GIS and Land Surveying in Grand Rapids, MI

Surveying establishes legal boundaries and construction layout. GIS is a mapping and records system that uses location data, often including GPS field points, to manage assets and information over time. Surveying often feeds data into GIS, but the two serve different purposes.

The phrase gets used loosely, and the distinction matters. A survey is licensed work that establishes boundaries, elevations, and layout. GIS data collection records asset locations using GPS so they can be managed in a mapping system. F&V does both, and keeps them separate on paper because they answer different questions.

A topographic survey documenting ground features, elevations, utilities, and surface conditions across the project area. It becomes the base map the design is drawn on, which is why it comes before design rather than alongside it.

When a commercial or institutional property is changing hands and the lender or title company wants a survey that meets national standards. F&V prepares ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveys, including on expedited schedules when a closing date is set.

Yes. F&V translates design plans into field layout so that contractors place infrastructure where the drawings indicate.

F&V inspectors go out after the project is finished, document the new infrastructure with GPS, and upload the data directly into your GIS. Keeping records up to date after a project closes is the phase most communities fall behind on.

Yes. F&V can create mobile forms for consistent data entry, then either collect the data or train your team to do it using standard ESRI field tools including Collector, Field Maps, and Survey123.

Final locations, elevations, and conditions of what was actually constructed, which is rarely identical to what was drawn. On Mackinac Island, F&V used LiDAR to produce as-built documentation supporting a wastewater plant capacity expansion.

Yes. F&V sets horizontal and vertical control networks.

Yes. Survey and GIS crews work statewide from eight Michigan offices, including recent projects in Albion, Belding, Cedar Creek Township, and Mackinac Island.