Surveying
Surveying determines positions for maps, boundaries, and construction.
Surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of figuring out where points are on land by measuring the distances and angles between them. These points are typically on the Earth’s surface, and they help create maps and define property lines for ownership, construction (like where building parts should go or where underground features sit), and other needs set by government or civil law, such as real estate sales. Someone who works in this field is called a land surveyor.
Surveyors draw on geodesy, geometry, trigonometry, regression analysis, physics, engineering, metrology, programming languages, and law. Their tools include total stations, robotic total stations, theodolites, GNSS receivers, retroreflectors, 3D scanners, lidar sensors, radios, inclinometers, handheld tablets, optical and digital levels, subsurface locators, drones, GIS, and surveying software.
Surveying has shaped human environments since the earliest records. It’s essential for planning and building most structures, as well as for transportation, communications, mapping, and setting legal land boundaries. It also serves as a key research tool across many scientific fields.
The International Federation of Surveyors defines a surveyor as a professional with the academic background and technical skills to do one or more of these tasks: measure and represent land, three-dimensional objects, point-fields, and trajectories; gather and interpret land-related information; use that information to plan and manage land, sea, and structures; and conduct research to advance these practices.
Surveying goes back to the first large structures. In ancient Egypt, rope stretchers used simple geometry to reset boundaries after the Nile’s floods. The Great Pyramid of Giza (around 2700 BC) shows the Egyptians’ skill, with its nearly perfect squareness and north-south alignment. The groma tool likely came from Mesopotamia (early 1st millennium BC). Stonehenge (around 2500 BC) was laid out by prehistoric surveyors using pegs and rope. In 263 AD, mathematician Liu Hui described measuring distant objects in *The Sea Island Mathematical Manual*. The Romans made surveying a profession, setting up basic measurements to divide the empire and record conquered lands for taxes (around 300 AD); their surveyors were called Gromatici. In medieval Europe, “beating the bounds” kept village or parish boundaries
- field
- Surveying
- known_for
- Determining terrestrial positions, establishing maps and boundaries, and supporting construction and legal land ownership
- earliest_recorded_use
- c. 2700 BC (Great Pyramid of Giza)
- key_instruments
- Total stations, theodolites, GNSS receivers, 3D scanners, lidar sensors, drones
Lore & Background
Surveying has occurred since humans built the first large structures. In ancient Egypt, a rope stretcher used simple geometry to re-establish boundaries after the annual floods of the Nile River. The almost perfect squareness and north–south orientation of the Great Pyramid of Giza, built c. 2700 BC, affirm the Egyptians' command of surveying. The groma instrument may have originated in Mesopotamia (early 1st millennium BC). The prehistoric monument at Stonehenge (c. 2500 BC) was set out by prehistoric surveyors using peg and rope geometry.
In the 18th century, modern techniques and instruments for surveying began to be used. Jesse Ramsden introduced the first precision theodolite in 1787. Dutch mathematician Willebrord Snellius pioneered triangulation, and the Great Trigonometric Survey of India was responsible for one of the first accurate measurements of a section of an arc of meridian (latitude), not longitude.
Reader's Guide
Surveying has been an element in the development of the human environment since the beginning of recorded history. It is used in the planning and execution of most forms of construction, as well as in transportation, communications, mapping, and the definition of legal boundaries for land ownership. The International Federation of Surveyors defines the surveyor's function to include determining, measuring and representing land and three-dimensional objects; assembling and interpreting land-related information; using that information for planning and administration; and conducting research into these practices. Surveying became a professional occupation in high demand at the turn of the 19th century with the onset of the Industrial Revolution. Industrial infrastructure projects used surveyors to lay out canals, roads and rail. The profession developed more accurate instruments to aid its work. Advances in electronics allowed miniaturization of EDM, and total stations brought improvements in accuracy and speed of measurement, including tilt compensators, data recorders and on-board calculation programs. Surveying remains an important tool for research in many other scientific disciplines.
Did You Know?
- The Great Pyramid of Giza, built c. 2700 BC, affirms the Egyptians' command of surveying.
- Willebrord Snellius introduced the modern systematic use of triangulation in 1615.
- The first precision theodolite was introduced by Jesse Ramsden in 1787.
- The Torrens system for land registration was introduced in South Australia in 1858.
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