Surveying 1

The concept of Surveying

 Definition

Surveying, has traditionally been defined as the science, art, and

technology of determining the relative positions of points, on, above, or
beneath the earth surface, and representing these points on a plane
surface to a suitable scale, or establishing such points.

Relative positioning depends on making some sort of measurements such

as distances, angles or bearings, and other measurable parameters lead
to compute these measurements.
Distances can be measured directly using tapes, optical instruments, or
electromagnetic instruments; or indirectly by triangulation. These
distances can be measured in horizontal plane, vertical plane or
inclined. Horizontal distances used to describe planimetric position of
points while vertical distances describe the difference in height
between points.
Representation of points on a plane surface to scale, stands for maps
production.
In many cases, after preparing maps, a particular points need to be set out
from the map to ground. This is widely appeared in engineering
surveying.

 Types of Surveying

1. Geodetic Surveying: usually covers large areas therefore, the

curvature of the earth has to be taken into a count. Instruments used
should be very precise and equations applied are complicated.
2. Plane Surveying: used to cover small portion of the earth ignoring
the earth curvature i.e. assuming plane surface of the earth.
Therefore, Instruments used will be of a lower accuracy compared
 with those used in geodetic surveying and equations applied become
simple.

 Branches of Surveys

1. Engineering Surveying: deals with engineering projects such as

buildings, highways, railroads, pipelines, and transmission lines
providing points and elevations for these projects.
2. Topographic Surveying: deals with collecting data and preparing
maps showing the locations of natural, man-made features and
elevations of the ground points for multiple uses.
3. Photogrammetry: mapping from photos utilizing data obtained by
camera or other sensors carried in airplanes or satellites.
4. Cadastral Surveying: establishes property corners, boundaries,
and areas of land parcels.
5. Hydrographic (bathymetric) Surveying: mapping of shorelines and
the bottom of water bodies.
6. etc...

Recently, Geomatic becomes a substitute term of surveying covering all

modern branches of surveying such as GPS, Remote Sensing and GIS.