NC Land Surveyor key terms

The level of skill, diligence, and judgment that a reasonably competent surveyor practicing in the same community under similar circumstances would exercise. It is the legal benchmark used to judge negligence claims.

A law setting the maximum time after an event, or after its discovery, within which a lawsuit may be filed. For surveyors it limits how long a client may sue over alleged errors.

A statutory claim against a property securing payment for surveying services that improved it. The surveyor must follow state filing, notice, and deadline requirements to keep the lien enforceable.

A scaled drawing showing the boundaries, monuments, and related features of a parcel, usually recorded in public land records. Recording gives notice of the boundaries to later purchasers.

Legal notice imputed to the public by recording a document in the proper office, whether or not anyone actually reads it. Recorded plats and deeds give constructive notice of their contents.

A nonpossessory right held by one party to use another person's land for a specific purpose, such as access or utilities. It may be appurtenant to a parcel or held in gross.

A doctrine allowing a person who openly, exclusively, continuously, and hostilely occupies land for the statutory period to acquire title, subject to state-specific conditions and exceptions.

Rights of owners of land bordering a watercourse to reasonable use of the water and to accretions, generally limited by reasonable-use rules and public-trust principles.

The principle that among overlapping or conflicting boundary claims, the earlier-established boundary or conveyance generally prevails. Later surveys and deeds must respect the senior line.

A boundary description that defines a parcel by courses, distances, and called-for monuments, beginning and ending at a known point. It is common in North Carolina deeds.

A physical object, natural or artificial, that marks a boundary corner or line and is called for in a deed or plat. Monuments generally control over stated distances and directions.

Legal guidelines courts apply to resolve conflicting deed elements, typically ranking natural monuments first, then artificial monuments, then courses and distances, then area.

Testimony or documents outside the written deed offered to explain ambiguities or establish the location of boundaries. Courts limit its use to clarifying, not contradicting, the written instrument.

A doctrine under which adjoining owners who are uncertain about their true line agree on a boundary and treat it as binding. It usually requires uncertainty plus acquiescence or possession.

A survey line run along a water body to determine its approximate position for computing area. It is not itself the boundary of the upland, which usually extends to the water under state law.

A fractional subdivision of a Public Land Survey System section described in halves and quarters, such as the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter. Used to describe land in public-land states.

A survey that follows and re-establishes an existing boundary as originally created, seeking to recover the original monument positions rather than to create a new line.

A series of connected survey lines whose lengths and directions are measured to determine the coordinates of points. A closed traverse returns to its starting point so error can be checked.

The difference between the sum of measured traverse angles and the geometrically required sum. It indicates angular error and is distributed before coordinates are computed.

An electronic instrument combining an electronic distance meter and a theodolite to measure angles and distances to a target, recording the data for later coordinate computation.

Real-time kinematic satellite positioning in which a base station or correction network sends fixes to a rover, producing centimeter-level coordinates in the field.

A procedure using a level and graduated rods to determine elevation differences between points by taking backsight and foresight readings and carrying elevations forward from a benchmark.

The offset between the effective reflecting point of a prism assembly and its physical mounting point, entered into the instrument to correct measured distances. A mismatch causes systematic distance error.

Precision describes how closely repeated measurements agree with each other; accuracy describes how close they are to the true value. A precise set of measurements can still be biased.

A gross, human-caused mistake such as a misread rod or an incorrect target height. Unlike random error, blunders cannot be averaged out and must be detected and removed.

A fixed point of known elevation, often a brass disk set in stable ground or a structure, used as a reference for leveling and vertical control.

The equipotential surface of Earth's gravity field that approximates mean sea level and is extended through the continents. Orthometric heights are measured relative to it.

A mathematically defined, flattened sphere used as the reference surface for geodetic coordinates and satellite positioning. It approximates the shape of the Earth but is not the geoid.

A defined reference framework, including an ellipsoid and its tie to the Earth, used as the basis for horizontal or vertical coordinates. NAD83 and NAVD88 are common examples.

A system of projected coordinate zones designed so that grid distances closely match ground distances. North Carolina uses a single zone based on the Lambert Conformal Conic projection.

The ratio between a distance on the mapping grid and the corresponding distance on the ellipsoid. Combined with an elevation factor, it converts between grid and ground distances.

In GIS, the set of rules defining spatial relationships such as adjacency, connectivity, and containment among features. It supports quality checking and network analysis.

Descriptive information about a dataset covering its source, accuracy, coordinate system, and date. It lets users judge whether the data are suitable for a particular purpose.

An aerial image geometrically corrected so that scale is uniform and terrain displacement is removed, allowing it to serve as a map base for measuring positions.

The earthwork process of removing soil where existing ground lies above design grade (cut) and adding material where it lies below (fill), balanced to minimize haul distance.

The field procedure of marking planned points, lines, or grades on the ground from design coordinates so construction can proceed. Also called setting out.

A survey performed after construction to document the actual location and elevation of improvements relative to the design, often required for permitting and record drawings.

A circular or spiral transition connecting two tangent alignments in plan view, defined by radius, degree of curve, tangent length, and other elements used for staking.

The slope of a line or surface expressed as a percentage, ratio, or decimal, showing vertical change per horizontal unit. It is used to set elevations for drainage and construction.