, recognized March 15–21, celebrates the essential role surveyors play in measuring, mapping and understanding our world. This year’s theme, “Celebrating 250 Years of Mapping America,” honors the profession’s long history — while also recognizing how surveying continues to evolve alongside new technologies.
Advancements such as LiDAR and drone‑based data collection are shaping the next chapter of that evolution. These tools enhance accuracy, improve safety and accelerate project delivery, giving surveyors new ways to gather meaningful spatial data while reducing risk in the field.
A New Era of Surveying
Historically, surveying required crews to physically access project sites and manually collect data points — often over extended periods of time. Today, LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) enables surveyors to capture millions of data points in a single scan, producing highly detailed 3D models of real‑world environments with remarkable efficiency.
While the tools have changed, the mission remains the same: delivering reliable, precise and actionable spatial information. Modern survey technologies simply make that mission easier to achieve — and often in ways that are safer and more efficient for field teams.
- Safer: Reduces the need for personnel to enter hazardous or hard‑to‑reach areas such as levees, bridge structures, unstable terrain or industrial sites.
- Faster: Enables data collection in days instead of weeks or months.
- Smarter: Produces richer datasets that support better planning, engineering and environmental decision‑making.
Integrating Drones with Geophysics
Drone‑based technologies have become especially valuable in geophysical applications. Drone platforms enable teams to safely collect ultra‑high‑resolution data at low altitudes, improving spatial density and signal quality while minimizing ground disturbance.
Drone‑based surveys also offer repeatability, allowing teams to monitor changes over time and detect conditions that might otherwise go unnoticed. While considerations such as weather, airspace restrictions and flight endurance must be factored in, the strongest.
Cagatay “Ty” Atmaca
Cagatay “Ty” Atmaca
Geophysics Practice Team Manager and Project Geophysicist
Cagatay “Ty” Atmaca is a geophysicist with more than 15 years of experience in applied geophysics and three years of specialized experience in drone-based geophysical surveying. He has led several drone geophysics projects focused on locating orphan wells in Arizona and California, utilizing advanced systems such as the IF1200A drone platform equipped with the MagArrow II magnetometer.
Ty has played a key role in integrating drone technology with traditional geophysical methods to improve the efficiency and safety of subsurface investigations. His work has supported major environmental initiatives by helping identify buried orphan wells and assess potential methane emissions. In addition to orphan well investigations, he has also applied drone-based geophysics to landfill studies and environmental site assessments, using high-resolution aerial data to support site characterization and monitoring. Ty continues to advance the use of drone technologies in geophysics through field applications, conference participation, and technical presentations.