ARDHI UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF GEOSPATIAL SCIENCES AND

TECHNOLOGY

GT234 CADASTRAL SURVEYING IN

RURAL AREAS

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 Outline

• Surveying processes

• Accuracy specifications and standards

• Rounding off: Farm and Estate Areas

• Survey Field techniques

• Individual Lands: Farms and Estates Surveys

• Demarcation in rural areas

• Village surveys

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 Surveying processes
• After acquiring survey request and instructions (SF37),
the following are the preliminary steps

 Data searching- identifies and acquires all previous surveys

done in the immediate neighbourhood of the area where the
new survey is to be undertakane. It helps to detect and
avoid overlapping surveys and unwanted gaps. Data sources
are index maps, plans, computation files(comp files), data
sheet files, etc.

 Pre-computations (pre-comps)- this is useful during

reconnaissance particularly datum checks

 Initial job planning- it guids the surveyor where the new

survey/work will start

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 Surveying processes cont..
 Reconnaissance-refer to the feild visit and inspection which the
surveyor makes in the area he/she is to survey. It enables the surveyor
to ;

 Have an overall view of the type of terrain he/she is to work

 Assess more correctly the type and magnitude of the problems to

be encountered

 Determine a suitable plan of the work

 Estimate the personnel, materials, time requirements and cost

estimate of the survey

 Conceive the most appropriate field technique to execute the

survey

 Coordination work- process of finding coordinates of unknown

points. Methods traverse, polar(B&D) method, on-line fixation,
offset methods, etc

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 Accuracy specifications and standards

• Accuracy specifications for Linear Measurements

• Accuracy specifications for traverses are quoted in terms of

total error over the entire distance traversed, and these
are commonly referred to as linear misclosure
• In Tanzania, the minimum acceptable linear misclosure of
the traverse for boundary definitions are;

 For urban survey one part in six thousands 1/6000 (1:6000)

 For rural survey one part in five thousands 1/5000 (1:5000)

 For detail survey one part in one thousands 1/1000 (1:1000)

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 Rounding off: Farm and Estate Areas

• Data sheets for farms and estates are compiled from rounded off distances,
bearings, areas and coordinates. The coordinates are first rounded off to two
decimal places, which are used to compute area and boundary data, that is bearings
and distances.
• The bearings are then rounded off to the nearest ten seconds of an arc and
distances to two decimal places of a metre
• The areas are rounded off in accordance with the specified rules as outlined below;

Size Degree of Rounding off

Up to 2 hectares Rectilinear: to four decimal places of a hectare

Curvilinear: to three decimal places of a hectare

Over 2Ha and under 8Ha Rectilinear: to three decimal places of a hectare
Curvilinear: to two decimal places of a hectare

Over 8Ha and 40Ha Rectilinear: to two decimal places of a hectare

Curvilinear: to one decimal places of a hectare

Over 40Ha and under 400Ha to one decimal places of a hectare

Over 400Ha to the nearest five hectares

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 Survey Field techniques

 Survey Field techniques in rural areas are not so

different as that
found in urban areas. These are as follows;

 Scaling of angles and distances-Theodolite Technique

 Scaling of Coordinates -Total station Technique

 Stake-out-Tacheometry technique

 GNSS Technique

 etc.
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 Individual lands
(Farms and Estate Surveys)
 The survey of a rural land is always initiated by the land owner who
lodges an application for the survey to the District Land Office

 Planners are consulted for advise on the suitability

 If no objection, a sketch showing the location and shape of the land to

be surveyed is prepared

 Relevant authorities responsible for issuing survey request and survey

instructions (SF37) are as listed below;

 For a piece of land whose acreage do not exceed 100 acres

(40.47Ha)- the survey request and instructions (SF37) is issued
by District Land development Office – the District Land Officer.

 Land whose acreage do not exceed 500 acres (202.35Ha)- SF37 is

issued by Regional Land development Office

 Land acreage exceeds 500 acres - SF37 is issued by Ministry

responsible for Land development.
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 Demarcation in rural areas
• However demarcation work in rural areas is done in a slightly

different way as in urban area. It is the land owner who shows

the surveyor the boundaries of his/her land. As this takes place,

adjudication should also be done. Through the process of

adjudication, neighbours of the land being surveyed are given an

opportunity to express their views on the boundary positions. The

procedure reduces to the minimum, the chance for encroachment

and potential boundary conflicts between neighbours.

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 Railway and Road Reserves Through Farms

 The situation is different, in urban area the surveyor work from

the TP drawings while in rural, the surveyor has to deploy all
his/her planning skills. Several situations may be encountered as
follows;
 First, where a permanent road or railway passes through a
farm. Survey regulation No.22 requires that the centre line
of the reserve be surveyed and the correct width of the
reserved be plotted on the plan. Such a reserve must be
beaconed at the points where it enters and leaves the
estate. For all practical purposes, a road or a railway is
reserved for public use.
 For this reason, all the area covered within the reserve
should be established and subtracted from the farm area

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 Railway and Road Reserves Through Farms cont..

Figure showing Reserve containing a Permanent Road or Railway line Through

a Farm

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 Railway and Road Reserves Through Farms cont..
 Second, where a permanent road or railway reserve forms the boundary
of property and the reserve contains a permanently formed road or a
permanent railway, the common boundary is not to be beaconed save at its
intersection with the adjacent boundaries of the property. The centre
line of the reserve is to be surveyed and the reserve plotted on the plan
at the correct scale

Figure showing Reserve contains a Permanent Road or Railway line

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 Railway and Road Reserves Through Farms cont...
 Third, where a road or a railway forms the boundary of a property and
the reserve does not contain a permanent formed road or a permanent
railway, the reserve should consist of a series of straight lines between
beacons placed at each point of change in direction. Such points are to
be selected in such a way that the distance from any point on any of
these straight lines to the centre line of the reserve does not differ by
more than 0.76m from half the statutory width i.e. 1/2w±0.76m. It
should be recalled that in urban areas this requirement is modified to
1/2w±0.015m where w is the total reserve

re Line
Cent (0.5w±0.78)m

Figure showing Reserve Does not Contains a Permanent Road or Railway line
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 Railway and Road Reserves Through Farms cont..

 Other features which require consideration for reserves include

high voltage power lines have reserves ranging from 10m to 60m
depending on the voltage of the lines. E.g. 11KV lines require a
reserve of 10m, 33KV lines require a reserve of 30m, over 66KV
lines requires 60m.

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 Village surveys

• The work flow

 The survey starts by holding seminars to the villagers done by a

team called Flying Team.

 The team do the following activities;

 Educates the villagers on the purpose of surveys

 Prepare a report and submit it to the Director SMD who

evaluates it and pass it to the village survey section. The
village survey section consults the Photogrammetric section
and appoints Photo interpreters to carry out the assignment

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 Village surveys cont..

• Preliminary work
 The photo interpreters collect recent topographic map
sheets (scale 1:50,000) and recent aerial
photographs/satellite images covering the specified
Districts.

 After acquisition of these documents indexing is done

 During indexing, the respective centre of each photograph

covering a portion of topographic map sheet is transferred
onto a map sheet and a cross drown on the map to indicate
the position. The photograph number is written next to the
cross. The activity is repeated for all the graphs.

 An index diagram showing the topological arrangement of

1:50,000 scale map sheets covering a district/region is drawn
on a transparent drafting film and annoted to show the
respective sheet names and numbers.

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 Village surveys cont..

• The work Teams

 The photo-interpreters from SMD travel to the district where

the village survey is to be done. They take index diagrams, the
index topographic maps, china-graph pencils, pocket
stereoscopes and field books.

 In the district they are joined by surveyors and field assistants.

 A work team formed comprises of a photo interpreter, a land

surveyor and 4 field assistants

 A work team visit a village to start the work

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 Village surveys cont..

• The Field Work

 A work team meets village representatives (village chairperson

and secretary) and other villagers who know he locations of the
boundaries well.

 The land surveyor carries concrete beacons, BC1 and BC2

 The villagers show the position of the village boundaries

meanwhile the photo interpreter identifies and annotates the
boundaries on the respective photographs

 The land surveyor erects beacon where the a boundary line

changes direction and the beacon erected must be agreed upon
by all villages representatives commonly share that point. The
representatives sign BC1 to record such agreement.

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 Village surveys cont..

 The photo interpreter identifies the position of the

point/line on the photography marks it on the photograph,
write the beacon number. The photo interpreter then makes
a graphical and textual description of the point on the field
sheet.

 At completion of the filed task, the photo interpreter

should have with him/her the following information;
 Annotated photographs
 Sketch of the boundaries of the village
 Description of the boundary corners
 Index map sheet
 Signed Beacon Certificates (BC1), the Certificate of
Erection of Beacons by surveyor(BC2)
 List of names (including their signatures) of the village
representatives who accompanied the work team

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 Village surveys cont..

• The Office Work

This is concerned with;
 Data processing of the field data
 Presentation of the results
 Plotting of the Village Boundaries with the following
information;
 Title showing the names of village mapped
 Names and areas of individual village entered in the
respective village boundaries
 Bearing and distances for every boundary line written
along these lines
 Certificate showing that the whole work had been done
by photogrammetric methods.

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 Sub-division surveys
• Land parcel sub-division is a continuous operation which takes
place until a particular land parcel is too small to sub-divide.
Land sub-division is one of those occurrences which assure the
land surveyor of continued engagement long after initial land
parcellation and allocation in a country has been completed and
cannot be denied.
• Land parcel sub-divisions arise for a variety of reasons
including;
 The fulfillment wills and inheritance rites
 The wish of land owners to mortgage or to give their beloved ones
part of their land
 Land held in co-ownership may need to be apportioned
 Courts of law may initiate sub-division in order to settle unfulfilled
obligations (like unpaid debts) by land owners
 For any one of these reasons, the surveyor will be required to
carry out a sub-division of
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 Sub-division surveys cont…
• Before undertaking any sub-division of a previous surveyed piece
of land, the go-ahead from appropriate authority must be
sought and obtained

• The granting of such a go-ahead takes into account the size of

the land which is the subject of sub-division and asses the size
of the resulting portions in the light of economic viability,
examine the existence of legal encumbrances like mortgages,
easements, leases, right of way, caveats etc. and find out how
the sub-division might affect them.

• Once a go-ahead has been granted the surveyor can start the
sub-division. Lets us now examine the surveyor’s maneuvers and
considerations

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 Connecting Sub-division surveys
• Surveyors undertaking sub-division surveys have often tied the new
points established onto any coordinated points available in the
neighborhood without due regard as to how the previously
coordinated points had been fixed. This is an improper procedure.

• Good survey practice demand the surveyor does a thorough data

searching which must include proper understanding of the history of
the previous survey which established the boundaries of the land
parcel being sub-divided.

• This means getting the appropriate survey records and reports.

From these, surveyor should acquire knowledge about the methods
used to fix all old beacons which are to be used for the sub-
division work, accuracies attained, the relationship of the fixes
used and so on

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 Connecting Sub-division surveys cont…

• Where surveys within a block or plot sub-divisions are

concerned, attempts should first be made to exhaust all
possibilities to tie the sub-division survey to the existing old
beacons for the plot or block being sub-divided instead of going
straight for control or other points. These should only be
considered where old ones for the plot/block are lost, misplaced
or damaged.

• This requirement is intended to avoid accumulation of errors in a

block and maintain consistency within a block being sub-divided.

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 Area Sub-division Technique

• A piece of land may be required to be sub-divided into given

parts by;

 A line from certain points on the boundary

 A line of given azimuth/bearing

 A give and take (an equalizing) line

 Lines that divide the land into specified propositions

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 Area Sub-division by a Line Starting at a
Given point on the boundary
• Procedures;
 Suppose figure ABCDEFG below is to be sub-divided into two
portions of given sizes by a line starting at points B

A C
B

1a 1b D

G
E
X
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 Area Sub-division by a Line Starting at a
Given point on the boundary cont…
Steps;
 Calculate from coordinates the total area of plot ABCDEFG

 From the plan of the plot, estimate the most probable position
of the line BX that would cut the plot into the required parts.
Starting at a known point as it does, line BX will meet the
opposite boundary at an unknown point X on either FE or GF.
Suppose point X is on line GF

 Choose a known point close to X, in this case it is point F

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 Area Sub-division by a Line Starting at a
Given point on the boundary cont…

 Calculate area ABFG or area BCDEF and compare it with the

required sizes of the resulting plots 1a and 1b

 If area ABFG is greater than the required size for plot 1a,
obtain the difference say Δa. This Δa is the amount across
which line BF has to sweep if BF is hinged at B, and F rotated
clockwise to X
 In triangle BFX, bearings and distances BF and FG can be
computed, angle BFG can be derived. Thus distance FX can be
solved from;

Δa=1/2BF.FXsin(BFG)
Since bearing and distance FX are now known, the coordinates
of point X can be derived and the sub-division effected in the
filed.
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 Area Sub-division by a Line of a Given Bearing

Steps to follow are as outlined below

 Calculate the total area of plot ABCDEFG as explained from the
previous technique

A
C
B X

D
Plot 2a
Plot 2b
G

Z Y
F

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 Area Sub-division by a Line of a Given Bearing
cont ..
Steps to follow are as outlined below
 Estimate the position of line XY on the bearing given to divide the
plot into the required parts and sizes

 Since X and Y are on unknown points on boundaries BC and GF, we

start from one known point which is close to the line XY. In this case
either B or F. let choose B

 Construct line BZ parallel to XY assumed to be approximating position

of XY

 Compute coordinates of point Z from known data, bearings BZ and

GZ, coordinates of B and G.

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Area Sub-division by a Line of a Given Bearing
cont ..
 Calculate area ABZG or BCDEFZ

 Compare the size of ABZG with the required portion

 Assume the area ABZG is less of the required area by amount Δa

 Divide Δa from the difference between the required size of resulting

plot 2a and area ABZG.

 Then Δa=area BXYZ

 Area BXYZ forms a trapezium and it is required to know the separation

h between the two parallel lines BZ and XY from which distances BX
and ZY, hence coordinates of X and Y can be computed

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 Area Sub-division by a Give and Take Line

 This is conducted when happen that the boundary of two

contiguous plots is a zigzag line. The neighbors owing such

parcels may wish to reduce the number of lines forming the

common boundary without either of them losing land to each

other.

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 Area Sub-division into Proportional Parts
 This method is confined to regular figures like Triangles and

Rectangles where area calculations would not be necessary. In

such situations, the proportional parts would further require to

be simple numbers like 1:2, 1:3, 2:3 etc. In this method good

knowledge of the geometry of various figures together with

their properties is invaluable.

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