INTRODUCTION TO SURVEYING descriptions of each plot’s boundaries, property

elements, and inhabitants.

• The science, art, and technology of determining the
relative positions of points above, on, or beneath the
Earth’s surface, or of establishing such points.
• 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.
• Distances, angles, directions, locations, elevations,
areas, and volumes are thus determined from the data
of the survey.
• Survey data is portrayed graphically by the
construction of maps, profiles, cross sections, and
diagrams.
HISTORY OF SURVEYING
• First Land Surveyors: Ancient Egypt, 1400 BC
• The name for Egyptian surveyors was
“harpedonaptae” which means “rope stretchers”.
• Chinese Invent the First Magnetic Compass, 221-296
BC
• Creation of New Land Surveying Tools, 1570-1787
• In 1571, Joshua Habermel created the FIRST
THEODOLITE. This highly precise instrument uses a set-
up with tripod and compass.
METHODS OF SURVEYING
Geodetic Surveying
• Conducted by survey department of the country.
• It is that type of surveying in which the curved shape
of the earth is taken into account.
• The object of geodetic survey is to determine the
precise position on the surface of the earth, of a system
of widely distant points which form control stations in
which surveys of less precision may be referred.
• Exceeds 20 sq. km
Earth surface is considered as spherical
▪ Line formed by joining any two points are considered
as arch –as the same angles are spherical angles
▪ Suitable for large area surveying

• In the Qin dynasty in China, the 1st magnetic compass ▪ Survey accuracy is high
was born and it would become a mainstay in land ▪ Special instrument needed and long survey method
surveying.

• Land Surveying in Mesopotamia, 400 B.C

• An early surveying instrument that came after the

Egyptian’s rope method is the GROMA. The Roman and
Greeks used the Groma in land surveying as early as 400
B.C.

Greeks Create Diopter, 120 BC

• Around 120 BC, the greeks developed geometry and

created a new land surveying tool called diopter. This
was a portable tool that used culmination of a
cogwheel and water level to measure terrestrial and
astronomical figures on a property.

• William Conqueror Creates a Record of Land Plots

• In 1086, William ordered a “Domesday Book”, which

was a record of people who owned a land in England
and the size of the plots they owned. This book included
Plane Surveying
Earth surface is assumed as plain
▪ Line formed by any two points are considered as
straight line – as the same angles are plain angles
▪ Suitable for small area surveying
▪ Survey accuracy is low
▪ Economic and easy survey method
TYPES OF SURVEY (BASED ON NATURE OF SURVEY)
Cadastral Survey usually undertaken in rural and urban
locations for the purpose of determining and defining
property lines and boundaries.
City Survey Surveys of the areas in and near a city for
the purpose of planning
expansions or improvements, locating property lines,
fixing reference monuments, etc.
Construction Survey Surveys that are undertaken at a
construction site to provide data regarding grades,
reference lines, dimensions and ground configuration.
Forestry Survey Type of survey executed in connection
with forest management and mensuration and the
production and conservation of forest lands.
Hydrographic Survey Refers to surveying steams,
reservoirs, harbors, oceans and other bodies of water.
Industrial Survey Sometimes known as optical tooling.
It refers to the use of surveying techniques in ship
building, construction and assembly of aircraft, layout
and installation of heavy and complex machinery.
Mine Survey to determine position of all underground
excavations and surface mine structures, to fic surface
boundaries of mining claims and determine geological
formations.
Photogrammetric Survey which make use of
photographs taken with specially designed cameras
either from airplanes or ground stations.
Route Survey Involves the determination of alignment,
grades, earthwork quantities, location of natural and
artificial objects in connection with planning , design,
and construction of highways, railroads, pipelines,
canals and transmission lines.
Topographic Survey made for determining the shape of
the ground, and the location and elevation of natural
and artificial features upon it.
SECONDARY CLASSIFICATION OF SURVEYING
Surveying Based On Instruments
Chain surveying
• Basic and oldest type of surveying. The principle
involved in chain survey is triangulation. The area to be
surveyed is divided into a small number of triangles.
Angles of the triangle must not be less than 30 degree
and greater than 120 degree. Equilateral triangles are
considered to be ideal triangle. This method is suitable
on level ground with little undulations and area to be
survey is small.
Compass surveying
• Uses the principle of traversing. This method does not
require the need to create triangles. It uses a prismatic
compass for measuring magnetic bearing of line and the
distance is measured by chain.
Plane table surveying
• The principle of the type of survey is parallelism. They
are plotted directly on paper with their relative position.
The rays are drawn from station to object on ground.
Theodolite surveying
• Instrument used mainly for accurate measurements of
the horizontal and vertical angles. They are accurate to
measure up to 10 to 20 deg angles.
Tacheometric surveying
Photographic surveying
SURVEYING MEASUREMENTS
In surveying, measurements usually concentrated on;
Lines, Angle, Times, Area, Volumes, Elevations
“Best surveyor is not the one who makes the most
accurate and precise measurements, but the one who
is able to choose and applied required or appropriate
degree of precision.”
Direct Measurements – is a comparison between
measured quantity with the measuring units.
Example:
Applying a wire or a tape to a line
Determining horizontal and vertical angle with a transit
Fitting a protractor between two intersecting lines to
measure angle.
Indirect Measurement – when it is not possible to apply
a measuring instrument directly to a quantity to be
measured.
Example:
Total distance of a line obtained by a summation of a
series directly measured short segments.
Stadia and subtense method
Error It is defined as the difference between the true
value and the measured value of a quantity. It is the
deviation of an observation or calculation from the true
value and is often beyond control.
Mistakes These are inaccuracies in measurements
which occur because some aspect of surveying
operation is performed By the surveyor with
carelessness, inattention, poor judgement and improper
execution.
TYPES OF ERROR
Type of error which will always have the same sign and
magnitude as long as field conditions remain constant
and unchanged.
Will repeat itself in other measurements, still
maintaining the same sign and thus will accumulate.
And for this reason, it is also called cumulative error.
These errors are purely accidental in nature.
The occurrence of such errors are matters of chance as
they are likely to be positive or negative.
There is no absolute way of determining or eliminating
these kind of them since the error is not likely to be the
same for a second observation.
SOURCES OF ERROR
Instrumental Errors
These errors are due to the imperfections of the
instruments used.
 Measuring using a steel tape of incorrect length.
 Using levelling rod with painted graduation not
properly spaced.
Natural Errors
These errors are caused by variations in the
phenomena of nature such as changes in magnetic
declination, temperature, humidity, wind, refraction,
gravity and curvature of the earth.
Personal Errors
These errors arise principally from limitations of the
senses of sight, touch and hearing of the human
observer which are likely to be inaccurate.
It is a quantity which, when added to and subtracted
from the most probable value, defines a range within
which there is a 50 percent chance that the true value
of the measured quantity lies inside ( or outside ) the
limits thus set.

FORMULA
Accuracy It indicates how close a given measurement is
to the absolute or true value of the quantity measured.
Precision It is portrayed by the closeness to one
another of a set of repeated measurements of a
quantity.
RELATIVE (ERROR) PRECISION

THEORY OF PROBABILITY It is the ratio of the probable error (PE) to the measure
quantity value (MPV), and it is used to define the degree
It is defined as the number of times something will of refinement obtained.
probably occur over the range of possible occurrences.
FORMULA RP = PE / MPV
Small errors occur more often that large ones and that
they are more probable.
Large errors are less probable and in normally WEIGHTED OBSERVATION
distributed errors, these errors are may be mistakes
The weight is directly proportional to the number of
than errors.
observation.
Positive and negative errors of the same size happen
FORMULA Weighted Mean = ∑P / ∑W
with equal frequency; that is, they are equally probable.
The mean of an infinite number of observation is the
most probable value.

MOST PROBABLE VALUE INTERRELATIONSHIP OF ERRORS

It is the arithmetic mean or the average. In some cases, it is required to determine how the final
result is affected when a computation involves
It refers to a quantity which based on available data has
quantities or value that are subjected to accidental
more chances of being correct than has any other.
errors.
FORMULA
SUMMATION OF ERRORS
MPV = Ẍ=∑X/n = (X1+X2+ X3+....+ Xn)/ n
It is applied when several measured quantities are
added and each of which is affected by accidental error,
the probable error of the sum is given by this formula.
RESIDUAL
It is sometimes referred to as the deviation and defined
as the difference between any measured value of a
quantity and its most probable value.
Product of Error
FORMULA v = x − x̄
It is applied when several measured quantities are
multiplied and each of which is affected by accidental

PROBABLE ERROR
error, the probable error of the sum is given by this
formula.
What is GIS?
A geographic information system, commonly referred
to as a GIS, is an integrated set of hardware and
software tools used for the manipulation and
management of digital spatial (geographic) and related
attribute data.
A GIS is a computer system capable of capturing,
storing, analyzing, and displaying geographically
referenced information; that is, data identified
according to location. Practitioners also define a GIS as
including the procedures, operating personnel, and
spatial data that go into the system. –USGS
A geographic information system (GIS) integrates
hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing,
analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically
referenced information. GIS allows us to view,
understand, question, interpret, and visualize data in
many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and
trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts.
– ESRI
GIS is an integrated system of computer hardware,
software, and trained personnel linking topographic,
demographic, utility, facility, image and other resource
data that is geographically referenced. – NASA
How does GIS Works?
The power of a GIS comes from the ability to relate
different information in a spatial context and to reach
a conclusion about this relationship. This is done by
using a location reference system, such as longitude
and latitude, and perhaps elevation. A GIS can reveal
important new information that leads to better
decision-making.
Also, GIS makes it possible to link, or integrate,
information that is difficult to associate through any
other means. Thus, a GIS can use combinations of
mapped variables to build and analyze new variables.
Components of GIS
A GIS can be divided into five components: People,
Data, Hardware, Software, and Procedures.
People
the component who actually makes the GIS work.
 Viewers are the public at large whose only need
is to browse a geographic database for
referential material. These constitute the
largest class of users.
 General Users are people who use GIS to
conducting business, performing professional
services, and making decisions.
 GIS specialists are the people who make the GIS
work. They are responsible for the
maintenance of the geographic database and
the provision of technical support to the other
two classes of users.
Procedures
• Procedures include how the data will be retrieved,
input into the system, stored, managed, transformed,
analyzed, and finally presented in a final output. The
ability of a GIS to perform spatial analysis and answer
these questions is what differentiates this type of
system from any other information systems.
Hardware
• Hardware consists of the technical equipment
needed to run a GIS including a computer system with
enough power to run the software, enough memory to
store large amounts of data, and input and output
devices such as scanners, digitizers, GPS data loggers,
media disks, and printers. (Carver, 1998)
Software
• There are many different GIS software packages
available today. All packages must be capable of data
input, storage, management, transformation, analysis,
and output, but the appearance, methods, resources,
and ease of use of the various systems may be very
different. Today’s software packages are capable of
allowing both graphical and descriptive data to be
stored in a single database, known as the object-
relational model. Before this innovation, the geo-
relational model was used. In this model, graphical and
descriptive data sets were handled separately. The
modern packages usually come with a set of tools that
can be customized to the users needs (Lo, 2002).
Data
• Perhaps the most time consuming and costly aspect
of initiating a GIS is creating a database. There are
several things to consider before acquiring geographic
data. It is crucial to check the quality of the data before
obtaining it. Errors in the data set can add many
unpleasant and costly hours to implementing a GIS and
the results and conclusions of the GIS analysis most
likely will be wrong. Several guidelines to look at
include:
 Lineage – This is a description of the source
material from which the data were derived,
and the methods of derivation, including all
transformations involved in producing the final
digital files. This should include all dates of the
source material and updates and changes
made to it. (Guptill, 1995)
 Positional Accuracy – This is the closeness of an
entity in an appropriate coordinate system to
that entity’s true position in the system. The
positional accuracy includes measures of the
horizontal and vertical accuracy of the features
in the data set. (Guptill, 1995)
 Attribute Accuracy – An attribute is a fact
about some location, set of locations, or
features on the surface of the earth. This
information often includes measurements of
some sort, such as temperature or elevation or
a label of a place name.
 Logical Consistency - Deals with the logical
rules of structure and attribute rules for spatial
data and describes the compatibility of a
datum with other data in a data set.
 Completeness – This is a check to see if
relevant data is missing with regards to the
features and the attributes.
Benefits of GIS
GIS benefits organizations of all sizes and in almost
every industry. The benefits of GIS generally fall into five
basic categories:
1. Cost Savings and Increased Efficiency. GIS is widely
used to optimize maintenance schedules and daily
fleet movements.
2. Better Decision Making. GIS is the go-to technology
for making better decisions about location. Common
examples include real estate site selection,
route/corridor selection,
evacuation planning, conservation, natural resource
extraction, etc.
3. Improved Communication. GIS-based maps and
visualizations greatly assist in understanding situations
and in storytelling.
4. Better Recordkeeping. Many organizations have a
primary responsibility of maintaining authoritative
records about the status and change of geography. GIS
provides a strong framework for managing these types
of records with full transaction support and reporting
tools.
5. Managing Geographically. GIS is becoming essential
to understanding what is happening— and what will
happen—in geographic space. This new approach to
management—managing geographically—is
transforming the way that organizations operate.
ArcView
ArcView is the desktop version of ArcGIS meant for a
general (non-professional) audience. Some people will
call this “ArcGIS” rather than “ArcView.” They are one in
the same; ArcView is part of the ArcGIS collection, so it
is a more specific way to describe the software.
ArcEditor
ArcEditor includes all the functionality of ArcGIS, adding
the ability to edit features in a multiuser geodatabase so
that multiuser editing and versioning are possible.
ArcEditor also adds the ability to edit topologically
integrated features in a geodatabase. The student
version of ArcGIS that Esri provides is usually ArcEditor
rather than ArcView.
ArcInfo
ArcInfo is Esri’s professional GIS software. It includes all
of the functionality in ArcGIS and ArcEditor, adding
some advanced geoprocessing and data conversion
capabilities. If you make a living as a GIS specialist, you’ll
want access to ArcInfo.
ArcReader
ArcReader is a free product for viewing maps. You can
explore and query map layers, but you cannot change
symbology or create new data like you can in ArcGIS.
ArcReader is a good way to share the maps you created
in ArcGIS with people who don’t have access to the
software.