METHODS OF DETERMINING AREAS

An important objectives of most land surveys is the determination of the area of tracts of land.The
methods of determining areas of land by plane surveying differs from that of Geodetic surveying.In plane
surveying, the area is not the actual area of the land surface but is taken as its projection upon a
horizontal plane.Areas with large tracts of land such as a country or a continent are obtained by
Geodetic surveying.Such areas are taken as the projection of the tract upon Earth's spheroidal surface at
mean sea level.

Areas of land also come in different shapes.Some areas may be in the shape of a regular geometric figure
such as a square, triangle or parallelogram.Others may be quite irregular and may be bounded intirely by
curved bounderies.

There are different methods used in determining areas.Some of this methods include the use of
triangles, the trapezoidal rule, Simpson's one-third rule, the coordinate method, the DMD or DPD
method, coordinate squares, and by a planimeter.

AREA BY TRIANGLES

The triangle method is a useful and fairly accurate method of

computing the area of traverses that have only a few sides.This
method is well suited for determining areas of small tracts of land
and was popularly used before the engineers transit was
invented.

The following are the commonly used cases:

1. Known base and Altitude- the area of a triangle whose base

and altitude are known or measured may be computed by the following formula.

A = (1/2)(b)(h)

Where:

A= area of the tract land(sq.m.)

b= base of any side of the triangle(m.)

h= altitude or the perpendicular distance from the corner oppsite the base(m.)

2. Two sides and Included angle measured- When the length of two sides and the include angle of any
triangle are known, its area is given by the following formula.

A = (1/2)( a) (b) sin ἀ

Where:

A= area of the tract land(sq.m.)

a,b= sides of the triangle(m.)

ἀ= angle between sides a and b

3. Three side measured- the area of the triangle whose three sides are known can be computed by the
formula.

A = √(s (s - a) (s - b) (s - c))

Where:

A= area of the tract of land

S= 1/2 of the perimeter

AREA BY DOUBLE MERIDIAN DISTANCE (DMD)

The meridian distance of a traverse line is equal to thelength of

a line running east to west from the midpoint of the traverse
line to a reference meridian. Thereference meridian is the
meridian that passes through the most westerly traverse
station.

In figure 7-20, the dotted lines indicate the meridian distances of

the traverse lines to which they extend from the reference
meridians. You can see that the meridian distance of the initial
line AB equals one half of thedeparture of AB. The meridian
distance of the next line BC equals the meridian distance of AB,
plus one half ofthe departure of AB, plus one half of the
departure of BC.

Formulas:
DOUBLE AREA = DMD (adjusted Latitude)

AREA = (1/2) (∑ NDA + ∑ SDA)

(Where ∑ NDA and ∑ SDA are the sums of north and south double areas.)

AREA BY DOUBLE PARALLEL DISTANCE (DPD)

The double parallel distance method of area computation is similar to the double meridian distance
method. Double areas can be determined by multiplying the DPD of each course by the corresponding
adjusted departure of the course.

Double areas are recorded in plus (+) or minus (-) columns which correspond to east double areas (EDA)
and west double areas (WDA), respectively. Also, the traverse area is equal to one- half the algebraic sum
of both double areas.

Formulas:

Double Area = DPD(Adjusted Departure)

Area = (1/2) (∑ EDA + ∑ WDA)

(Where ∑ EDA and ∑ WDA are the sums of east and west double areas.)