Pennsylvania
Land Surveying Institute
The Pennsylvania Land Surveying Institute (PLS Institute) is a hub for recorded webinars on essential topics to the surveying profession.
All PLS Institute recorded webinars are eligible for credit/Professional Development Hours (PDHs) in Pennsylvania. We hope this allows you to learn and earn credit/PDHs when it is most convenient, to help further your professional development at your own pace. The PLS Institute will consistently be adding new archived webinars to the hub so check back in regularly.
​
How it works: Once you have purchased a webinar, we will need to verify that payment has been made in full. Once payment is confirmed, the recording and a completion form will be emailed within 48 hours. After watching the webinar, please fill out the completion form and send it back to psls@psls.org to receive your certificate. Please allow 7-10 business days to receive the certificate. Also, please note that the only person who will receive credit for the webinar is the one whose PSLS profile the webinar was purchased under. If you have any questions, please email the PSLS office at psls@psls.org or call 717-412-1946.
Description:
Topics covered in this webinar include:
-Types of Title Acquired by Railroads
-Regulation of Abandonment
-Determining Abandonment
-Discontinuance of Railroad Rather than Abandonment
-Railbanking
-Constitutionality of Rails to Trails
-Prescriptive Easement vs. Adverse Possession of a Road Crossing
-Interpretation of Documents Creating Railroad’s Original Interest
-Meaning of a Right-of-Way
-Railroad is a Highway
-Fences Along Railroad Right-of-Ways
-ICC Instruction for Railroad Maps
-Railroad Guage-Distance Between Tracks-Basis of Horizontal and Vertical Datum
Description: This webinar will discuss the basics of easements and rights-of-way, as well as explore unusual, difficult and interesting situations that you may (or may not) have run into
Description:
Special Virtual Seminar: Roadways, Public & Private (Rights of Way) - Understanding, Identification, & Retracement
The failure of practitioners to identify, locate, and delineate road easements is a major source of title problems, liability for the surveyor, and the cause of problems for clients. This seminar will cover the research, identification, allowable use, creation, extinguishment, location, and delineation of easements.
Description: For many years, the central figure in professional surveying was the licensed individual. But with emerging technology being a driving force for most surveying tasks being completed, the overall need for technically competent field and office surveyors has become the number one priority for employers. Training and testing utilizing the NSPS Certified Survey Technician (CST) program can help employees and employers alike determine one’s ability and competence within the surveying profession. This webinar provides an overview of the program as well as offering strategies for encouraging current and future technicians to see the value of certification in which to build their career.
Description: This session will explore long term trends that have led to current land surveying industry workforce conditions. Training is a major element of any workforce development plan. PSLS can support its members by sponsoring and hosting ongoing technician training. The NSPS Certified Surveying Technician program equips employers with tools to enhance their workforce development efforts.
Description: This webinar provides an overview of the Rational peak flow equation. Topics include selection of runoff coefficients, computation of the watershed time of concentration, selection of the critical rainfall intensity and the application of the method through an example problem. The outcomes of the webinar include knowing how to select runoff coefficients, understanding the role of time of concentration, knowing how to determine the critical rainfall intensity and knowing how to apply the Rational equation to a watershed.
Description: This webinar introduces the Manning’s equation for the analysis of open channel flow in streams, manmade trapezoidal channels, and circular pipes. Four forms of the equation commonly used in stormwater management will be presented. Several example problems using the equation will be covered. These examples include the analysis of channel flow capacity, the analysis of runoff travel time in a channel or pipe, and sizing channels and pipes for runoff conveyance.
Description: This session is intended to be an introduction to professional ethics for land surveyors in Pennsylvania. The Code of Ethics included within the Engineer, Surveyor, and Geologist Registration Law will be reviewed, as well as ethical codes from other surveying and engineering professional organizations.
Description: This webinar presents methods to estimate preliminary detention pond volumes necessary for land development projects. The following topics are described and applied: (1) NOAA Atlas 14 rainfall design storms, (2) NRCS Curve Number Method for runoff depths, (3) NRCS Velocity Method for time of concentration, (4) NRCS peak flow estimation method, and (5) preliminary detention storage volumes. Participants should download the webinar notes from the PSLS website and have them available for use during the webinar. Participants should also have a calculator and a small straight edge for reading charts.
Description: This webinar will discuss employee and employer best practices and regulatory requirements when working around vehicular traffic. Subjects include:
-Hazards of working near vehicular traffic.
-General Traffic Control Practices
-Introduction to the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices and PennDOT publication 213.
-OSHA Regulations 1926.200(g) and 1926.201(a)
Description: As a consequence of boundary surveying services, the surveyor will often discover gaps or overlaps. This workshop will discuss how to deal with gaps and overlaps. The workshop will focus on junior/senior rights involving overlaps in the record title. The workshop will also cover associated issues that have an impact on the location of boundaries and junior/senior rights.
Description: Applying the Rules of Construction requires the surveyor to properly identify and apply evidence, logic, and presumptions when locating boundaries. This presentation will review common rules of construction and typical information surveyors have at their disposal when locating boundaries. The presentation will cover how presumptions and logic help determine the use and usefulness of the evidence as applied to the Rules of Construction.
Description: A surveyor is often required to evaluate information in determining a boundary location. Some information may be useful but cannot be used at trial. Other information suffers from some deficiency that requires the surveyor evaluate and use the information cautiously. This workshop will focus on the types, admissibility, scope, and practical use of evidence in determining boundaries.
Description: In the session, we will discuss the process by which eminent domain is employed, the manner in which damages owed to the owners of taken lands are calculated, the means by which a landowner can challenge a taking, as well as the role that land surveyors play in the eminent domain process.
).png)
*Note: This webinar is mostly audio only and does not have slides.
​
Description: As a consequence of boundary surveying services, the surveyor will often discover gaps or overlaps. This workshop will discuss how to deal with gaps and overlaps. The workshop will focus on junior/senior rights involving overlaps in the record title. The workshop will also cover associated issues that have an impact on the location of boundaries and junior/senior rights.
Description: Explains boundary retracement principles and procedures known as the Rules of Construction. The seminar will review the rules of construction as they apply to surveying practice. Priority of evidence, analysis of evidence, and reporting of a defensible opinion will be explained.
).png)
Description: A review of the PSLS "Standards of Practice" document.