Guidelines for the use of electronic survey field notes and CAD computation files as legal records

Abstract

This project seeks to produce a set of guidelines for the use of Electronic Field Notes so that notes in this form may be acceptable as evidence in legal proceedings and disciplinary hearings. The surveyor’s field notes are the only permanent record of work performed in the field other than the actual monument or occupation located or marks placed. It has been traditional that surveyors record their measurements of angle and distance into small paper paged books. These measurements were then collated to produce a plan or map of the boundary or boundaries. Since the invention and advance of the microcomputer and electronic calculator, surveyors have embraced these technologies and used them to collect and store large amounts of measurements, analyse, and determine the position of new and existing boundaries. The guidelines developed from this project will help improve the integrity of the cadastral surveyor’s field notes and alert those using or intending to use electronic field notes of the standards required to enable them to be acceptable as evidence.