adjustment validate the accuracy of the derived surface.

A digital elevation model (DEM) represents bare-earth terrain; a digital surface model (DSM) includes vegetation and structures, and the two are not interchangeable for drainage or earthwork computations.

Latitude = distance * cos(bearing); departure = distance * sin(bearing); the sum of latitudes and departures around a closed traverse should equal zero.

For a closed traverse, the compass rule distributes the misclose in proportion to the length of each course; the transit rule distributes it in proportion to the latitude and departure magnitudes.

State Plane Coordinates: the Kentucky State Plane Coordinate System uses the Lambert Conformal Conic projection; the scale factor is the product of the grid scale factor and the elevation factor.

Grid distance = ground distance * combined scale factor; combined scale factor = grid scale factor * elevation factor, where elevation factor = R / (R + h).

The Kentucky State Plane Coordinate System is divided into a north and south zone, each with its own central meridian, standard parallels, and false easting and northing.

Conversion between geographic coordinates and State Plane coordinates uses the projection equations; the inverse transformation returns latitude and longitude from grid coordinates.

Azimuth = bearing measured clockwise from north; bearing is measured from north or south toward east or west and is always between 0 and 90 degrees.

A subdivision plat must show the boundary of the tract, lot lines, lot areas, street rights-of-way, easements, and the surveyor's certificate; the plat is recorded in the county clerk's office.

Kentucky subdivision regulations are administered by local planning commissions under KRS Chapter 100; the surveyor should confirm local plat requirements before recording.

Contours connect points of equal elevation; the contour interval is the vertical distance between adjacent contours, and steeper terrain produces closer contours.

Vertical curves are parabolic; the high or low point occurs where the grade changes sign, and the offset from the tangent is computed from the curve length and the algebraic difference in grades.

Horizontal curve elements: R (radius), L (length) = R * delta (in radians), T (tangent) = R * tan(delta/2), and the degree of curve for a 100-ft arc = 5729.58 / R.

Earthwork volumes may be computed by the average end area method (V = L * (A1 + A2) / 2) or by the prismoidal formula for greater accuracy.

Easements on a plat must be clearly labeled with their purpose and width; a plat that fails to show required easements may be rejected by the planning commission.

The surveyor's seal and signature on a plat or report certify that the work was performed under the surveyor's responsible charge; sealing work not performed or supervised by the licensee is a violation.

A surveyor must disclose conflicts of interest and may not accept compensation from more than one party for the same service without the knowledge and consent of all parties.

Confidential client information must be protected; the surveyor may not disclose client data without consent except where required by law or court order.

Continuing professional competency is required for license renewal in Kentucky; the Board sets the required hours and the acceptable categories of continuing education.

A surveyor who discovers an error in a prior survey should notify the client and, where the error affects the public or other parties, may have a duty to disclose to the affected parties.

The surveyor should clearly state the purpose and limitations of the survey in the report; a boundary survey is not a title opinion, and the surveyor should not represent it as one.

Solicitation of work by competitive bidding is permitted, but the surveyor must not misrepresent qualifications, experience, or the scope of services offered.

Records, field notes, and computations should be retained for the period required by the Board and made available to the client or successor surveyor upon request.