NRCan’s Compliance Program for high accuracy, GNSS services: ensuring compatibility with the Canadian Spatial Reference System

Abstract

There are currently over 700 Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) reference stations actively broadcasting corrections (Active Control Stations — ACSs) in Canada. This number has been consistently growing since the early 2000s. In 2009, the federal, provincial, and territorial members of the Canadian Council on Geomatics (CCOG) recognized that consumers of GNSS corrections data had very little ability to verify that service providers were following best practices to ensure the quality of their work. It is common for surveyors to delineate property boundaries or to define the location of civil infrastructure with significant economic value, so being dependent upon another party without quality assurance was perceived as a major risk. Additionally, this new dependence upon commercial ACSs for GNSS corrections posed a threat to the consistency of position values in Canada. To address this concern, CCOG tasked its Canadian Geodetic Reference System Committee (CGRSC) with developing a plan to describe, validate, and provide certification of the GNSS corrections services consumed by industry. This paper summarizes the development of Natural Resources Canada’s (NRCan) Compliance Program for High Accuracy, GNSS Services, and how it can benefit professional surveyors across Canada.