MS Land Surveyor cheat sheet

Deed interpretation priority: natural monuments prevail over artificial monuments, which prevail over courses and distances, which prevail over area, absent contrary deed intent.

An uncertain boundary may be fixed by agreement and acquiescence when adjoining owners treat a line as the boundary and possess to it.

Adverse possession requires actual, open and notorious, exclusive, continuous, and hostile possession for the statutory period.

A prescriptive easement requires open, notorious, adverse, and continuous use for the statutory period; exclusivity is not required.

Accretion is gradual and imperceptible and moves the water boundary; avulsion is sudden and does not move the boundary.

A meander line is not a boundary; it is a reference line used to compute area along a watercourse.

For non-navigable streams, the boundary is generally the thread of the stream; for navigable waters, the ordinary high-water mark or state ownership rule controls.

Mississippi uses a race-notice recording rule: a later purchaser for value without notice who records first prevails over an earlier unrecorded conveyance.

An easement by necessity arises when a parcel is landlocked and access is strictly necessary; it ends when the necessity ends.

Latitude = d cos θ and departure = d sin θ, where θ is the bearing measured clockwise from north.

Linear misclosure = √(Σlatitude² + Σdeparture²); relative precision = misclosure ÷ traverse perimeter.

Area by coordinates: A = ½ |Σ(X_iY_{i+1} − X_{i+1}Y_i)| for a closed polygon.

Arc definition: R = 5729.57795 ÷ D; T = R tan(Δ/2); L = RΔ in radians; LC = 2R sin(Δ/2).

Curve middle ordinate M = R[1 − cos(Δ/2)]; external E = R[sec(Δ/2) − 1].

Orthometric height H = ellipsoid height h − geoid undulation N.

Curvature and refraction correction in feet ≈ 0.0206 D², with D in thousands of feet.

A fixed RTK solution is required for centimeter-level GNSS positioning; float or autonomous solutions are lower accuracy.

Systematic errors, such as a wrong prism constant or atmospheric correction, shift all observations in one direction.

A PLSS township contains 36 sections and is nominally 6 miles square; a regular section is 1 mile square and contains 640 acres.

Section numbering begins at 1 in the northeast corner, runs west, then serpentine east and west to section 36 in the southeast corner.

Fractional lots occur along north and west township boundaries because meridians converge; correction lines absorb measurement error.

Mississippi principal meridians include the Washington, St. Stephens, Choctaw, and Chickasaw meridians.

Mississippi county deeds, plats, and most land records are recorded in the office of the Chancery Clerk.

A chain of title links each grantor to the next grantee back to a common source; a missing link breaks the chain.

Tax maps and assessor records support taxation and mapping but are not proof of title or boundary location.

A federal patent is an original conveyance of public land; later transfers are recorded in county deed books.

Plats generally must be approved and recorded before lots can be conveyed by lot and block reference.

A plat typically shows boundary and lot lines with bearings and distances, monuments, curve data, dedication, scale, north arrow, and surveyor certification.

Scale 1:24,000 means one map unit represents 24,000 of the same units on the ground; 1 inch equals 2,000 feet.

The contour interval is the constant vertical distance between adjacent contour lines; index contours are emphasized periodically.

NAD83 is a horizontal geodetic datum; NAVD88 is a vertical datum; State Plane is a projected coordinate system.

The Mississippi State Plane Coordinate System has East and West zones on a Lambert Conformal Conic projection referenced to NAD83.

A witness corner is a monument placed at a safe offset from the true corner and referenced to it by bearing and distance.

ALTA/NSPS surveys follow a table of optional items and positional tolerances and are not a federal boundary survey.

Control surveys establish horizontal and vertical positions for later mapping and boundary work and should be referenced to published datums.

GIS layers require a defined coordinate reference system and metadata to be spatially meaningful.

Mississippi land surveyors are licensed by the Mississippi Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors.

Licensure requires passing the NCEES Fundamentals of Surveying and Principles and Practice of Surveying exams plus board-approved education and experience.

A licensee may seal only work performed under his or her responsible charge.

Unlicensed practice of land surveying is prohibited; firms may need a certificate of authorization.

Contingent compensation for a boundary opinion is unethical because it compromises objective professional judgment.

A surveyor must practice only within his or her competence and must disclose conflicts of interest.

State Plane coordinates provide a common reference but do not replace boundary monuments or recorded deed calls.

Mississippi board rules require continuing professional competency for license renewal.

A surveyor's certification on a plat represents that the work meets applicable minimum standards and was performed under responsible charge.