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Topographic Survey

Topographic survey involves recording coordinate and height data over a surveyed area to create maps and terrain models. It is important to record the survey boundaries and distinguish topographic points from those associated with features. There are two main strategies for collecting topographic points - even coverage over the entire area or focusing more densely on features. Breaklines along boundaries and edges help accurately define slopes and reconstruct surfaces in the office.

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Jayson Cerias
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77 views

Topographic Survey

Topographic survey involves recording coordinate and height data over a surveyed area to create maps and terrain models. It is important to record the survey boundaries and distinguish topographic points from those associated with features. There are two main strategies for collecting topographic points - even coverage over the entire area or focusing more densely on features. Breaklines along boundaries and edges help accurately define slopes and reconstruct surfaces in the office.

Uploaded by

Jayson Cerias
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Topographic Survey

Topographic survey is simply the recording of coordinates and height data for a
particular survey area. This data can be used to create spot height maps, contour
maps, or more complex terrain models of the surveyed area.

General principles:
Boundaries
It is important in topographic surveys to record the boundaries of your survey, both so
that the data can be spatially located, but also, for the management of point
collection.
More often than not, survey boundaries are defined by field boundaries, and it is
good practice to record these immediately after instrument setup and orientation.

Boundary Features

Features
Often the survey area will have buildings, standing remains, or archaeological
features which you don’t want to include with the topographic data. Points
associated with these features should be recorded separately and assigned point IDs
which are different from the ID of Topographic points.

Topographic points Contours

Topo Points
The idea behind collecting topographical points is simply to record elevation data for
the entire area of survey. Important points to keep in mind:

• Ideally points will be recorded at a high density (close together) over the
entire area of the survey.
• In practice this is not often possible and different strategies have to be
chosen: two possibilities are as follows:
1. Even coverage over survey area-
In this option point spacing should be approximately equal over the entire area of
the survey.

Pros: The theory behind this method is that with a full and even coverage, a true
representation of the topography of the survey area will be generated.

Cons: The drawback is that in practice, it is often hard to record a density of points
over the entire area that will accurately reflect the detailed surface of the ground.
Rather, this method often gives a general idea of the surface of the ground

2. Feature oriented Topo survey


If the survey area covers a number of earthworks or areas of archaeological
significance, a strategy which concentrates on these areas may be chosen. In this
type of survey points are collected at a high density in the area of the
archaeology/ feature, while the surrounding area is surveyed at a lower density.

Pros: This strategy relies on the judgment of the surveyor and has the potential to
be very accurate (the human eye is left to judge where more points are needed
based on the complexity of the ground surface.

Cons: Features which escaped initial observation by the surveyor may be missed.
Areas with very few points can be misinterpreted. Areas which are left out
the survey for whatever reason must be marked by survey boundaries.

Breaklines
Features which have clear boundaries or edges are often surveyed with a specific
point sequence called a Breakline. This allows us to accurately reconstruct the
surface of the feature in the office. Surfaces created with topographical points only
can sometimes “dull” the effects of boundaries of edges. Breaklines define edges,
boundaries, and sharp changes of terrain.

Breaklines cross the contours and Modelled surface with the results of breaks
define the edge of slopes or features

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