Three Forms of Surveying

· 2 min read
Three Forms of Surveying


There are many different kinds of surveys but three of the additionally used ones are topographical surveying, land surveying and underground utilities surveys. Exploring and understanding the different types or surveys and surveying is simple when you know how.

Topographical Surveys or Topo surveying

Topographical Surveying may be the study and measurement of the Earth's surface. This may reveal what natural or man-made geographical features exist within an area, large or small, the contours and shapes of the features themselves and even vegetation and the influence of human presence. The object of all this is to make a three-dimensional map.

In order to provide this kind of accurate detail of the various levels and contours of the land, aerial surveys are conducted, and at ground level survey teams with portable surveying equipment establish vertical and horizontal control points to verify accuracy. In today's world the info is collected and generated electronically.

Fed with the data, computers combine distances, angles, and elevations and produce pictures, using contour lines, hypsometric tints and relief shading.

Property Survey Brierfield  and surveying

Land Surveying may be the measurement and accurate determination of the 3d positions of varied points on a terrain. The objective of this is generally to find out boundaries. Surveyors produce land maps marking out regions of private, communal or government ownership limits. This is constantly being done when there are serious property rights disputes or changes are planned for the region, such as for sub-dividing properties, new residential or town-planning layouts, when roads or other engineering structures are planned, or for the determination of ancient boundaries for historical or archaeological purposes.

Underground Utilities Surveys (electricity, Gas, Water and Television)

Underground Utilities Surveying must be one of the tricky and difficult types of exploration. Surveyors have to know what is underground and cannot be seen. Before any development can take place it must be discovered what, if anything lies under the ground. These could be drains, electrical or gas cables, sinkholes, water pipes or water pockets or buried tanks.

The first degree of exploration is to collect every drawing, plan or bit of electronic data available for the area. This is not totally accurate, but gives a concept of what installations were situated in the immediate area.
The next level involves selecting visible features, such as manholes, inspection hatch covers, meters, electrical poles, etc. Straight lines showing the shortest distance between them are drawn, which narrows down the search. However these lines cannot always be totally relied on as rocks along with other underground barriers can cause deviations, and sometimes the pipes or cables don't run from the centre of every inspection element to the next, but slightly to one side or another.

An indirect survey involves the latest technology, such as radar that penetrates the bottom, X-rays, and frequency resonance. If uncertainty still persists, the last step is drilling or digging potholes at regular intervals to verify the data collected by the above methods.