FLUSHING — Surveying company Jack A. Hamilton & Associates is now using more automation, such as drones, for mapping out land as the industry is starting to shift to advanced technology.

Services the business provides are boundary surveys, topographic or mapping surveys and more detailed surveys called Alta NSPS and land title surveys. Surveying is the technique and profession of determining terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them on land.

Paul Hamilton is the chief executive officer and co-owner of Jack A. Hamilton & Associates and professional surveyor. He is licensed as a surveyor in Ohio and West Virginia. The business started 46 years ago in 1978 as a family business with Hamilton’s father starting it. Hamilton took over as CEO in 2008.

The business now flies a drone over land that acquires mapping and uses a remote operated boat for collecting underwater information. Hamilton said the biggest trend in the industry right now is automation, using drone light detection and ranging (LiDAR) for mapping, which is a method of remote sensing.

A lot of tasks that used to be done by one-, two- or three-person crews are now done with one person with the touch of a button on modern instrumentation, he added.

Understanding and being able to use the new technology helps the business maintain its place as a service provider, competing with other surveying firms and larger companies that have made its way to the county with the oil and gas industry, Hamilton said.

The business is still getting the same data and providing the same information, but it’s getting done much more quickly and efficiently than it used to by eliminating human error and also automating processes.

“There are certain aspects where you do need the human side to understand what’s happening,” Hamilton said, “to look at the project, to look at certain things there, and know, ‘Well, I have to do this, or I have to understand that process in order to get the right product.’ So embrace the technology, but understand what it’s giving you.”

Hamilton said the business helps development within the community by usually being the first people on the ground when a new site is being built, establishing property boundary lines and mapping the site accurately as well as getting utilities to the site. After, all of the information will be shown to an engineer or architect.

The business allows people to split up their land to divide larger tracts down into small pieces, selling it off for people to build houses on smaller tracts, which is where the business comes into play, providing boundary surveying services.

A lot of the work the business has been doing is resurveying or retracting surveys for older deeds in the courthouse now and making sure they’re more accurate and meeting the county’s current standards.

Hamilton sees the automation continuing in the future, which he sees as positive.

“I could see the automation continuing, and that may be a good thing, because it seems like there are less and less younger people going into the profession,” he said. “A lot of the surveyors that are out there practicing now are going to be retiring within the next few years.”