Survey Mark Recovery

Survey mark refers to any permanent marks or disks placed in the ground or attached to a permanent structure with known latitude, longitude or height information. Its utility depends on the surveyor's ability to recover the mark in good condition. If a mark has been damaged or destroyed, the positional information may have been compromised. If the mark has been completely removed, it's no longer useful.

In an effort to maintain updated records on more than 800,000 survey marks set around the country and its territories, the National Geodetic Survey encourages the public to submit the current mark recovery information.

Submit Survey Mark Recovery Data

To submit your survey mark data to NGS, please use our online Mark Recovery Form.

Mark Recovery Form

Mark Recovery Form Instructions:

1.
In the first field under the Marker ID section, enter the recovered mark’s Permanent Identifier (PID) to auto-populate existing mark descriptive fields from the NGS database. Please review and update the fields as needed. If you don’t know the mark’s PID, please use the Survey Mark Datasheets tool to find it.
2.
In the Recoverer ID section, enter your user information including Agency Code and Agency. An individual can use the code "M" (non-specific designators) and recovery agency "INDIV".
3.
In the Recovery Information and Advanced sections, include all appropriate mark condition descriptors.
4.
Click “Submit” to send your mark recovery information to NGS for processing.

Mark Recovery Dashboard

The Mark Recovery Dashboard displays mark recoveries that have been submitted to NGS. The recoveries that are displayed can be queried by several different tools built into the dashboard such as by date and location. The dashboard displays recoveries that have been processed by NGS and ones that are still awaiting approval.

Explore the Mark Recovery Dashboard



For any questions regarding mark recoveries, please contact ngs.mark.updates@noaa.gov.