Surveying
surface of the earth, or to establish such
 One of the oldest arts practiced by man.
 Necessary to mark boundaries and
divide tracts of land.
 Planning and design are based on the
results of surveys.
 Construction is controlled by surveying.
Definitions of Surveying
Delineating portion of the earth's
surface or subsurface or of establishing the
position of boundaries of some object upon it.
1. Rayner and Schmidt - the art of
determining the positions of points on
or near the earth's surface by means of
measurements in the three elements of
space; namely, distance, direction, and
elevation.
2. Davis, Foote, Anderson, and Mikhail -
the art of measuring horizontal and
vertical distances between objects, of
measuring angles of establishing points
by predetermined angular and linear
measurements.
3. Clarke - The art of making such
measurements of the relative positions
of points on the surface of the earth
that, on drawing them to scale, natural
and artificial features may be exhibited
in their correct horizontal or vertical
relationships.
4. Webster - Surveying is that 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.
5. Breed, Hosmer, and Bones - Surveying
is the science or art of making such
measurements as are necessary to
determine the relative position of
points above, on, or beneath the
points.
6. Brinker and Wolf - Surveying is the
science and art of determining relative
positions of points above, on, or
beneath the surface of the earth, or
establishing such points.
Surveys are divided into two general
classifications, plane and geodetic.
 PLANE SURVEYING
It is the type of surveying in
which the earth is considered to be a
flat surface, and where distances and
areas involved are of limited extent that
the exact shape of the earth is
disregarded.
 GEODETIC SURVEYING
This refers to surveys of a wide
extent that take into account the
spheroidal shape of the earth.
Types of Surveys:
1. CADASTRAL SURVEYS - These are
usually closed surveys which are
undertaken in urban and rural locations
for the purpose of determining and
defining property lines and boundaries,
corners, and areas.
2. CITY SURVEYS - These are surveys of
the areas in and near a city.
3. CONSTRUCTION SURVEYS -These are
surveys which are undertaken at a
construction site.
4. FORESTRY SURVEYS - It is a type of
survey executed in connection with
forest management and mensuration.
5. HYDROGRAPHIC SURVEYS - It refers to
the surveying streams, lakes, reservoirs,
harbors, oceans and other bodies of
water.
6. INDUSTRIAL SURVEYS - It is sometimes
known as optical tooling.
 7. MINE SURVEYS - These are surveys
which are performed to determine the
position of all underground excavations
and surface mine structures.
8. PHOTOGRAMMETRIC SURVEYS - It is a
type of survey which makes use of
photographs taken with specially
designed cameras.
9. ROUTE SURVEYS - It involves the
determination of alignment, grades,
earthwork quantities, location of
natural and artificial objects.
10. TOPOGRAPHIC SURVEYS - These are
surveys made for determining the
shape of the ground and the location
and elevation of natural and artificial
features upon it.
SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS
1. Astrolabe - The astrolabe of
Hipparchus is considered to be one of
the best known of the measuring
instruments that have come down from
ancient times. It was developed
sometime in 140 B.C. and further
improved by Ptolemy.
2. Telescope - The invention of the
telescope in1607 is generally accredited
to Lippershey. In 1609, Galileo
constructed a refracting telescope for
astronomical observations. However, it
was only when cross hairs for fixing the
line of sight were introduced, that the
telescope was used in early surveying
instruments.
3. Transit - The invention of the transmit
is credited to Young and Draper who
worked independently from each other
sometime in 1830. Both men were able
to put together in one instrument the
essential parts of what has long been
known as the universal surveying
instruments.
4. Semicircumferentor - An early
surveying instrument which was used to
measure and lay off angles, and
establishes lines of sight by employing
peep sights.
5. Plane Table - One of the oldest types of
surveying instruments used in field
mapping. It consists of a board attached
to a tripod in such a way that it can be
leveled or rotated to any desired
direction.
6. Dioptra - The dioptra was perfected by
Heron of Alexandria, was used in
leveling and for measuring horizontal
and vertical angles.
7. Roman Groma - The Roman surveyors
used the groma as an instrument for
aligning or sighting points.
8. Libella - The Assyrians and Egyptians
are believed to be the first users of the
libella. The instrument had an A-frame
with a plumb line suspended from its
apex and was used to determine the
horizontal.
9. Vernier - The vernier is a short auxillary
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.
10. Diopter - An instrument developed by
the Greeks sometime in 130 BC, and
known to be their most famous
surveying instrument. The diopter was
used for leveling, laying off right angles,
and measuring horizontal and vertical
angles.
11. Compass - The magnetic compass came
into wide use during 13th century for
determining the direction of lines and in
calculating angles between lines.
12. Gunter's Chain - The Gunter's chain,
which was invented by Sir Edmund
 Gunter in 1620, was the forerunner of
instruments used for taping distances.
13. Chorobates - This instrument was
designed for leveling work. It consisted
of a horizontal straight edge about 6
meters long with supporting legs, and a
groove 2.5 cm deep and 1.5 m on top.
14. Merchet - The Merchet was a device
for measuring time and meridian. It
was first used by the Chaldeans in about
4,000 B.C. It consisted of a slotted palm
leaf through which to sight and a
bracket from which a plumb bob was
suspended.