The importance of diversity in survey teams’ skills and technology
At Woods, our survey team prides ourselves on having the latest technologies and being leaders in our industry in the use and application of these. We have 8-10 specialists in different areas which allows us to choose the best tool, or combination of tools, for each job. You won’t come across too many companies in New Zealand with the cross-section of technologies and skills that Woods has within one company.
Combining survey technology with specialist understanding of the technology
One of our key strengths at Woods is that our surveyors are not just button pushers; we’re not just buying the latest new ‘toys’ for the sake of it. We work to understand each technology’s limitations, its abilities, its applications, and how to use it in the right way. Our surveyors use technology with the specialist understanding of that technology.
GPS is still something of a ‘black box technology’. If used without correct understanding, there is potential for quite significant errors to occur in the data with GPS. Our surveyors understand how to use GPS in a way that makes them a surveyor, rather than someone who's just pushing buttons. Woods regularly run sessions on how to minimise. or mitigate errors, and have confidence in the data staff are bringing back from GPS.
The underlying principles of mapping, measurement, and QA are still the same.
Part of our confidence in our data does come from validating the data. Even though we may have used technology to capture the data, we still run all the QA checks and survey processes. We are measuring how accurate the data is and how we have checked it. We are looking to say it’s accurate to a certain percentage, and we’ve determined it’s fit for the end-user or not fit for the end-user and we need to measure again.
In many respects, the data technology captures or the processing of that data could be quite inaccurate and the client will be none the wiser unless a design was counting on one particular part that wasn't accurate. We pride ourselves on ensuring that we are delivering our clients quality, accurate, survey data using a combination of technology and survey principles.
The application of Survey Technology & skills at Woods
Our survey team has the resources needed to apply a variety of technologies to any particular job. The ability to take along GPS, Total Station, a scanner or a UAV gives us the ability to capture data with different methods. For example, if we are capturing the roof of a commercial building, we can put the UAV up for health and safety reasons. If we are walking through a building to capture it for development purposes, we can use a scanner or total stations. In the GIS space, we are presenting this data on web-based maps so that project members and our clients can access the data and use it in project meetings or site meetings.
Most companies will specialise in one area but not another. The fact is that there is no one best tool for a job. Having a range of technologies available allows our team to choose the best tool, or combination of tools, for each job to create the most effective and efficient outcome for our clients.