Colorado The advent of laser levels and surveying instruments makes surveying easier than ever allowing one person to do simple surveys such as stream channel cross-sections and channel slope measurements. Laser levels project a beam in a circular plane through a rotating prism. A special leveling rod with a detector is moved up or down until the beam intersects it.
New technology offers many advantages.
At the same time surveyors need to remember that basic surveying principles are unaltered by the new equipment. This is especially true regarding error trapping and equipment checking. Even with a laser level it is wise to run a closed level loop to verify that the data is within accepted standards. Check the calibration of the instrument each time you use it. Do the standard two peg test or set the laser up, take a reading on a fixed point, rotate the instrument 90 degrees and take a second reading on the fixed point repeating this procedure as you rotate the instrument 180 and 270 degrees.