Land surveying is the process of determining the positions of points on, above, or below the surface of Earth, their distances, and the angles between them. A professional who is qualified and licensed to carry out this activity is known as a Land Surveyor. This is used in creating maps, generating topographies, establishing land and territory borders etc. But in the smaller scale, land surveyors help with determining the value and extend of lands, urban and town planning, positions of structural components and other work related to civil engineering. Land Surveying has several branches, each with their own field of operation and qualifications. The profession makes use of mathematical and historical data along with geography, trigonometry, and various equipment such as chains, theodolites, total stations etc. Surveyors are employed by construction companies (both infrastructure development and residences, new home builders Brisbane, for example) to calculate land area, heights, and angles that assist with structural engineering work.
Applications of Land Surveying
Measuring and documenting the features of the land under consideration as well as numerical metrics such as land area, and height from sea level. Features inside the area are recorded in terms of their distances to each other, angles between them, heights, and relative position inside the area by selecting known reference points and conducting the survey relative to them.
Constructions sometimes requires a land surveyor to establish the borders of a land beforeconstruction work beings. Buying, selling, renting or mortgaging almost always requires documentation certified by a land surveyor to ensure that the borders are as described and there is no encroachment.
Their services are often required when settling land and property disputes such as when building fences or when there is a dispute over whose land trees are in, or when constructing extensions to houses.
Types of Surveying
Land Surveying is a broad subject which has several branches depending on the scale of the project and areas of application.
Planar surveying is the most widely known and used by land surveyors when measuring land for construction activity. It is generally used for land with less than 250km2 area which allows the assumption that the Earth is flat. At this scale, the differences that occur due to the curvature of the Earth is negligible, resulting in less complicated calculations.
Geodetic surveying is used for larger land areas and fully accounts for the fact that the Earth surface is curved. When measuring larger areas, the differences become apparent and should be considered in the calculation to avoid large errors.
Classification can also be done based on field of application such as geological, mine and archaeological surveys which relate to underground areas and features, military surveying for warfare and strategy development, Engineering surveys for infrastructure development such as Dams, Roads, Power Stations etc. Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is a technology which works based on land surveying principles and mathematics and is what GPS is based on.
Surveyors are overseen by a professional body depending on jurisdiction and require a license to operate and have their certifications be valid.