GIS professionals, however, want to make the definition more specific.
Surveyors decry any limitation of professional authority.
Their definitions vary, but they typically include the creation, preparation and modification of certain types of data that require licensure of the person in charge. A literal interpretation of many such laws would conclude that agencies with GIS base maps not supervised by licensed surveyors are in violation of the law. GIS professionals regard these laws as exclusionary, prohibiting them from doing the work they've historically been conducting. They believe that the licensure of people qualified to create, maintain and distribute mapped information falls within their domain. Battle Lines Drawn Traditional survey map products such as subdivision plats, legal records of parcel boundaries or construction grading plans clearly are the surveyors' purview.