Site Mapping & Ecological Survey

For years we read properties by foot and by eye. Now we read them with instruments too.

A Site Read tells you what a property is doing. A mapped site tells you exactly where — every contour, every fall, every tree, to the inch. When you're moving water across a slope or setting an acequia grade, “about here” stops being good enough.

Two different jobs, usually done in the same visit: mapping the terrain, and surveying what lives on it. One gives you the shape of the ground. The other gives you the life it's already carrying.

§ 1 · Terrain mapping

The shape of the ground.

We fly the property and build a measured model of it. Photogrammetry for surface and canopy, LiDAR where the tree cover is heavy enough that a camera alone won't reach the dirt.

Contours & spot elevations. The actual fall of the land, drawn at the interval the design needs.
3D site model. Your property, rotatable, with the design laid over it before anything is built.
Slope & flow analysis. Where water accelerates, where it pools, where a swale will actually catch it.
Cut & fill volumes. How much dirt moves, so the number on the estimate isn't a guess.
Existing conditions. Structures, hardscape, drives, fence lines, utility surface features, canopy edges.

This is the same drone-LiDAR scan behind our 3D LiDAR Design — $300, credited in full against your build.

§ 2 · Ecological survey

What's already living there.

The ecological survey is the census of the property — what grows, what the soil is, where the water goes, and what the land is already doing without help.

Included

Tree inventory

Species, diameter, condition, canopy spread. Tagged and mapped. The basis for protection during construction.

Included

Vegetation & habitat

What's native, what's volunteer, what's holding the soil, what's feeding something.

Included

Invasive mapping

Ligustrum, chinaberry, KR bluestem, Johnson grass. Located and measured, so removal can be sequenced.

Included

Soil profile

Probe holes across the property. Topsoil depth, texture, where the caliche starts, where roots can actually go.

Included

Hydrology trace

Where water enters, sheets, pools, and leaves. Catchment area and infiltration behavior.

Included

Written record

Photographed, dated, and mapped. A baseline you can measure against in five years.

§ 3 · Scope

Where our work stops.

Worth saying plainly, because it protects you as much as it protects us.

Scope of practice

Noon is not a licensed land surveying firm. We do not perform boundary surveys, plats, or ALTA surveys, and we do not determine property lines or corners. In Texas that work may only be done by a licensed Registered Professional Land Surveyor.

What we produce is design-grade mapping — accurate enough to set grades, size a swale, and calculate earthwork, and built for planning, design, and record-keeping.

If your project needs a legal boundary determination, we refer you to a licensed Texas RPLS and design from their survey. Same for structural and civil engineering — we work alongside licensed engineers rather than around them.

§ 4 · Pricing

What it costs.

The read is free and comes first. Mapping and survey are quoted from acreage, canopy density, and how much of the property actually needs coverage — a half-acre lot and a forty-acre ranch aren't the same flight.

Site Read

Free

On-site walk with written summary. Tells you whether you need mapping at all.

3D LiDAR Design

$300

Drone-LiDAR scan and measured 3D design. Credited in full against your build.

Ecological survey

By scope

Quoted from acreage and depth of record. Tree inventory alone is a different job than a full baseline.

§ 5 · Cross-links

Common questions.

Is this a boundary survey?

No. Noon is not a licensed land surveying firm and does not perform boundary surveys, plats, or ALTA surveys. Our mapping is design-grade — built for planning, grading, drainage design, and record-keeping. If your project needs a legal boundary determination, we refer you to a licensed Texas Registered Professional Land Surveyor (RPLS) and design from their survey.

What's the difference between mapping and surveying?

Mapping records the shape and features of the ground — contours, elevations, tree canopy, structures, flow paths — for design use. Boundary surveying establishes legally binding property lines and corners, which in Texas may only be performed by a licensed RPLS. We do the first. We refer the second.

What does an ecological survey include?

Tree inventory by species, diameter, condition and canopy spread; vegetation and habitat assessment; invasive species mapping; soil probing for horizon depth, texture, and caliche; and hydrology tracing — where water enters, pools, and leaves. You receive a written record with photographs and a marked map.

How accurate is the drone mapping?

Accurate enough to set grades, size a bioswale, and calculate cut and fill — which is what design work requires. It is not survey-grade for legal boundary purposes, and we never represent it as such.

Do I need mapping if I already had a Site Read?

Not always. A Site Read tells you what the property is doing, and it's free. Mapping tells you exactly where, to the inch. You need it when you're moving water across a slope, setting an acequia or swale grade, planning earthwork volumes, or building a record you'll return to over years.

Can you survey a property you're not building on?

Yes. Mapping and ecological survey are offered on their own — for land you're considering buying, for a baseline before a conservation or grant application, or simply for the record. You're not obligated to build with us.

Map the ground. Read what lives on it.

The shape of the ground.

What's already living there.

Where our work stops.

What it costs.

Read more.

Common questions.

Book a Site Read.