LEVELIING

INTRODUCTION
Levelling or leveling is a branch of surveying whose objective is to establish, verify or measure the
height/altitude/elevation of specified points relative to a datum using a level machine.
In surveying, three basic quantities are measured – heights, angles and distances – levelling is the
name given to one of the methods available for determining heights.
When levelling, it is possible to measure heights within a few millimetres and this order of precision is
more than adequate for height measurement on the majority of civil engineering projects. As well as
levelling, it is worth noting that heights can also be measured by using total stations, handheld laser
distance meters and GNSS receivers.
It is widely used in cartography to measure geodetic height, and in construction to measure height
differences of construction artifacts.
The equipment required to carry out levelling is an optical, digital or laser level, which is normally
mounted on a tripod and used in conjunction with a levelling staff.

Figure 1: Automatic level: 1. focusing screw; 2. eyepiece; 3. foot screw; 4. horizontal 5. base plate 6. slow
motion screw 7. circular bubble 8. sight 9. object lens

It is done for the following general purposes:

1. To prepare a contour map for setting up construction sites.
2. To determine the reduced levels of important points on or below the surface of the earth.
3. To prepare a longitudinal section and cross sections of linear projects such as roads, railways,
canals etc. in order to determine the volume of earth work.
4. To prepare a layout map for water supply, sewer and drainage schemes.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Level surface – This is any surface parallel to the mean spheroidal surface of the earth. Such a surface
is obviously curved. The water surface of a still lake is also considered to be a level surface.
Level line – This is any line lying on a level surface. This line is normal to the plumb line (direction of
gravity) at all points.
Horizontal plane – This is any plane tangential to the level surface at any point. It is perpendicular to
the plumb line which indicates the direction of gravity.
Horizontal line – This is any line lying on the horizontal plane. It is a straight line tangential to the level
line.
Vertical line – This is the direction indicated by a plumb line (direction of gravity). It is perpendicular to
the horizontal line.

Figure 2: Different lines

Vertical plane – This is any plane passing through the vertical line.
Datum surface – This is an imaginary level surface from which the vertical distances of different points
(above or below this line) are measured. In Kenya, the datum adopted is the mean sea level recorded
at the Kilindini harbour in Mombasa.
Reduced level (R.L.) – This is the vertical distance of a point above or below the datum line. It may be
positive or negative as the point may be above or below the datum.

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Line collimation – This is an imaginary line passing through the intersection of the cross hairs at the
diaphragm and the optical centre of the object glass (objective lens) and its continuation. It is also
known as the line of sight.

Figure 3: 1. Object lens 2. Focussing screw 3. Focussing lens 4. Diaphragm 5. Eye piece

Figure 4: Diaphragm patterns (cross hairs)

Figure 5: View of a levelling staff through the telescope

Bench-marks (BM) – These are fixed points or marks of known RL determined with reference to the
datum line. They serve as reference points for finding the RL of new points or for conducting levelling
operations in roads, railways construction projects. Benchmarks provide vertical control i.e.; they
provide a reference used to establish heights of other points.
Benchmarks may be of 4 types:

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i) Great Trigonometric Survey benchmarks (GTS BM) – These are benchmarks established by the
National Survey Agency of a country. They are placed all over the country at large intervals say
100 km. They are established with high precision. Also known as primary benchmarks.
ii) Permanent benchmarks – These are fixed points or marks established by different government
departments like Public Works, Railways etc. The reduced levels of these marks are
determined with reference to the primary benchmarks and are kept permanent. Also known as
secondary benchmarks.
iii) Arbitrary benchmarks – These are benchmarks whose reduced levels are assumed and given
an arbitrary value.
iv) Temporary benchmark (TBM) – These are benchmarks established temporarily at the end of a
day’s work of leveling. They aid in resuming the leveling exercise the following day.
Backsight reading (BS) – This is the first staff reading taken in any set up of the level machine. This
reading is always taken on a point of known RL i.e., on a benchmark.
Foresight reading (FS) – It is the last staff reading in any set up of the instrument and indicates the
shifting of the level machine.
Intermediate sight reading (IS) – It is any other staff reading taken between the BS and FS in the same
set up of the level machine.
Change Point (CP) – This point indicates the shifting of the level machine. At this point, an FS is taken
from one setting and a BS is taken from the next setting.
Height of instrument (HI) – When the leveling instrument is properly levelled, the RL of the line
collimation is known as the height of the level machine. It is obtained by adding the BS reading to the
RL of the BM or CP on which the staff reading was taken.

Figure 6

Levelling staff – This is a graduated wooden rod used for measuring the vertical distances between
the points on the ground and the line of collimation.

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 Figure 7: Levelling staff in place for taking readings on a benchmark

FIELD PROCEDURE FOR LEVELLING

When a level machine has been correctly set up, the line or plane of collimation generated by the
instrument coincides with or is very close to a horizontal plane. If the height of this plane (H.I.) is
known, the heights of ground points can be found from it by reading a vertically held levelling staff.
In Figure 8, a level has been set up at point I1 and readings R1 and R2 have been taken with the staff
placed vertically in turn at ground points A and B. If the reduced level of A (RLA) is known then, by
adding staff reading R1 to RLA, the reduced level of the line of collimation at instrument position I1 is
obtained. This is known as the height of instrument (H.I.) or the collimation level.

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 HI
HI

Figure 8: Field procedure of levelling

H.I. is given by:

H.I. = RLA + R1
In order to obtain the reduced level of point B (RL B), staff reading R2 must be subtracted from the
collimation level to give:

RLB = H.I. – R2 = (RLA + R1) – R2 = RLA + (R1 – R2)

The direction of levelling in this case is from A to B and R 1 is taken with the level facing in the opposite
direction to this. For this reason, it is known as a back sight (BS).
Since reading R2 is taken with the level facing in the direction from A to B, it is called a fore sight (FS).
Since R1 is greater than R2 in this case, (R1 – R2) is positive. Because (R1 – R2) is positive it is known as a
rise.
The level is now moved to a new position I 2 so that the reduced level of C can be found. Reading R 3 is
first taken with the staff still at point B but with its face turned towards I 2. This will be the back sight at
position I2 and the fore sight R4 is taken with the staff at C.
At point B, both a FS and a BS have been recorded consecutively, each from a different instrument
position and this is called a change point (CP).
From the staff readings taken at I2, the reduced level of C (RLC) is calculated from:

RLC = RLB + (R3 – R4)

The height difference between B and C is given both in magnitude and sign by (R 3 – R4). In this case, (R3
– R4) is negative. Because (R3 – R4) is negative it is known as a fall.
Any readings taken between the BS and FS from the same instrument position are known as
intermediate sights (IS).

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Example of a levelling sequence

Figure 9: Levelling sequence

Procedure:
i) The level is set up at a convenient position I 1 and a BS reading of 2.191 m is made to TBM1
with the foot of the staff being held on the TBM and the staff held vertically.
ii) The staff is then moved to points A and B in turn and readings are taken. These are
intermediate sights of 2.505 m and 2.325 m respectively.
iii) A change point must be used in order to reach D owing to the nature of the ground. Therefore,
a change point is chosen at C and the staff is moved to C and a FS of 1.496 m is taken.
iv) While the staff remains at C, the instrument is moved to another position, I 2. A BS of 3.019 m is
taken from the new level position to the staff at change point C.
v) The staff is moved to D and E in turn and readings of 2.513 m (IS) and 2.811 m (FS) are taken
where E is another CP.
vi) Finally, the level is moved to I3, a BS of 1.752 m taken to E and a FS of 3.824 m taken to TBM2.
vii) The final staff position is at a TBM. This is most important as all levelling fieldwork must start
and finish at a bench mark, otherwise it is not possible to detect errors in the levelling.
CALCULATING REDUCED LEVELS
There are two methods of calculating reduced levels. They are:
i) The rise and fall method
ii) The height of collimation method
Rise and Fall Method

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In this method, the difference of levels between two consecutive points is determined by comparing
each forward staff reading with the staff reading at the preceding point. If the forward reading is
smaller than the preceding reading, a rise is said to have occurred. The rise is added to the RL of the
preceding point to get the RL of the forward point.
Table 1 shows the booking of the levelling sequence shown in Figure 9.
Table 1: Rise and fall calculations

STATION RISE FALL

POINT BS IS FS (+) (-) RL REMARK
TBM1 2.191         49.873 Temporary benchmark 1 49.873 m
A   2.505     -0.314 49.559  
B   2.325   0.18 49.739  
C 3.019   1.496 0.829   50.568  
D   2.513   0.506   51.074  
E 1.752   2.811 -0.298 50.776  
TBM2     3.824   -2.072 48.704 Temporary benchmark 2 48.71 m

Totals 6.962 8.131 1.515 2.684

Sum of BS
- Sum of FS -1.169

Sum of rise
- Sum of
fall -1.169

Last RL -
First RL -1.169

The reduced level at TBM2 has been calculated and found to be 48.704 m. This value is different from
the known value which is 48.71 m. The difference between the calculated and the known levels is
known as the misclosure. In this case it calculated as:
Misclosure = 48.704 – 48.71 = -0.006 m
The misclosure helps to assess the quality or precision of the levelling. For this reason, it has to be
checked against a specified value known as the allowable misclosure.
The allowable misclosure is given by:

± m √n
Where m is a constant value of 5 mm and n is the number of instrument positions.

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In our example, the allowable misclosure is given as:
5√3 = 8.66 mm
Since the misclosure was found to be -6mm and the allowable misclosure is ±8.66mm then the
levelling exercise is acceptable.
Height of collimation Method
The reduced level of the line of collimation is said to be the height of the instrument. In this method,
the height of collimation is found by adding the backsight reading to the RL of the BM on which the BS
is taken. Then the RL of the intermediate points and the change point are obtained by subtracting the
respective staff readings from the height of the instrument (H.I.).
It should be noted that the RLs of unknown points are to be found out by deducting the staff readings
from the RL of the height of the instrument.
Table 2 shows the booking of the levelling sequence shown in Figure 9.
Table 2: Height of Collimation calculations

STATION POINT BS IS FS HI RL REMARK

TBM1 2.191     52.064 49.873 Temporary benchmark 1 49.873 m
A   2.505     49.559  
B   2.325     49.739  
C 3.019   1.496 53.587 50.568  
D   2.513     51.074  
E 1.752   2.811 52.528 50.776  
TBM2     3.824   48.704 Temporary benchmark 2 48.71 m

Totals 6.962 8.131

Sum of BS - Sum
of FS -1.169

Last RL - First RL -1.169

Exercises
1. The following readings were successfully taken with a level:
0.355, 0.485, 0.625, 1.755, 1.895, 2.350, 1.780, 0.345, 0.685, 1.230 and 2.150.
The instrument was shifted after the fourth and seventh readings. Prepare a level book and
calculate the RLs of different points. The RL of the first point is 255.500 m.
2. A page of a level book is shown in the following. Fill in the missing readings and calculate the RL of
all points. Apply the usual checks.

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