Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 6, March 26, 2024
A.
Professional competency and performance: A surveyor shall provide
competent representation to the client, their employer and the public interest.
Competent surveying practice requires the knowledge, skill, thoroughness, and
preparation reasonably necessary for the engagement including the assessment of
which his/her skills, knowledge and experience befits the needs of the client
and to advise or otherwise direct or decline the work based on that assessment
of their personal and professional competency.
B.
Types of Surveying:
(1)
Boundary surveying is the
determination, description, portraying, measuring or monumentation of the
boundaries of a tract of land and reflecting the relationship of the boundaries
of the surveyed property (i.e. contiguity, gaps, or overlaps) with its
adjoiners, where ascertainable from record documents or from field evidence
gathered during the process of conducting the survey of the property being
surveyed. If the surveyed property is composed of multiple parcels, the extent
of any gaps or overlaps between those parcels shall be identified.
(2)
Improvement location
reporting is the preparation of a report which complies with all of the
requirements and limitations of an improvement location report as set forth in
12.8.2.10
NMAC, and which is issued to a title, abstract or escrow company or a lending
institution for their exclusive use in determining such things as insurability
or value of a tract of land.
(3)
Topographic surveying is the measurement and portrayal of the
configuration of the ground or the location and description of objects thereon.
It can include the plotting and description of property boundary monuments and
property lines on a topographic map. Unless a boundary survey is being
conducted simultaneously, only existing monuments found at the time of the
survey are shown, and no boundary monuments are set; and the following words
are prominently shown on the topographic map: THIS IS NOT A BOUNDARY SURVEY OR
A RIGHT-OF-WAY SURVEY. APPARENT PROPERTY CORNERS, RIGHT-OF-WAY LINES, OR
PROPERTY LINES AS SHOWN ARE DERIVED FROM RECORD SURVEY PLATS, RIGHT-OF-WAY
MAPS, OR DEEDS REFERENCED HEREON AND ARE NOT GUARANTEED OR TO BE RELIED ON FOR
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF PROPERTY LINES.
(4)
Easement surveying is the
description, portrayal, or monumentation of easement(s) only.
(5)
Right-of-way surveying is
boundary surveying of existing right-of-way lines, which may include the
boundary survey of adjoining property lines, for locating existing or proposed
right-of-way.
(6)
Condominium
surveying- when performing or preparing a survey that falls under the
Condominium Act (Article 7B), the survey requirements (Article 47-7B-9 or
subsequent amendments) of said act shall be the standards to which the survey
shall be held.
(7)
Preparation of legal descriptions- the preparation of legal
descriptions is a form of surveying and, other than the citing of a lot or
parcel for reference or identification purposes of a duly recorded plat, must
be performed by a licensed professional surveyor.
(8)
An ALTA/NSPS survey is a
boundary survey. Therefore, a plat of survey must be recorded. The filed survey
can be a separate plat and need not include all the detail of the ALTA/NSPS
survey but only the improvements affecting the boundary are required to be
shown (See Subsection J of
12.8.2.9
NMAC).
(9)
Control
surveying is the establishment of horizontal or vertical controls which
will be the basis for future phases of a project including, but not limited to:
extraction of geospatial data, engineering design projects, construction
staking, surveys to layout horizontal and vertical alignments, topographic
surveys using field methods, collection of topographic and planimetric data
using photogrammetric methods and construction surveys of engineering or
architectural public works projects.
(10)
Unclassified surveying is
surveying not defined above.
C.
"Dimensions means" the
direction, expressed either as a bearing or an azimuth, and the length of a
survey line.
D.
"Easement
means" a right that the public, a person or an entity holds in the land
of another.
E.
"Monument
means" an object intended to mark a property boundary or a point of
reference.
F.
"Surveyor
means" a professional surveyor licensed under the Engineering and
Surveying Practice Act.
G.
"Tract or lot means" a parcel of land in separate ownership, where
a unique parcel identification number(s) has been or will be assigned by the
county in which the tract or lot is situated. It can also be a leasehold set
off for separate ownership or a leasehold for other uses.
H.
"Supplemental surveying work
means" surveying work performed in order to densify, augment and enhance
previously performed surveying work or site information but excludes the
surveying of real property for the establishment of land boundaries, rights of
way, easements and the dependent or independent surveys or resurveys of the
public land system.
I.
"GPS" is global positioning system, a.k.a. GNSS.
J.
"Classes of surveys":
(1)
"Urban means" a survey
within or adjoining a municipality or a survey, regardless of location, of land
zoned for or intended for use for multifamily, commercial or industrial
purposes.
(2)
"Suburban
means" a survey, which is not an urban survey, of land zoned for or
intended for use for residential purposes.
(3)
"Rural means" a survey,
which is neither an urban nor suburban survey.
K.
"Positional error means" the
error inherent in setting or measuring from a monument and is added to the
error expressed as a ratio for a closed traverse.
L. "Positional accuracy" is an assessment of
the closeness of the location of spatial objects in relation to their true
positions geospatially.
M. "GNSS"
is global navigational satellite system, a.k.a. GPS or global positioning by
satellites.
N.
"Geospatial" is the relative position of features on, above, or
below the earth's surface defined by a localized or globalized
system.
O.
"OPUS" is
the online positioning user service as provided by the national geodetic
survey, national oceanic atmospheric administration, United States (U.S.)
government.
P.
"Digital
geospatial data" is data in addition to, or as an alternative to,
written or drawn media containing geospatially referenced electronic or
computerized data, including land information systems (LIS) and geographic
information systems (GIS). It includes data such as produced by optical and
digital photographic comparison, scanners, lidar or radar, laser, infrared or
ultrasonic measuring and UAV/UAS/airborne sensors
Q.
"Basis of Bearing" is the
basis of bearings or azimuth used in the survey and required to be depicted for
boundary surveys, easement surveys, right-of-way surveys, ALTA/NSPS surveys and
control surveys and shall be shown and based upon:
(a) New Mexico (NM) state plane grid
coordinates with specifics to horizontal datum, zone, and convergence angle if
pertinent;
(b) a specific line
between two points either found or re-established set points as shown on an
existing filed plat or included as part of a deed description;
(c) measured and published geodetic control
values based upon an online position user service (OPUS) solution or geodetic
control stations;
(d) a
longitudinal line is acceptable using GPS or GNSS observations or other means
for determining the longitude of a basis of bearings as long as the
longitudinal value is published on the survey with the method used in
determining the longitude;
(e) "GPS
North" or similar notations without explanation as described above is
unacceptable; and the use of "assumed bearings" is prohibited.
A basis of bearings for legal descriptions and unclassified
surveys is required only if the performing surveyor determines it is necessary
for others to retrace the survey.
