Glossary

The terms behind a Florida survey.

Plain-English definitions, grounded in Florida law and federal standards. Where a term carries a distinctly Florida wrinkle, it’s called out.

Survey types

Boundary survey
Documents a parcel's perimeter by establishing or re-establishing its corners, monuments, and boundary lines.
In Florida: Florida's regulated baseline product. The map must be titled “Boundary Survey,” reconciled to the record boundary, and signed and sealed by a PSM under Rule 5J-17.
ALTA/NSPS land title survey
A boundary-and-improvement survey to a single national standard (jointly issued by ALTA and NSPS) that lenders and title insurers rely on to remove the survey exception from a commercial title policy.
In Florida: Still signed and sealed by a Florida-licensed PSM. Think of it as the commercial-transaction tier above the state-regulated boundary survey.
Elevation certificate
A FEMA form, completed by a surveyor, documenting a building's elevation against the Base Flood Elevation. Used for floodplain compliance, insurance rating, and flood-map-change requests.
In Florida: Since 2023, a Florida surveyor must submit a copy of every elevation certificate to the state within 30 days of completing it.
As-built (record) survey
Documents improvements as actually constructed — footprints, setbacks, utilities, elevations — against the design or permit drawings.
In Florida: A recognized Florida survey type under 5J-17.
Topographic survey
Maps a site's ground elevations, contours, and features (trees, watercourses, roads, structures, utilities). Where a boundary survey answers “where are the lines,” a topo answers “what is the shape of the ground.”
Mortgage survey / location sketch
A low-precision lender sketch common in some states, showing roughly where a house sits relative to the lot lines, without setting or verifying corners.
In Florida: Not a recognized survey type in Florida. Locating improvements relative to boundaries here is a full Boundary Survey, with monument and record obligations — so the cheaper “mortgage sketch” from other states isn't a Florida deliverable.

Records & legal

Plat (subdivision plat)
A recorded map dividing land into lots, blocks, streets, and easements, serving as the legal reference for the parcels it creates.
In Florida: Florida's Chapter 177 prescribes exactly what a plat must contain, prepared under a PSM's responsible charge.
Legal description
The written description identifying a parcel: either metes-and-bounds (courses and distances from a point of beginning) or lot-and-block (a lot and block on a recorded plat, e.g. “Lot 4, Block B, Plat Book X, Page Y”).
Easement
A nonpossessory right to use part of another's land for a limited purpose such as utilities, drainage, or access. It runs with the land and is recorded.
In Florida: Florida surveys must depict known easements and their intended use, dimensioned where they don't follow a property line.
Right-of-way
Land dedicated for streets or passage — the full width between the right-of-way lines shown on a plat, improved or not.
In Florida: Florida distinguishes a public street right-of-way from a limited-purpose utility easement.
Deed
The signed instrument that transfers title to real property, recorded in the county's official records. A surveyor researches the deed's legal description to locate a parcel (drafting deeds is legal work, not surveying).

Flood & FEMA

FEMA flood zone
A risk designation on FEMA's flood map. High-risk Special Flood Hazard Areas are A/AE (inland) and V/VE (coastal wave action); Zone X is moderate or minimal; Zone D is undetermined.
In Florida: Pervasive across coastal Florida, the most flood-exposed state.
FIRM panel
The Flood Insurance Rate Map is a community's official flood-hazard map; large communities split theirs into numbered panels. A flood determination cites a specific panel number and effective date.
Base Flood Elevation (BFE)
The water-surface elevation the 1%-annual-chance (100-year) flood is expected to reach — the benchmark for minimum building elevations and insurance rating. It's the number an elevation certificate is built around.
LOMA / LOMR
FEMA map changes. A LOMA amends the map to show a property is actually outside the flood area (natural high ground); a LOMR revises the map after physical changes. A surveyor's elevation certificate is the core supporting document.
In Florida: Common and high-value in Florida, where getting a property out from under a flood-insurance mandate is a tangible owner win.

Boundary & field

Mean high water (MHW) line
The average height of high tides over a 19-year cycle, taken where that tidal plane meets the shore.
In Florida: In Florida, the legal boundary between state-owned submerged lands and privately ownable upland — a high-stakes, specialized coastal survey under the Coastal Mapping Act.
Monument
A permanent or semipermanent marker occupying a property corner, a point on a boundary line, or a control point.
In Florida: Florida requires a PSM to set monuments at corners (marked with their license number) unless they already exist or can't physically be set.
Benchmark
A fixed point of known elevation above or below an adopted vertical datum, used as a reference for elevation work.
In Florida: Florida elevation work references the NAVD 88 datum; the state's flat coastal topography makes accurate vertical control especially consequential.
Certified Corner Record (CCR)
A record documenting a Public Land Survey System corner used as control, including its monument and the evidence used to position it.
In Florida: A distinctly Florida obligation: a PSM files a CCR with the state (via the LABINS system) for each PLSS corner they use — with no everyday equivalent in many states.

Florida regulatory

Professional Surveyor and Mapper (PSM)
A surveyor licensed under Florida Statutes Chapter 472 to practice surveying and mapping in Florida. Every signed-and-sealed Florida survey is a PSM's work.
Responsible charge
The “direct control and personal supervision” a licensed PSM must exercise over survey work — the legal test for genuine supervision (it excludes routine roles like rodperson or draftsperson).
In Florida: It's the core of why a Florida survey carries legal weight — and why automation handles the work around the survey, never the licensed judgment itself.
Standards of Practice (Rule 5J-17)
Florida's binding technical rulebook for surveys, maps, and reports — what each survey must contain, how it's certified, and how corners and monuments are handled.
In Florida: Set by the Board of Professional Surveyors and Mappers, which sits, unusually, under Florida's Department of Agriculture.

SurveyOS does the records and flood work behind these.

Plats, deeds, property-appraiser data, and FEMA flood determinations, pulled and collated automatically, so your PSM focuses on the survey.

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