A case study on utilizing modern cadastral data to reconstruct the 19th-century survey of a New Mexico community land grant's patented boundary

摘要

Historical land surveys are potentially important legal documents, which may require integration with modern cadastral databases. Traverse surveys from the 19th century may contain blunders or errors that are spatially propagated and which are correctable based on valid reference points and adjustment techniques. Based on a case study, we assess the utility of cadastral data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in reconstructing the surveyed boundaries of a Spanish land grant in New Mexico. We propose a quantitative approach to identify cadastral points associated with surveyed boundaries and implement an inverse-distance weighted (IDW) function to interpolate surveyed points between irregularly spaced reference stations. Evaluating the IDW technique relative to the Compass, Transit, and Crandall adjustment techniques based on a 13.3-km portion of the boundary, we find that each technique leads to similar changes of segment lengths and azimuths relative to the unadjusted survey. The complete IDW-Adjusted boundary delineates an area of within 3 percent of that estimated on the survey plat and the reconstructed boundaries are mainly within 50 m of known boundaries with public land. This study describes considerations, uncertainties, and potential utility in historical survey reconstruction and proposes techniques which may be applicable to community land grants in New Mexico and other properties that were surveyed using 19th-century technology.