Knowledge of Legal rules and Regulations - Essay Example

From criteria set by employers alone, it is clear that those in the geomatics profession are expected to be knowledgeable of legal rules and regulations relative to their work, and institutes of higher learning are taking notice. The curriculum design for the Geomatic Engineering Education at the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) in Ghana includes among others Land Law, Law of Contract and Tort.2 On the other hand, survey law, legal surveys procedures, and property rights systems are marked as field skills for geomatics by the Canadian Geomatics Industry, one considered as historically very strong technologically.3. The land surveyors and land survey technicians may have the local land laws as their guide in their work, and student surveyors, their special knowledge of relevant subjects including law.

4 Unquestionably, education in geomatics is evolving and developing.5 Geomatics empl II. Geomatics as serviceGeomatics employs techniques used in land surveying, remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), global positioning system (GPS), and related forms of earth mapping.6 Said to be coined by B. Dubuisson in 1969, the term "geomatics" has its exact definition still shifting. Among so many names, the University of Calgary's web page refers to it as "geomatics engineering." 7 The term, "geomatics," however, has been adopted by the International Organization for Standardization, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and other authorities, while some countries like the United States prefer the term, "geospatial technology.." Geomatics is actually a union of geography and information technology, with the purpose of improving business and policy decision-making, 8 A report of the Federation Internationale des Geometres (FIG) Commission 7 of 1998 reflects the overriding weaknesses of the then-existing cadastral systems as having limited computerization, with inefficient linkage between land registration and cadastral mapping, with incomplete legal framework, sporting little map accuracy, with slow updating, slow customer service, and unsuitable financing model, among other things.

9 Advances in computer technology, however, has enabled the rapid progress of geomatics since the 1990s.10 Due to the ease in procuring and working on spatial referenced data, changes have been rapid in geomatics with forceful impact.11 The geomatician's role of surveying in the 1980's has shifted dramatically from acquiring data to today's total information management.12 With various surveying or mapping disciplines involved in different levels of geo-information, geomatics has become a must in almost all courses all over the globe.13. Geomatics