Curriculum Coherence in Geomatics Education: A Review and Theoretical Grounding of Professional Standards, Accreditation Practices, and Implementation Challenges

Geomatics education faces unique curriculum coherence challenges stemming from the field's interdisciplinary nature and its distribution across three distinct ABET accreditation commissions (the Engineering Accreditation Commission, Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission, and Applied and Natural Science Accreditation Commission), each applying different evaluative criteria to programs preparing graduates for overlapping professional roles. Despite this structural complexity, no studies have systematically examined alignment among the professional competency standards, academic curricula, and accreditation assessment practices that collectively shape geomatics undergraduate education. This review applies curriculum coherence theory to geomatics education, synthesizing scholarship across three interconnected domains: content standards as articulated through professional Bodies of Knowledge, with particular attention to the Surveying Body of Knowledge and the challenges created when multiple professional organizations define overlapping yet distinct competency expectations; instructional implementation encompassing program design, curricular sequencing, and the complexities of integrating competencies across traditional disciplinary boundaries; and assessment through accreditation processes that vary across commission structures. The reviewed literature reveals persistent fragmentation at each level. Multiple professional organizations have developed separate Bodies of Knowledge reflecting disciplinary silos rather than integrated practice. Existing scholarly research documents resource limitations and structural tensions programs face in translating these standards into coherent curricula. Current literature indicates that accreditation criteria vary across commissions governing similar competency domains, yet the relationship between these criteria and professional standards has not been empirically analyzed. This synthesis establishes the theoretical foundation and identifies the empirical gaps that future research must address, particularly analysis of standards-assessment alignment and cross-program examination of what geomatics programs actually teach relative to what the profession expects. • Applies curriculum coherence theory to geomatics undergraduate education • Identifies fragmentation across three ABET accreditation commissions • Reviews alignment gaps among professional standards and curricula • Examines how multiple Bodies of Knowledge create integration challenges • Establishes theoretical foundation for alignment research