Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Online Database of section corner locations

Update: We actually went ahead and did it. Go here to upload and download section corner latitudes and longitudes.

Once we all have the ability to have a single coordinate for every point in a county by eliminating the modified state plane calculations is it time to have a single database of locations available to everyone?

Lancaster and Sarpy counties have coordinates at their section corners that are publicly available in some way, shape, manner or form.  However, they don't accept positions from surveyors.

I would suggest that (as we transition from autonomous position to valid NAD83(2011) positions) we create a statewide online database of corner positions.  We all currently punch in the surrounding surveys to generate "search" coordinates so a single database online wouldn't be much different.

I would propose submitting latitude, longitude and height, as well as a description for each corner located, as long as the corner is correctly tied to 83(11) and has a long enough occupation time to give a good confidence level.

My thought would be to name the corners something like this:
TTRRNDX where the TT is township North (01-32), RR is range West (01-55) with ranges East having an add of 70.  So, Range 1 East would be 71, 14 East is 84, etc.
The NDX is an index number that is similar to the systems Kansas and Colorado use.
Kansas has a requirement to file corner ties that conform to their standards.
Here's their website that begins the process to see ties.  In the upper area put in 13 South, 25 East and it shows the number of corner records in a portion of Kansas City.  The recovery form is here.
Colorado is a little different than Kansas.  Their numbering is the same but letters run from bottom to top A-Z.
Here's an example of the Colorado recovery report form, and here's the index they use.

My thought is to use letter-number-number similar to Kansas.  The Northwest Corner of the township would be A01.  Here is the index sheet I currently use when I submit corner reports (with my surveys) to the repository.  A sample of my corner report at the repository is here.

For example, the center of section 16, T5N, R6W would be 0506L11
The West 1/16 Corner for sections 25 and 36, T1N, R18E would be 0188V22

All standard sixteenth corners can be indexed this way.

Other ideas?

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