Spring is around the corner, and long-requested updates to Surveyor Manager functionality are the among the first new blooms of the season!
Over the last two years of Surveyor’s deployment, the PA SHPO has gotten great comments and suggestions from our partners related to features that you would love to see in Surveyor. PAGS and PASS staff tracked all of your suggestions and identified which ones were repeated and rose to the top of the priority list for our first major update to the Surveyor tools in PA-SHARE 2.0. This spring update to the Surveyor tools represents those suggestions that were repeated the most often and that were identified as being changes that would bring even more sunshine to the Surveyor user experience!
The changes now live in Surveyor for surveys with 2024 survey (2024SR#####) numbers are grouped for discussion in this blog post by the following topics:
- Batch Spatial Pre-Population of Resource Records in Surveyor
- Notification System
- Data Field Additions
- Batch Photo and Attachment Upload
- Excel Export
If you have an SR number that pre-dates 2024 and have questions about how these updates are reflected in your project, please contact Elizabeth Shultz at elishultz@pa.gov.
Batch Spatial Pre-Population of Resource Records in Surveyor
Surveyor users now have the ability to submit a shapefile of a feature layer (one shapefile per resource type – Above Ground, Site, District) to see pre-populated spatial and identifying tabular information in both Surveyor Manager and the Surveyor Survey123 field app. This oft-requested update means that all of the resources for your project can be initially created and mapped at one time.
This screen capture depicts a survey project that used the tax parcel layer to batch pre-populate the Surveyor tools. The attributes associated with the tax parcel were sufficient to pre-populate Surveyor with no additional editing necessary by project team members.
In many cases, the attributes that are already associated a tax parcel layer are sufficient to pre-populate Surveyor. This means that project teams do not need to have any additional GIS experience or software to take advantage of this new Surveyor feature.
The list of minimum attributes associated with a feature layer for Surveyor batch pre-population of Above Ground Resources is only:
- Spatial Feature
- Street Address (Resource Name field will be populated with the street address as well)
However, it is possible to batch pre-populate a much larger number of fields at the basic level. Here is an example of the basic fields that are available for pre-population in Surveyor for Above Ground resources:
Building Fields (available for all Above Ground resources)
- Resource Name
- Address
- City
- Zip Code
- Existing Resource Number
- Building, Object, Site, Structure, Non-Building
- Location Description
- Boundary Description
- Boundary Justification
- Physical Summary
- Summary of Significance
- Date of Survey
- Designer
- Owner Type
Basic Bridge-Specific Fields
- Bridge Crossing
- Bridge Materials
- Builder
- Bridge Overall Length in Feet
- Span Count
Basic Cemetery-Specific Fields
- Cemetery Context
- Cemetery Markers Count
- Year of Death of First Interred
- Year of Death of Last Interred
If you would like to request the batch pre-population of a Surveyor field not listed above, please contact Elizabeth Shultz at elishultz@pa.gov. Batch pre-population is intended to simplify and ease your fieldwork and data management, but it is not intended replace the need to interact with Surveyor Manager for finalization and QAQC altogether. Even with the application of batch pre-population, the SHPO expects the same level of diligence and QAQC that our partners have demonstrated thus far.
If you are preparing a feature layer for pre-population for the first time, please contact Elizabeth Shultz at elishultz@pa.gov to first to ensure the process works seamlessly!
Notification System
Surveyor Manager now features a notification system to help team members track their survey’s lifecycle. In the top right corner of the screen, there is a new bell icon that gently signals that the signed-in user has notifications to review.
Clicking on the notifications does not make the alert automatically disappear (so you can feel free to check your notifications and go back to them at a later date without forgetting that they exist!) and you can set a subset of your notifications to read or unread as you work through the list. Users will receive notifications when a resource has been returned for further editing and when a resource has been published to PA-SHARE.
There is also now the functionality for SHPO staff to send an automated email from Surveyor to indicate that there are notifications waiting for users in Surveyor Manager.
Data Field Additions
Both Above Ground and Archaeological Site resources in Surveyor now feature additional fields:
Archaeological Resources
The Archaeological Site Surveyor forms have been totally reworked in both the Survey123 field app and Surveyor Manager to increase the utility of Surveyor for documenting sites and the ability to capture isolated finds.
The fields available in Surveyor Manager and for Archaeological sites are now:
The Summary section has the following fields:
- Resource Name
- Resource Number
- Other Resource Number
- Boundary Description
- Boundary Justification
- Physical Summary
- Boundary Source
- Contributes to a District
- Recorder Recommendation
- Date of Survey
The Site Traits section has the following fields:
- Site Discovery Method
- Stratified
- Potential for Organic Preservation
- Human Remains Present
- Source of Data
- Site Type
- Site Type Description
The Chronology section has the following fields:
- Chronology Category
- Chronology
- Basis
- Component Placement
- Major Component
- Data Sample
- Dating Technique
- Date Absolute
- Variance
- Lab Reference Number
- Description
The Features sections has the following fields:
- Features – Includes the list of features and quantity
The Artifact section has the following fields:
- Artifacts – Includes Artifact, Diagnostic Artifact, and Materials (which also includes Quantity)
The Fieldwork and Repository section has the following fields:
- Fieldwork – Includes all fields associated with fieldwork table
- Repository – Includes all field associated with repository table
The Physical Data and Site Condition section has the following fields:
- Site Elevation (feet)
- Average Slope (percentage)
- Slope Aspect
- Slope Basis
- Immediate Vegetation
- Percentage of Site Still Intact
- Topographic Settings
- Threat
- Previous Disturbance
The Water Drainage section should have the following fields:
- Water Sources – Includes all fields associated with water sources table
- Confluences – Includes all fields associated with confluences table
Fields for an Isolated Find:
Summary or Resource Name section has the following fields:
- Resource Name
- Resource Number
- Other Resource Number
- Boundary Description
- Boundary Justification
- Physical Summary
- Boundary Source
- Contributes to a District
- Recorder Recommendation
- Date of Survey
The Site Traits section has the following fields:
- Site Discovery Method
- Site Type
The Chronology section has the following fields:
- Chronology Category
- Chronology
- Basis
- Component Placement
- Major Component
- Data Sample
- Dating Technique
- Date Absolute
- Variance
- Lab Reference Number
- Description
The Artifact section has the following fields:
- Artifacts – Includes Artifact, Diagnostic Artifact, and Materials (which also includes Quantity)
The Fieldwork and Repository section has the following fields:
- Fieldwork – Includes all fields associated with fieldwork table
- Repository – Includes all field associated with repository table
The Physical Data and Site Condition section has the following fields:
- Site Elevation (feet)
- Average Slope (percentage)
- Slope Aspect
- Slope Basis
- Immediate Vegetation
- Percentage of Site Still Intact
- Topographic Settings
- Threat
- Previous Disturbance
The Water Drainage section has the following fields:
- Water Sources – Includes all fields associated with water sources table
- Confluences – Includes all fields associated with confluences table
Above Ground Resources
For Above Ground Resources, the additions represent optional fields to facilitate the submission of evaluation level documentation through Surveyor Manager. Recorders can now include
- Physical Summary
- Associated Resources
- Summary of Significance
- Criteria and Criteria Consideration Recommendations
- Alterations
- Area of Significance
- Period of Significance
- Level of Significance
- Associated Event
- Associated Individual
- Cultural Affiliation
- Bibliographic References
These fields are available in Surveyor Manager only and are not present in the Survey123 field app forms, to limit the length of scroll in on a mobile device.
Batch Photo and Attachment Upload
Just as was announced for the main PA-SHARE website functionality in January, Surveyor Manager now also has batch photo and attachment uploading. Surveyor Manager users can now select and upload multiple photograph and attachment files at one time to both the resource details pages and the Manager data entry page.
Screen capture illustrating new batch upload feature.
Furthermore, the photo and attachment names are pre-populated with the name of the file that was uploaded, although you can also rename your uploads by editing the Name field. Photo Description and Attachment Description are also no longer required fields. Note that submitters should still do their best to ensure that photo and attachment names are not gibberish!
Excel Export of All Data Fields
One of the most hotly requested updates to Surveyor Manager has been the ability to export all of the data into an Excel file with the click of a button. The existing “Export Resource Information” button on the resource summary table now exports all of the fields on every record in Surveyor Manager! This uncoded export features one line per record, and field where there were multiple selections see the selections displayed in a pipe-delimited format.
Screen capture of data fields and format for Surveyor Excel export.
The ability to export all data exists for all resource types in Surveyor Manager.
Questions? Training?
Additional PA-SHARE 2.0 updates that impact the use of the Surveyor tools are anticipated later in 2024, so look out for future announcements!
If you are interested in Surveyor training for the first time, or would like a refresher, please contact Elizabeth Shultz at elishultz@pa.gov or Taylor Napoleon at tnapoleon@pa.gov.
Retraining of previous Surveyor users is not necessary after these updates. If you would like to schedule a virtual meeting for staff to demonstrate these changes or answer questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Elizabeth Shultz at elishultz@pa.gov or Taylor Napoleon at tnapoleon@pa.gov. We would be more than happy to discuss Surveyor at any time with anyone.
Thank you for all your continued work in Surveyor!
Please feel free to continue to send suggestions and comments about the Surveyor tools to Elizabeth Shultz for the PAGS (Pennsylvania Above Ground Survey) program at elishultz@pa.gov and Taylor Napoleon for the PASS (Pennsylvania Archaeological Site Survey) program at tnapoleon@pa.gov – your suggestions help SHPO staff understand how Surveyor is the most useful and expeditious for your projects and we are invested in making Surveyor as productive and user-friendly as possible.
Contact information for the PAGS and PASS Coordinators.
