Wallaga University

Ground Surveying(GISc 2030)

By: Bira-anu T.
 Unit 1: Introduction to surveying

 Definition of surveying
 Primary division of Surveying
 Basic principles of Surveying
 Importance of surveying
 Modern Trend of Surveying
 Classification of Surveying
 Based on its application
 Based on instrument used
 Basic measurement in surveying

2 By: Bira-anu Tadesa @WU!

11/22/2024
 Definition Surveying

 Determination of the relative spatial

location of the points on or near the
surface of the earth.
 It is the art:
• of measuring horizontal and vertical distances
between objects
• of measuring angles between lines
• of determining the direction of lines and
• of establishing points by predetermined angular
and linear measurements.
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 Cont’d

 Surveying as defined by webster:

 Branch of applied mathematics which

teaches the art of determining:
• The area of any portion of the earth’s surface
• The length and directions of the boundary lines
• The contour of the surface and
• Of accurately delineating the whole on paper

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 Primary Division of surveying

 Geodetic Surveying:

• The type of surveying which takes into account the

true shape of the earth.

• Are usually of a national

characters were mostly
undertaken by
government agencies to
serve as a basis for the
production of accurate
base & topographic maps.

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 Cont’d

 Plane Surveying:
 The type of surveying in which the mean surface
of the earth is considered as a plane, or in which
its spheroidal shape is neglected.

 is of wide scope and application.

 The different methods of this surveying are

employed in various surveys; that were
undertaken in engineering, scientific, commercial,
architectural, geographic, navigational, and
exploratory work.
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 Summary of primary type of
surveying

Plane surveying Geodetic surveying

• The earth surface is considered as • The earth surface is considered as

plane surface, i.e. curvature of a curved surface, i.e. curvature of
the earth is ignored. the earth is considered.

• Done for smaller area < 250Km2. • Done for large area > 250Km2.

• Comparatively low accuracy • High accuracy required.

required.
• The line joining any two station is
• The line joining any 2 stations is considered as a curved line.
considered to be straight.
• The triangle formed by any 3
• The triangle formed by any 3 points is considered as a
points is considered as a plane. spherical.

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By: Bira-anu Tadesa @WU!
 Basic principles of Surveying

 Control
 Consideration of preliminary/site survey/whole to part

 Economy of accuracy
 Consideration of precision and accuracy level

 Consistency
 Assured of reliability & ensured by least squares
adjustment
 The Independent check
 is a technique of quality assurance

 Safeguarding
 Concerned with the protection of work
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 Principle of working from whole to part

 Implies a precise control surveying as the

first consideration followed by subsidiary
detail surveying.

 Involves laying down an overall system of

stations whose positions are fixed to a fairly
high degree of accuracy as control.
 The survey of details between the control
points may be added on the frame by less
elaborate methods.

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 Cont’d

 Once the overall size has been determined, the

smaller areas can be surveyed in the
knowledge that they must (and will if care is
taken) put into the confines of the main overall
frame.
 Errors which may inevitably arise are then
contained within the framework of the control
points and can be adjusted to it.
▲ Surveying is based on simple fundamental
principles which should be taken into
consideration to enable one get good results.

By: Bira-anu Tadesa @WU!

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 Working from the whole to the part:

 is achieved by covering the area to be surveyed

with a number of spaced out control point called
primary control points(CP) whose pointing have
been determined with a high level of precision
than secondary and tertiary CP.

 is mainly purpose to localize the errors as

working the other way round would magnify the
errors and introduce distortions in the survey.
 Using measurements from two control parts to
fix other points.
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 Cont’d

 Given two points whose length and bearings

have been accurately determined, a line can
be drawn to join them hence surveying has
control reference points.
 For example, if A and B are the control points, the
following operations can be performed to fix other
points or point c:
 Operation i: Using points A and B as the centers, ascribe arcs
and fix (where they intersect).

 Operation ii: Draw a perpendicular from Distance along AB

to a point C.
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 Cont’d

® Operation iii: To locate C, measure distance AB and use your

protractor to equally measure angle ABC.

® Operation iv: To locate C the interior angles of triangle ABC

can be measured. The lengths of the sides AC and BC can be
calculated by solving the triangle.

Fixing the third points using two points

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 Process of surveying

 The survey process passes through 3 main

phases.
 Reconnaissance survey:
 is a pre-field work and measurement phase.

 Field work and measurement:

 is the actual measurements in the field and the
recordings in the field notebook.

 Office work:
 is the post field work stage in which data collected and
recordings in the field notebooks are decoded

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 Importance of surveying

 Surveying plays an essential role in the planning,

design, layout and construction of our physical
environment and infrastructure.
 surveys are used to:
 map the Earth above and below sea level.
 prepare navigational charts for use in the air, on land, & at
sea.
 establish property boundaries of private & public lands.
 develop data banks of land use & natural resource
information that aid in managing our environment.
 determine facts on the size, shape, gravity, and magnetic
fields of the Earth.
 prepare charts of our moon and planets.
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 Modern Trend of Surveying

 The traditional instruments that were used until

about the 1960s/1970s like; transit, theodolite,
dumpy level, & steel tape are replaced by an
array of new “high-tech” instruments like:
 Electronic total station:
 Used to automatically measure distance & angles
 GNSS(GPS, GLONASS, Galileo &Beidou):
 provide precise location information
 Laser scanning instruments:
 Combine automatic distance & angle measurements to
compute dense grids of coordinated points.
 Aerial cameras and RS instruments:
 provide image in digital form.
16 By: Bira-anu Tadesa @WU! 11/22/2024
 Classification of Surveying:
Based on its application area
 Control survey:
 made to establish the horizontal and vertical
positions of arbitrary points.

 Boundary survey:
 made to determine the length & direction of
land lines and/or establish the position of these
lines on the ground.
 Topographic survey:
 made to gather data to produce a topographic
map showing the configuration of the terrain &
the location of natural & man-made objects.
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 Cont’d

 Hydrographic survey:
 the survey of bodies of water made for the
purpose of navigation, water supply, or sub-
aqueous construction.
 Mining survey:
 made to control, locate and map underground
and surface works related to mining
operations.

 Astronomical survey:
 generally involve imagining or mapping of
regions of the sky using telescopes.
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 Cont’d

 Route survey:
 refers to those control, topographic, &
construction surveys necessary for the location
& construction of highways, railroads, canals,
transmission lines & pipe lines.
 Photogrammetric survey:
 made to utilize the principles of aerial
photogrammetry, in which measurements made
on photographs are used to determine the
positions of photographed objects.
 Construction survey:
 made to lay out locate and monitor public and
private engineering works.
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 Cont’d

 City surveys:
 are surveys of the areas in and near a city for
the purpose of planning expansions or
improvements, locating property lines, fixing
reference monuments, determining the physical
features and configuration of the land, and
preparing maps.

 Forestry surveys:
 A type of survey executed in correction with
forest management and mensuration and the
production and conservation of forest lands.

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 Cont’d

 Industrial surveys:
 sometimes known as optical tooling.
 Refers to the use of surveying techniques in
ship building, construction & assembly of
aircrafts, layout and installation of heavy and
complex machinery, and in other industries
where very accurate dimensional layouts are
required.

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 Cont’d

 Cadastral surveys:
 Are usually closed surveys which are
undertaken in urban & rural locations for the
purpose of determining & defining property
lines & boundaries, corners and areas.
 Are also made to fix the boundaries of
municipalities, town & provincial jurisdictions.

By: Bira-anu Tadesa @WU!

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 Classification of Surveying:
Based on instruments used
 Astrolabe:
 The astrolabe of Hipperachus is
considered to be one of the
measuring instrument that have
come down from ancient times.
 Telescope:
 The invention of the telescope in
1607 is generally accredited to
Lippershey.
 In 1609, Galileo constructed a
refracting telescope for astronomical
observations.
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 Cont’d

 Transit:
 The invention of the transit is
credited to Young and Drapper who
worked independently from each
other sometime in 1830.
 Semicircumeferentor:
 An early surveying instrument which
was used to measure and lay off
angles and establish lines of sight by
employing peep sights.
 Plane Table:
 is the oldest instruments used for plotting
& taking measurement in field mapping.
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By: Bira-anu Tadesa @WU!
 Cont’d

 Dioptra:
 Which was perfected by Heron of
Alexandria, was used in leveling
and for measuring horizontal and
vertical angles.
 It consists essentially of a copper
tube supported on a standard
and could be rotated in either
horizontal or vertical plane.
 Roman Groma:
 The roman surveyors used the
groma as an instrument for
aligning or sighting points.
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 Cont’d

 Libella:
 The Assyrians and Egyptians are believed
to be the first users of the labella.
 The instrument had an A-frame with a
plumb line suspended from its apex & was
used to determine the horizontal.

 Vernier:
 Is a short auxiliary scale placed alongside
the graduated scale of an instrument, by
means of which fractional parts of the
smallest or least division of the main scale
can be determined precisely without
having to interpolate.
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 Cont’d

 Diopter:
 An instrument developed by the Greeks.
 It was used for leveling, laying off right
angles, and for measuring horizontal and
vertical angles.
 Compass:
 The magnetic compass came into wide
used during the 13th century for
determining the direction of lines & in
calculating angles between lines.
 Gunter’s Chain:
 Was invented by Sir Edmund Gunter in 1620.
 Was the forerunner of instruments used for
taping distances/only for linear measure.
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By: Bira-anu Tadesa @WU!
 Cont’d

 Chorobates:
 Was designed for leveling work.
 It consisted of a horizontal straight-edge
about 6m long with supporting legs, and a
grove 2.5cm deep & 1.5m long on top
 Merchet:
 Was a device for measuring time and
meridian.
 It was first used by the chaldeans in
about 4000 B.C.
 It consisted of a slotted palm leaf
through which to sight and a bracket
from which a plumb bob was
suspended.
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 Classification of Surveying: Based
on measurement
 Horizontal Distance:
• Is the distance measured between the points
which are in a horizontal plane.
• Are measured by different methods like: pacing,
stadia, taping, and EDM.
 Vertical Distance:
• Is the distance measured between the points
which are in a vertical plane.
• The vertical distance of a point above or below a
given reference surface is called the elevation of
the point.
• The most commonly used reference surface for
measuring vertical distance is MSL.
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 Cont’d

 Horizontal Angle:
• Angles measured b/n two intersecting lines in a
horizontal plane.
• The horizontal angle b/n a given line & a specified
reference line is called the direction of the line.
• The reference line is called meridian.
 Vertical Angle:
• Angles measured b/n 2 lines of sight in a plane that is
vertical at the point of observation.
• The up ward vertical direction is usually used as a
reference for measuring vertical angles
• That direction is called zenith direction, & the angle
measured with respect to it is called zenith angle.

By: Bira-anu Tadesa @WU!

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 Thank you!!

By: Bira-anu Tadesa @WU!

31 11/22/2024