Accelerating Surveying DX with GPS! What Are the Next-Generation Technologies Revolutionizing Municipal Operations?

1. Basic Knowledge of GPS Surveying and the Evolution of Accuracy

Surveying using GPS (Global Positioning System) is a technology that determines positions on the ground from signals transmitted by satellites. Because GPS originally had errors on the order of several meters, it could not previously be used directly for tasks such as establishing land boundaries or producing design drawings. However, in recent years, advances in satellite positioning technology have dramatically improved accuracy. Receivers that can use multiple GNSS constellations—such as the U.S. GPS, Russia’s GLONASS, Europe’s Galileo, China’s BeiDou, and Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System “Michibiki”—have appeared, increasing positioning stability.

The introduction of real-time kinematic (RTK) methods has been the decisive factor in enhancing accuracy. In RTK, a base station (reference station) placed at a known point and a rover station that moves while surveying simultaneously observe satellite data; correction information from the base station is used to correct errors in real time. As a result, the standalone GPS errors that used to be 5-10 m (16.4-32.8 ft) have been reduced to within a few centimeters (within a few in), enabling centimeter-level high-precision positioning (half-inch accuracy) suitable for surveying. In addition, network RTK using electronic reference points (GNSS continuous observation systems) installed nationwide by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) allows consistent accuracy regardless of region. Moreover, receivers compatible with the centimeter-level augmentation service (CLAS) provided by Japan’s Michibiki can obtain correction signals directly from satellites, maintaining high accuracy even at sites beyond cellular coverage such as mountainous areas. Thanks to these technological innovations, GPS surveying is achieving accuracy comparable to conventional surveying instruments, greatly expanding its applicability to municipal operations.

2. The Role of Surveying in Municipal Operations

Accurate positional information obtained through surveying forms the foundation for virtually all municipal operations. Examples include maintaining records of public facilities—such as the layout of roads and water and sewer infrastructure—in the public facilities ledger, updating base maps used for urban planning and property tax, correcting cadastral maps by confirming land boundaries, and recording damage after disasters. Surveying is required for any task involving location. Data obtained from surveys are reflected in GIS (geographic information systems) and paper maps and are used in road construction design, urban planning, asset management, and disaster prevention map creation. With accurate surveying, municipalities can confidently carry out infrastructure development and resident services.

However, many municipalities have a limited number of specialist surveyors, and they have often relied on external surveying contractors. Even for tasks such as measuring road widths, locating bridges, or confirming land boundaries, precise instruments like total stations operated by experienced technicians were required, which made scheduling and budget allocation time-consuming. Thus, while surveying is central to municipal operations, its technical complexity has traditionally been a bottleneck that consumes time and cost.

3. Why Surveying DX Is Needed Now

In recent years, the need for DX (digital transformation) in municipal operations has increased. The surveying field is no exception; it is time to fundamentally rethink paper-based and labor-intensive methods. Several factors underlie this trend.

First is the issue of workforce shortages and succession of skills. In rural areas, veteran surveying technicians are reaching retirement age one after another, while successors are scarce. With few staff possessing advanced surveying skills, relying on a small number of experts may become unsustainable. Outsourcing to specialists increases costs and makes frequent updates or emergency responses difficult.

Second is the need for operational efficiency. To maintain and improve administrative services with limited budgets and personnel, improving surveying productivity is essential. Processes that used to take days to weeks—surveying → drawing creation → sharing with stakeholders—need to be accelerated using digital technologies.

Additionally, disaster resilience is a major driver. With frequent natural disasters such as heavy rains and earthquakes, municipalities must rapidly ascertain damage and develop precise recovery plans. Traditional methods required sending survey teams into hazardous disaster sites and recording measurements manually or by photographs, causing delays in initial response. Introducing high-precision GPS surveying enables digital measurement of damage from safe locations in a short time, dramatically speeding up initial response.

Finally, national policy support is significant. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) is promoting ICT surveying and 3D data utilization through initiatives such as “i-Construction,” accelerating digitalization of infrastructure nationwide. In this context, municipalities that pursue surveying DX can more easily obtain national subsidies and support. Now is an excellent time to adopt the latest technologies and transform surveying workflows.

4. Six Innovations GPS Positioning Brings to Municipalities

High-precision positioning technologies using GPS and GNSS bring various innovations to municipal fieldwork. Here are six representative benefits.

• Significant efficiency gains and labor savings High-precision GPS dramatically speeds up surveying. Because points can be measured continuously while moving, field surveys that previously required several people and a full day can sometimes be completed by one person within a few hours. This substantially reduces labor and time, allowing a small team to handle more tasks.

• Improved reliability through enhanced data accuracy Obtaining position data with centimeter-level accuracy increases the reliability of maps and ledgers dramatically. Even slight shifts in boundary points can be detected, and precise survey results can be obtained for construction as-built verification. This reduces rework and boundary disputes caused by surveying errors and improves the quality of municipal services.

• Real-time data sharing and faster decision-making By linking GNSS surveying equipment with the cloud, data acquired in the field can be shared with the office instantly. For example, surveyed points can be plotted on a map on-site and checked in real time on office PCs. This smooths information sharing among departments and speeds up workflows so that decisions can already be underway by the time field crews return.

• Enhanced disaster response capabilities and improved safety High-precision GPS revolutionizes disaster response. Even in hazardous disaster zones, it is possible to measure damage extent from safe locations and generate precise maps immediately. Calculating landslide volumes numerically to inform heavy equipment deployment, or recording post-disaster conditions as 3D data for later verification, greatly improves the speed and accuracy of disaster response. Because fewer personnel are needed, staff safety is also enhanced.

• Smarter infrastructure maintenance and management GPS positioning is powerful even in routine infrastructure inspections. When inspecting streetlights or bridge piers, automatically tagging photos with precise latitude, longitude, and timestamps and saving them to the cloud makes locating and sharing issues easy. Analyzing accumulated coordinate data enables advanced maintenance such as detecting bridge settlement in centimeter units (half-inch units). Maintenance management that used to rely on “intuition and experience” evolves into data-driven smart preservation.

• Digital operations that do not require specialized knowledge Whereas operating surveying equipment and performing result calculations once required advanced knowledge, modern GPS surveying tools are increasingly intuitive. On a smartphone or tablet map app, pressing a button can record survey points, and complex calculations are automated. This allows non-specialist departments to perform digital measurements without outsourcing—basically, “anyone can perform a certain level of surveying.” This helps alleviate workforce shortages and accumulate know-how internally.

5. Field-Ready! The Reality of the Latest GPS Surveying Tools

So what kinds of latest GPS surveying tools are actually active in the field? Recent technological advances have made specialized equipment compact and easy to use, and many products usable by field staff have emerged.

The spread of compact high-precision GNSS receivers is a prime example. By attaching an integrated-antenna receiver to the tip of a pole and carrying it, you can record coordinates of a point instantly simply by pausing at that location. Because you no longer need to set up a tripod and measure angles and distances with optical instruments, you can acquire positions while moving, enabling surveys of large areas in short time. Acquired data are displayed on tablets on-site and corrected for error as necessary, so work proceeds while confirming results in the field.

Particularly notable is the approach known as smartphone surveying. Tools that combine modern smartphones with dedicated compact GNSS receivers and an app make centimeter-level positioning possible for anyone just by launching the app. Since smartphones already have GPS, cameras, and various sensors, attaching a positioning device turns the phone into a surveying “set” comparable to traditional specialized equipment. The current location and measured points are displayed on a map on the screen, and precise coordinates can be recorded with a tap. All-in-one surveying apps exist that automatically geotag photos taken on-site and can even draw simple plane diagrams by connecting measured points—truly bringing the era where “a smartphone itself is a surveying instrument.”

Drone surveying is also a powerful tool on site. By equipping small unmanned aerial vehicles with high-precision GNSS and cameras and surveying from the air, you can efficiently map terrain that people cannot access or large areas. RTK-capable drones can correct the position of each photo during flight, enabling creation of high-accuracy orthophotos and 3D point cloud models with few ground control points. What used to take days for topographic surveys can now sometimes be completed by a few hours of flight and automated processing.

Thus, the latest GPS surveying tools combine “ease of use” and “high accuracy,” making them immediately useful in field-oriented municipal operations. Dedicated hardware is becoming smaller and lighter, and software is becoming more user-friendly, reaching a practical level that non-technical staff can handle on site.

6. Implementation Barriers and Practical Steps

Even with excellent technology, there are several barriers when introducing GPS surveying. Here are points for municipalities to realistically advance surveying DX.

• Training personnel and setting up operational systems To master new surveying equipment, educating responsible staff and building an operational structure is indispensable. Fortunately, recent tools are easier to operate, and a few days of training are often enough to make them usable in the field. Still, having staff who understand basic positioning principles and precautions helps in troubleshooting. Participating in training sessions held by manufacturers or vendors, or collaborating with surveying consultants for initial support, is effective. It is also important to establish internal rules about who manages data and how it will be used.

• Equipment selection and balancing cost and effectiveness Choosing equipment and services is a major consideration. GPS surveying devices range from affordable smartphone-mounted receivers to high-performance models capable of long-range communication. Select the optimal solution according to municipal budget and staff skills. Although receiver prices have fallen recently and entry barriers have decreased, initial costs still exist. Therefore, conducting a cost-effectiveness analysis is crucial: estimate how much labor and outsourcing costs can be reduced, and how much rework or errors can be avoided through improved accuracy, to make an informed investment decision. Also consider national and local subsidies or grants that may be available, and gather the latest support program information to secure funding wisely.

• Small-scale introduction and phased rollout Rather than implementing across all operations at once, it is realistic to start with small pilot projects. For example, begin smartphone surveying with limited-impact tasks such as checking positions of road signs or park facility patrol inspections. If results are positive, gradually expand to other departments and tasks. Accumulating pilot successes—such as reliably streamlined data acquisition and sharing, or achieving results in-house without outsourcing—builds staff confidence and drives internal DX momentum. By scaling up step by step, you can broaden application areas without straining the organization.

7. Case Study: Results from a Small Municipality

What results have municipalities that adopted GPS surveying DX achieved? Here is one example.

In Fukui City, staff quickly adopted an easy-to-use smartphone surveying system and applied it effectively in disaster prevention. In 2023, the city deployed a high-precision surveying system combining iPhones with compact GNSS receivers (LRTK Phone) to field departments and used it to record damage after heavy rain. Previously, surveying disaster sites required multiple-person teams including surveyors to enter hazardous areas and manually estimate soil volumes. After introducing LRTK, one staff member was able to scan collapsed areas from a safe location with just a smartphone and create detailed point cloud data and damage maps in tens of minutes. Based on that data, recovery methods were quickly considered and heavy equipment was arranged, significantly speeding up initial response.

This initiative enabled Fukui City not only to strengthen disaster response but also to cut costs by bringing surveying in-house. Tasks that would have been expensive to outsource were handled by staff, reducing contracted expenses and allowing better budget utilization. Digital disaster records also smoothed progress management of recovery work and preparation of disaster reports to the national government. This example shows that even relatively small municipalities can achieve significant results by adopting the latest GPS surveying technologies. Other municipalities have begun achieving effects by starting with familiar tasks such as updating road ledgers and inspecting agricultural water channels, and the wave of surveying DX is steadily spreading.

8. Future Outlook and Potential Linkages with National Systems

Surveying DX using high-precision GPS is expected to become more widespread and standard in municipal operations. Two major trends can be anticipated.

One is stronger integration with national infrastructure and systems. MLIT and the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan are building foundations for satellite positioning and 3D data utilization. High-precision surveying data collected by municipalities could potentially be shared in real time with national disaster systems and geospatial information platforms. For example, if municipalities provide infrastructure inspection and topographic survey data to national map databases, it could contribute to regional strategies for infrastructure aging and more advanced disaster prediction models. If GNSS surveying becomes standardized for cadastral surveys (national land surveys) and public surveying deliverables, data compatibility between national and local governments will improve, facilitating smoother intergovernmental collaboration.

The other is further efficiency gains through technological innovation. GPS surveying equipment and related applications will continue to evolve. For instance, if AI-based automated analysis can instantly generate necessary figures and drawings from acquired point cloud data, report creation from the field to the office might be completed with the push of a button. Advances in high-speed communication such as 5G and cloud services make real-time sharing of large 3D datasets and simultaneous multi-department work more feasible. On the policy side, discussions on standardizing and opening surveying data are underway within initiatives such as the Government Cloud promoted by the Digital Agency and municipal DX promotion plans. If realized, municipalities could mutually utilize surveying results, contributing to broader disaster prevention and urban planning.

Thus, surveying DX has the potential not only to improve efficiency at the municipal level but also to develop into a foundation for a digitally integrated society. The combination of high-accuracy location information and DX can elevate the quality of administrative services, directly enhancing residents’ safety, security, and regional revitalization.

9. The Option of LRTK: Toward Next-Generation Smartphone-Only Surveying

Finally, one concrete tool to realize the GPS surveying DX described above is LRTK. LRTK (LRTK) is a next-generation surveying system that enables high-precision positioning and measurement using a smartphone. By attaching a dedicated ultra-compact GNSS receiver to a smartphone and launching a surveying app, anyone can achieve centimeter-level positioning. No complex operations are required—just walking on-site with a smartphone makes surveying possible.

LRTK provides an all-in-one solution, basically turning “a smartphone into a surveying station.” In addition to single-point coordinate measurement, it offers functions such as scanning surrounding structures with the smartphone camera to acquire 3D point cloud data, plotting acquired data on a map on-site to create simple drawings, and overlaying design drawings or reference points onto live images using AR (augmented reality). Photos taken simultaneously with positioning automatically record latitude, longitude, and orientation information, so you can identify exact locations and directions later just by viewing photos. This information synchronizes immediately with a cloud service called LRTK Cloud, allowing real-time viewing and sharing of field data from office PCs. LRTK seamlessly connects field and office and completes everything from data capture to utilization with just one smartphone—truly a next-generation surveying tool.

LRTK has already been adopted in municipalities and construction sites nationwide, and its ease of use and accuracy have been highly rated in the field. Municipalities can now perform surveys in-house that were previously outsourced, and records that used to be kept in paper field notebooks can be centrally managed in the cloud for analysis—effects that span many areas. For municipalities considering surveying DX, LRTK is a promising option. Introducing next-generation smartphone-only surveying can enable flexible administrative services that break from conventional constraints. With the fusion of high-precision GPS technology and DX, municipal operations will continue to be transformed. As a means to take the first step, consider leveraging the cutting-edge tool LRTK.