CENG 103

LAND SURVEYING
COMPUTATIONS AND
PRACTICALS
Sec 01, Room-TC -2, Three
(3) Credit Hour
Lecturer:
CHARLES N. KORTIMAI (Pst.)
BSc. (Civil Eng.) MSc. (Geomatic
Eng.)
 SURVEYING
DEFINITION
Surveying may be defined as the science, art, and technology of determining
the relative positions of natural and man-made features above, on, or beneath
the earth’s surface and the representation of this information either
graphically or numerically.

Engineers Perspective
Process of measuring distances;
Process of measuring height differences and angles

Purpose of Surveying
Preparation of large-scale plans or
Engineering works to be located in their correct positions on the ground.

General Perspective
Surveying, can be regarded as the discipline which encompasses
all methods for measuring, processing, and disseminating information about
the physical earth and our environment.
 SURVEY PRACTICE
INVOLVES
The surveying practices involve as follow:
 Determination of the shape of the earth and measurement of all facts
needed to determine the size, position, shape, and contour of any part
of the earth’s surface, and the provisions of plans, maps, files and
charts recording these facts;
 Positioning of objects in space, and positioning of physical features,
structures, and engineering works on, above, or below the surface of
the earth;
 Determination of the positions of boundaries of public or private land,
including national and international boundaries, and the registration of
those lands with appropriate authorities;
 SURVEY PRACTICE
INVOLVES
 Design, establishment, and administration of land and geographic
information systems, collection and the storage of data within those
systems, and analysis and manipulation of that data to produce maps,
files, charts and reports for use in the planning and design processes;
 Planning of the use, development, and re-development of property,
and management of that property, whether urban or rural, and
whether land or buildings, including determination of values,
estimation of costs, and the economic application of resources such
as money, labor, and materials taking into account relevant legal,
economic, environmental and social factors;
 Study of the natural and social environment, measurement of land
and marine resources, and the use of this data in planning and
development in urban, rural and regional areas.
 BASIC SURVEYING FIELD
MEASUREMENTS

Field operations in surveying involve the following:

o Measuring distances,
o height differences
o And angles, using ground-based or space-based instruments and techniques.

The measured quantities are processed:

 To determine horizontal positions of arbitrary points on the earth’s surface;
 To determine elevations or heights of arbitrary points above or below a reference datum,
such as mean sea level;
 To determine the configuration of the ground;
 To determine the lengths and directions of lines;
 To determine the areas of tracts bounded by given lines.

 To transfer designed drawings from paper onto the ground, distances, angles and grade
lines are set-out (or laid off) to locate construction lines for buildings, bridges, highways
and other engineering works, and to establish the positions of boundary lines on the
ground
 GEODETIC
SURVEYS
Based on the assumptions Surveyors made, survey computations are made in
such orders of accuracies. Surveying may be divided principally into Plane
and Geodetic Surveying.
 In geodetic surveying, the curved surface of the earth is considered by
performing the computations on an ellipsoid (a curved mathematical
figure used to approximate the size and shape of the earth).
 Geodetic methods are employed to determine:
 relative positions of widely spaced monuments and

 to compute lengths and directions of the long lines between them.

 These monuments serve as the basis for referencing other subordinate

surveys of lesser extent. All height measurements in geodetic surveys

are referenced to the surface of the ellipsoid, and are termed ellipsoidal
or geodetic heights.
 PLANE
SURVEYS
 In plane surveys are involved with:
 relatively small areas of the earth are involved and the surface of the earth is
considered to be a horizontal plane or flat surface.
 The direction of a plumb line (and thus gravity) is considered parallel throughout the
survey region, and all measured angles are presumed to be plane angles.
 All height measurements are referenced to mean sea Level or the geoid, and are
termed orthometric heights.

 Field measurements for geodetic surveys are usually performed to a higher order of
accuracy (using special precise instruments and rigorous procedures) than those for
plane surveys.
 CLASSES OF
SURVEYS
The classes of surveying are:
 Topographic Surveys: are conducted to determine the configuration of the ground as
well as the location of the natural and man-made features of the earth including hills,
valleys, railways etc.
 Cadastral Surveys: are conducted for legal purposes such as deed plans showing and
defining legal property boundaries and the calculation of area(s) involved.
 Hydrographic Surveys: are conducted to determine the position of the survey vessel,
depth of water and to investigate the nature of the sea bed.
 CLASSES OF
SURVEYS
 Photogrammetric Surveying: It is the science of making precise
measurement and creating detailed maps from aerial images or
photographs.

 Mining Surveys: are executed to establish location and

boundaries of mining claims. It also involves the establishment of
underground workings horizontally, vertically and lay out shaft
connections.
 Engineering Surveying: executed to locate or lay out engineering
or building works such as roads, railways, tunnels, dams etc
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