Over the last few years we have a seen a huge number of exciting new hardware and software products come on to the market in measured building surveying. Many of these offer detailed data collection using laser scanning or photogrammetry with very simple interfaces and boast the ability for anyone to collect data.
This has led to a growth in the number of people without a surveying education using devices that would have historically been used only by a trained surveyor. This is possible because processes like registration (the positioning of scans in their correct relationship to each other) are starting to be possible in a partially automated fashion in real time while a user moves around a site. Photogrammetry, using smart devices or purpose made hardware, is even more straight forward and has the potential to be even more widespread.
These technologies are being actively marketed to companies and people outside the traditional survey industry creating an army of site operatives, consultants and clients who are collecting survey data to use during projects. You could call this crowdsourcing the projects surveys.
Is this a threat or an opportunity for traditional measured surveying companies? One could easily argue that it poses an existential threat to surveyors, and for some who ignore this development of the market we work in it may well be just that. I prefer to look at it in a much more positive light. This is an opportunity for surveyors to redefine themselves as a new more integrated partner working inside the project team. The reliance on positional accuracy before we build and verification after we have built is already recognised as one of the components for the smooth and economic progress of a project for obvious reasons, and surveyors could sit at the heart of the process of ensuring positional certainty.
Since I have been at SUMO I have found an increasing interest in the role that surveyors can play throughout a project from contractors and clients. This phenomenon is in my view a consequence of the continued influence of level 2 BIM process and practices which seek to involve all the participants in a project to capture the value and benefit of their knowledge.
There is no arguing that this opportunity to integrate is good for surveyor’s business in construction and yet most still pursue work on a job by job basis even when inside a supply chain. If surveyors can move towards being an integrated member of the team, contributing to the planning and execution, of the project during the whole duration, the perception of their value will increase and their ability to influence the course of projects will increase too.
How could this manifest itself in an environment of crowdsourced survey data? The answer lies in the problem that data from many different sources of many different qualities needs to be classified with what it can be used for.
The obvious and important role that surveyors can fill is planning the processes for collecting survey data and equally importantly in verifying the data. This does not mean surveyors won’t also still be collecting survey information like they always have, but I could see the practical work being more focused on establishing the framework to allow crowdsourced data to be audited, coordinated and verified for appropriate suitability by the surveyor, so establishing the possible use cases for each survey fragment. This positive vision of the survey professional’s future sits at the heart of a project team and focusses on the value that surveyors professional training offers.
Like many changes that the ongoing digitalisation of our industry technology brings crowdsourced survey data may lead to a rapid evolution of the role surveyors play in a project. We need to embrace the opportunity and move forwards to ensure the sustainability of our future.
About the Author: Formerly a designer, Robert joined SUMO in 2015. He is a passionate advocate of Level 2 BIM. He is engagement lead for Survey4BIM and has been variously involved in UKBIM Alliance and BIM4SME. He is also Race Director for Little Britain Challenge Cup, the annual construction and property regatta.