SURVEYING IDENTIFICATION

Surveying

The art and science of determining the relative positions of points above, on, or beneath the Earth's surface, or establishing such points.

Egyptian Land Register

The earliest known land ownership record, created around 3,000 BC according to the presentation.

Rope-stretchers

People who used knotted ropes to measure distances and relocate land boundaries in ancient Egypt.

Groma

An early surveying instrument used by the Greeks to establish straight lines and right angles.

Plane Surveying

Surveying in which the Earth is considered a flat surface. It is used for limited areas where the Earth's curvature can be disregarded.

Geodetic Surveying

Surveying that takes into account the spheroidal shape of the Earth. It is often used as a basis for accurate base maps and topographic maps.

Cadastral Survey

Specializes in establishing and re-establishing real property boundaries.

City Survey

Used for planning city expansions or improvements, locating property lines, fixing reference monuments, and preparing maps.

Construction Survey

Conducted at construction sites to provide data on grades, reference lines, and the location and elevation of structures

Forestry Survey

Conducted in connection with forest management, forest measurement, and the production and conservation of forest lands.

Hydrographic Survey

Surveying of streams, lakes, reservoirs, harbors, oceans, and other bodies of water. It can map shorelines, chart underwater areas, and measure stream flow.

Industrial Survey

Applies surveying to shipbuilding, aircraft construction and assembly, and the layout and installation of heavy or complex machinery.

Mine Survey

Determines the positions of underground excavations and surface mine structures, establishes mining claim boundaries, identifies geological formations, and calculates excavated volumes.

Photogrammetric Survey

The art, science, and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment by recording, measuring, and interpreting photographic images and recorded electromagnetic radiation patterns

Route Survey

Determines the alignment, grades, and earthwork quantities, including cut and fill, for highways, railroads, pipelines, canals, and similar routes.

Topographic Survey

Determines the shape of the ground and the locations and elevations of natural and artificial objects.

Contour Map

A map that represents the shape and elevation of the ground using contour lines.

Contour Lines

Lines on a map that connect points of equal elevation. This is the meaning of the term used in topographic mapping.

Egyptians

The ancient civilization identified in the presentation as the earliest civilization believed to have practiced surveying.

Profile Leveling

The process of determining differences in elevation along a fixed line at designated, short measured intervals.

Leveling

The process of directly or indirectly measuring vertical distances to determine the elevations of points or the differences in their elevations.

Pace Factor

The ratio of measured distance to the number of paces made by an individual in covering that distance.

Catenary

A tape not supported along its length will sag and form a between end supports.

Profile Paper

A special heavy-grade graphing paper used for plotting profiles.

Mean Sea Level

An imaginary sea surface midway between high and low tides. It is the reference surface to which most ground elevations are referred.

Backsight

A staff reading taken on a point of known elevation, such as a benchmark or temporary benchmark.

Benchmark

A permanent point of known elevation. the elevation is known or identified at a benchmark.

Full Stations

Points established along the profile-level route at uniformly measured distances.

Magnetic Meridian

A fixed line of reference that lies parallel to the Earth's magnetic lines of force. It is not parallel to the true meridians because they converge at a magnetic pole located some distance away from the true geographic poles.

Grid North

A north point established by lines on a map that are parallel to a selected meridian.

Radian

The natural unit of angle. One radian is equal to 180/pi, or approximately 57.2958 degree.

True Meridian

Also known as the astronomic or geographic meridian. It is a line passing through the Earth's geographic North and South Poles.

Arbitrary

It is used to portray the location of any arbitrarily chosen north point.

Simple Curve

A circular arc, extending from one tangent to the next.

Point of curvature

The point where the line enters the curve. Beginning of the curve.

Point of tangency

The point where the line leaves the curve. End of the curve.

Point of intersection

Point where both tangents (T1 and T2) meet. Also called vertex.

External distance

The distance between the vertex to the curve.

Middle ordinate

This is the line joining the middle of the curve and middle of the chord line joining the PC and PT.

Degree of curve

This is the angle at the center subtended by an arc of 20 m in different metric system and 100 ft in English system. Defines the sharpness of the curve.

Compound curve

Consists of two or more consecutive simple curves having radius, but whose centers lie on the same side of the curve.

Point of compound curve

This is the point of the compound curve where two curves meet.