DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY-DASMARINAS

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE, AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING
CIVIL AND SANITARY ENGINEERING PROGRAMS

T-CEET226: FUNDAMENTALS OF SURVEYING 1

INTRODUCTION TO SURVEYING FIELD

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GOSPEL DEVOTION:
(Matthew 22:37-38)

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38This is the first and great
commandment. 39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself.

Before we close please pray sincerely the following prayer.

Lord Jesus…...
I want to stop trusting in myself……...and what can I do…...and start trusting in
you…and what you’ve already done…. when you died for me in the cross……
I know I am a sinner…. I ask you Lord Jesus to please forgive of my sins…and I
invite to live inside of me. I accept you Lord as my Savior. I totally commit myself to
obeying you…. everyday, for the rest of my life. I thank you Lord.
All these things I pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. AMEN.
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INTRODUCTION TO SURVEYING 1 FIELD

Surveying is the art and science of determining angular and linear measurements to establish the
form, extent, and relative position of points, lines, and areas on or near the surface of the earth or
on other extraterrestrial bodies through applied mathematics and the use of specialize equipment
and techniques.
Categories of surveying:
1. Plane Surveying
2. Geodetic Surveying
Types of Surveys:
1. Cadastral survey
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 2. City Survey
3. Construction survey
4. Forestry survey
5. Hydrographic survey
6. Industrial survey
7. Mine survey
8. Photogrammetric Survey
9. Route Survey
10. Engineering survey
11. Topographic Survey
12. GPS survey

Surveying Instruments:
1. Survey tapes: Tapes are used in surveying to measure horizontal, vertical, and slope
distances. They may be made of a ribbon or a band of steel, an alloy of steel, cloth
reinforced with metal, or synthetic materials. 

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2. Marking pins: Marking pins, or taping pins, are used to mark tape lengths on the
ground as a survey crew moves along. They are used for marking the ends of tapes or
intermediate points during taping.

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3. Plumb bob: Plumb bob is used in taping to project a point on the tape down to the
ground, or to project a point on the ground up to the taped.

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4. Stadia rod: A graduated rod used with an instrument having stadia hairs to measure
the distance from the observation point to the place where the rod is positioned by
observation of the length of rod subtended by the distance between the stadia hairs
when these are fixed or of the space between the stadia hairs when they are adjusted
to cover a certain definite interval on the rod

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5. Automatic level: A level is an optical instrument used to establish or verify points in
the same horizontal plane in a process known as levelling, and is used in conjunction
with a levelling staff to establish the relative heights levels of objects or mark

An automatic level, self-levelling level, or builder's auto level includes an internal

compensator mechanism (a swinging prism) that, when set close
to level, automatically removes any remaining variation. This reduces the need to set
the instrument base truly level, as with a dumpy level.

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6. Theodolite: A theodolite is a precision instrument for measuring angles in the horizontal
and vertical planes. Theodolites are used mainly for surveying applications, and have
been adapted for specialized purposes in fields like metrology and rocket launch
technology.

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7. Total station : A total station is an electronic/optical instrument used in
modern surveying and building construction that uses electronic transit theodolite in
conjunction with electronic distance meter (EDM).It is also integrated with
microprocessor, electronic data collector and storage system.

The instrument is used to measure sloping distance of object to the instrument,

horizontal angles and vertical angles. This Microprocessor unit enables for
computation data collected to further calculate the horizontal distance, coordinates of
a point and reduced level of point.

Data collected from total station can be downloaded into computer/laptops for further
processing of information.

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8. GPS Instruments: GPS was rapidly adapted for surveying, as it can give a position
(Latitude, Longitude and Height) directly, without the need to measure angles and distances
between intermediate points. Survey control could now be established almost anywhere and it
was only necessary to have a clear view of the sky so the signal from the GPS satellites could be
received clearly.

GPS is similar in some ways to the Trilateration and EDM previously discussed, except that the
known positions are now the GPS satellites (and their orbits) 20,000 km in space. The equipment
and calculations are extremely complex, but for the user the process is generally very simple.

In the commonly available receivers, the GPS receiver almost instantly works out its position
(Latitude, Longitude and Height) with an uncertainty of a few metres, from the data broadcast by
the satellites. This data includes a description of the satellites changing position (its orbit) and the
time the data was transmitted

Methods of Measuring Distance:

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1. Pacing. Pacing is the simplest and easiest method for measuring distance. Pacing is the
process of walking the distance and counting the number of steps "paces" to cover the
distance. The distance is determined by multiplying the number of steps taken between
two points by one's pace factor.

2. Taping. Taping is the linear measurement of the horizontal distance between two points
using a surveyor’s tape. Observation of horizontal distances by taping consists of
applying the known length of a graduated tape directly to line a number of times

3. Mechanical Device (Ex. Odometer)

An odometer is a distance measuring device from one point to another by using a
vehicle, such as a bicycle or a car. Most odometers work by counting wheel rotations and
assume that the distance travelled is the number of wheel rotations times the tire
circumference.

4. Tachometry. Tacheometry is a branch of angular surveying in which the horizontal and

vertical distances are obtained by optical means as opposed to the ordinary process of
chain and tape. This is done with the help of two special type of instruments- transit
theodolite and stadia rod. 

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 5. Electro Distance Measurement. Electronic distance measurement (EDM) is a method of
determining the length between two points using electromagnetic waves. EDM is
commonly carried out with digital instruments called theodolites. EDM instruments are
highly reliable and convenient pieces of surveying equipment and can be used to
measure distances of up to 100 kilometers. 

Devices that can be used to measure distances as well as angles are :

a)Theodolites
A Theodolite is a instrument for measuring both horizontal and vertical angles, as used in
triangulation networks. It is a tool used in the surveying and engineering industry, but
theodolites have been adapted for other specialized purposes as well.

b) Total Stations
A total station is an optical instrument used in modern surveying. It is a
combination of an electronic theodolite (transit), an electronic distance measuring
device (EDM) and software running on an external computer, such as a laptop or
data collector.

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See the following videos:

1. Pacing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_5eoA9bac8

2. Taping
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMr9-SvoYVs

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 3.Stadia survey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1cNeQ12vr4

4.Survey by Total station:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wLPX7HhrXg
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