That is, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times, has become a major concern for people living on the border whose land has not been surveyed correctly:

“The Homeland Security Department last year put up a tall steel barrier across the fields from [Pamela] Taylor’s home. The government calls it the border fence, but it was erected about a quarter-mile north of the Rio Grande, leaving Taylor’s home between the fence and the river. Her two acres now lie on a strip of land that isn’t Mexico but doesn’t really seem like the United States either.”

The issue is one of security for Taylor, according to the article, but it’s also about knowing where her land lies.  With part of America and part of Mexico in her backyard, Taylor’s land is technically in a precarious no man’s land. This occurred because of poor planning by civil engineers and land surveyors.

“But here, where the border’s eastern edge meets the Gulf of Mexico, the urgency of national security met headlong with geographical reality. The Rio Grande twists through Brownsville and surrounding areas, and planners had to avoid building on the flood plain. So the barriers in some places went up more than a mile from the river.While the border fence almost everywhere else divides Mexico and the U.S., here it divides parts of the city.”

Thankfully, a congressman from Michigan was looking out for citizens located in precarious areas, according to a report from WILX:

“In a town hall meeting, Congressman Tim Walberg told Michiganders he introduced a new bill, the Floodplain Maps Moratorium Act. The bill would delay homeowners in newly drawn flood zones from having to purchase flood insurance for five years. “It appears they are in great error and people that never had to purchase flood insurance now have to do that at a great cost,” said Rep. Tim Walberg, (R) Michigan.”

Even though the new law and flood zones drawn by surveyors have made the matter of getting flood insurance easier for citizens, some still aren’t happy with what seems like forced insurance:

“One commissioner [sic] of Eaton County now finds his home to be in a new flood zone, meaning it has a 26 percent chance of flooding during a 30-year mortgage. The commissioner says all but one of the 22 municipalities in Eaton County are negatively affected by the new maps.

FEMA declined to comment on the propsed [sic] legislation. But a state engineer that works with FEMA says the new maps are more accurate. But in some areas, such as Eaton County, the elevation on the topographic map were drawn to 10 foot contour intervals and could be more precise.”

It still stands to be seen whether or not this law will go into effect, but this story shows how important the zoning plans that land surveyors make can be.

The city of New Haven has proposed a controversial measure to deal with the aftermath of storms. According to a story in the New Haven Register, the city has planned a new commission to enforce possible storm taxes:

“The city wants to create a Stormwater Authority, a plan that involves charging a new user fee to homeowners, businesses and nonprofits based on the amount of runoff they generate.

Under the proposed plan, residents would pay a small flat fee, while properties with parking lots and big buildings would pay more. The idea is to switch from a taxpayer-funded system to a user fee-funded system to pay for storm water services such as maintenance, street sweeping, catch basin cleaning and other costs.”

The tax would appropriately tax big corporations and businesses that cause more runoff than regular homes. The article says that the current cost of managing runoff is $2.5 million and apparently this tax would make up for a large amount of that cost.

If this measure passes, it might be wise to hire a CT engineering firm to take a look at your property and find ways to augment the runoff from your business. You might save some money in the long run.

However, surveying isn’t always used for aiding in the construction of buildings and other structures, it can be used as a means for discovery. This is precisely what is occurring in Zacatecas, Mexico, where archaeologists are excavating in El Teul Archeological Zone. El Teul is known for its wealth of artifacts, according to an article in Opti-Cal:

“El Teul, in Zacatecas, is one of the few Mesoamerican sites that was occupied continuously for as long as 18 centuries. Excavations so far have unearthed items including an enormous Prehispanic sculpture of a ballgame player that is thought to have been deliberately created without a head. Historians of the era believe its lack of head could have meant it was used as a pedestal to display the real heads of sacrificed players of the ritual ballgame. Archaeologist Peter Jimenez Betts, who is co-director of the El Teul Archaeological Project, said the abundance of objects is the result from a continued occupation that the hill presented for at least 1,800 years.”

In this special case, land surveying is helping archaeologists discover new elements in the fabric of Mesoamerican history. Artifacts that will potentially be discovered using three dimensional models from total stations might open up new avenues of study in this historic people.