INTRODUCTION TO SURVEYING

What is surveying?
as an art of making measurements of the relative position of natural
and man-made features on the earth’s surface and display the
information either graphically or numerically.
as the science of determining the position, in three dimensions, of
natural and man-made features on or beneath the surface of the Earth.
In engineering surveying, either or both of the above formats may be
used for planning, design and construction of works, both on the surface
and underground.
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• the procedures for making surveying measurements on earth’s
surface.
• Vertical line-at any point on the earth’s surface is the line that follows
the direction of gravity at a point.
• Vertical plane-is any plane that contains the vertical line at the point
• Horizontal line-is any line that is perpendicular to the vertical line at
that point
• Horizontal plane- is the plane that is perpendicular to the vertical
plane at the point
• vertical angle - is an angle measured in a vertical plane.
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• Horizontal angle: - is an angle measured in a horizontal plane

between two vertical planes
Need for surveying
surveying is needed for subdivisions, buildings, bridges, highways,
railroads canals, piers, wharves, dams, irrigation and drainage
networks, and many other projects
Types of surveying
In general surveying is divided into two broad classes as geodetic and
plane surveying
Geodetic surveying
The study of size and shape of the earth is known as geodesy
 the curvature of the earth is considered
 Large areas of the earth’s surface are involved
 it requires high degree of precisions
 Used to small scale
 Satellite positioning system, which can obtain the three-dimensional coordinates of
any point, is considered in this method
 Plane Surveying
 the curvature of the earth is not considered
 relatively small areas are under considers
 Used to large scale
 assumed that the earth’s surface is flat i.e. it gives a horizontal plane
Classification of surveying based on purpose
 Control survey: - is a survey made to establish the horizontal or vertical
positions of an arbitrary point.
 Topographic Survey is a survey conducted to determine the configuration
of the ground and all the features on it (man made or natural)
 Construction Survey: - Surveys performed to locate / layout engineering
works
 Cadastral Survey: - is a survey made to determine the lengths and
directions of boundary lines and the area of the tract bounded by these
lines
 Hydrographic Survey: - is a survey conducted to determine the
configuration of the body of water.
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 Route Survey: - involves the determination of the relief and the location
of natural and artificial objects along a proposed route for high– way,
railroad, canal
 Any engineering before making designs should be consider for element .
 Those are easy, time/distance, economic and safety
 Aerial survey (or photogram metric survey): - a survey conducted by
means of Aerial photography
Basic Principles
Practice in turn must be based upon proven principles
 Control
 the framework of survey stations whose coordinates have been
precisely determined
 Economy of accuracy
 for a specific purpose and so should be as accurate as they need to be,
but not more accurate
 needs to be kept to an economic minimum
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 The Independent check
 The independent check is a technique of quality assurance
 The observations should be repeated
 Safeguarding
 concerned with the protection of work
Surveying instruments
 Level and rod –used to measure difference elevation
 Transit or Theodolite –measure horizontal and vertical angles.
 Total station –measure horizontal and vertical angles as well as
horizontal and vertical distance
 GPS/receiver to determine position coordinate (x,y &z)
 GPS concept
 What are the 3 components of GPS?

 GPS is made of three components namely

 Satellites
 ground stations
 and receivers
 Based on this element collect all data on the earth’s
surface that spatial data, instance x,y &z
 Chapter two
MEASUREMENT AND ERRORS

Distance
 one of the fundamental measurements in surveying
a spatial distance (sloping distance) in three-dimensional space
 Methods of Measurement
Pacing
 used for approximate measurements quickly
Odometer
 for rough measurements by rolling a wheel along the line to be measured
 Useful for preliminary survey
Tachometry
 a rapid indirect means of determining distance
 useful in topographic surveying, substance bar and precise transit
Electronic Distance Measurement (EDM)
 works based on speed of light /electromagnetic waves
Taping
 steel tapes varying in length from 1m to 300m are used
Chain Surveying/land surveying
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Instruments used
Chain: widely used method for measuring distance
 Tapes: made in a variety of materials, lengths and weights
 Steel tapes are sometimes called the engineers
Additional instruments used in taping
Range poles- these are poles of circular section 2m, 2. 5m
Plumb bob- pointed metal weight used to project the horizontal location of a point
from one elevation to another
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• Hand level: used to keep the two ends of the tape at the same
elevation when measuring over irregular terrain
• Principle of chain Surveying
• surveyed should be divided into framework of triangles, which are
the simplest geometrical figures that can be plotted with three sides
known
• Checking lines or proof lines
• Off sets- determine the location of details like buildings, canals,
roads etc.
Method of Ranging
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Ranging is the process of establishing intermediate points on the straight line between
two surveying stations.
Direct Ranging
 used where the two end stations are intervisible
Indirect (Reciprocal) ranging
 used when the two end stations are not invisible but both are visible from an
intermediate position
 Taping around the obstructed lines but ranging is possible
 Taping around the obstruction is possible
 Use of right angled triangle
 Sources of Errors Precautions and corrections
 Sources of errors:
• No one is perfect in nature
• measuring any quantity and there are no perfect instrument
• with which to do the measuring
• All measurement have contain error
• Errors: inaccuracies in measurement
 Error
• No measurements are exact. That is, they
always contain errors.
• An error is the difference between a measured
value for any quantity and its true value
e=M–T
Error sources
• Instrumental errors
• Natural errors
• Personal errors
 Classification of measurement errors
• Systematic errors (biases)
– influences of instruments, environment or surveyors etc
– eliminate the causes, reduce/eliminate the effect
– apply theoretical correction or automatic detection

• Random errors
– arithmetic mean approaches zero
– equal chance for positive and negative errors
– more small errors than larger errors
– magnitude of errors is limited
– use statistical methods: normal distribution

• Gross errors
– mistakes which should be avoided. Automatic detection
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 Taping pin not set exactly where the plumb bob touched the ground
 Inability of the observer to estimate the last place in reading between
graduations
 Inability of the tape man to steady the plumb bob
Accuracy and Precision
Accuracy denotes the closeness of a given measurement to the true
value
Precision or apparent accuracy is the degree of closeness to another
measurement of the same quality
 Quality aspects of measurements

• Precision
– internal agreement among the
measurements
– a measure of repeatability of the
measurements
– under same measurement condition
• Reliability
– capability against gross errors or
systematic errors
– reliable measurements are said to be
robust, stable
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Corrections for errors in tape measurement:
Incorrect length of tape
The correction to be applied to any
measurement made with the tape in order to
account for the deviation is called the
absolute correction Ca
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• Ca= true length-nominal length

Methods of describing directions
This is usually done by referring to a fixed line of reference called a
meridian.
Meridians can be true, magnetic, assumed and grid meridians
True meridian: The true meridian also called astronomic meridian
determined by astronomical observations
Magnetic meridian: - it is the direction indicated by freely suspended
magnetic needle when it is unaffected by local attraction
Assumed meridian: It is direction, which is chosen arbitrarily
Azimuths: The azimuth of a line is its direction as given by the clockwise
angle between the north end of the meridian and the line
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* For Azimuths on the 1st and 4th quadrant

Back azimuth=forward azimuth +1800
* For azimuths on the 2nd and 3rd quadrant
Back azimuth =forward azimuth-1800
The magnitudes of forward and back ward azimuths differ by 1800.
Bearings: It is the angle measured between the line and given meridian
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 Formula for azimuth and bearing
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 Methods of Describing Angles
 Interior angles: It is angle between two adjacent sides in a closed
polygon
 Deflection angles: It is the angle between a line and the prolongation
of the preceding line
 Angles to the right: angles may be determined by clockwise
measurements from the preceding to the following line
• Magnetic compass
 three types of compasses as pocket, surveyor’s and transit compass
 the magnetic meridian is inclined to the true meridian and this
deviation is called magnetic declination
 Use and Adjustment of Theodolite
 Terms Used in Theodolite surveys
 Face left face right observations
 Face left  with the vertical circle on the left side of the eyepiece.
 Face right  with the vertical circle on the right side of eyepiece
 Swinging the telescope  rotating the telescope by 1800 in the
horizontal plane
 Transiting or plunging  rotating the telescope by 1800 in the vertical
plane
 Telescope normal and telescope reverse Reading with normal
telescope and reading with swinging and transiting of telescope
 Double centering observing angles twice with telescope normal &
reverse
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• Measurement of horizontal angles
 To measure angle AOB, the instrument is set up over station O and carefully leveled by means
of the foot screws
 To measure angle ABC the theodolite is set up at B and the telescope is fixed at A and an angle
of 27000’35” was recorded on targeting through C. Reversing the telescope by swinging and
plunging at C and then turning to A a horizontal angle of 207000’30” was recorded. What is the
mean value of the angle ABC?
 Pointing Face left Face right
 Station C 27000’35” 207000’36”
 Station A 0000’00” 180000’07”
27000’35” 27000’29”
The mean value of angle ABC=27000’32”
 The vertical angles are measured with respect to the horizontal plane defined by vertical
bubble
 In order to determine the vertical angle between two lines OA&OB in a hilly ground with an
instrument set some distance from points. The readings were taken with both faces of the
instrument and the following readings were recorded.
 Pointing Face left Face right
 Station A 237036’ 57025’
 Station B 181020’ 01017’
56016’ 56008’
• 0
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 Stadia method
 For the measurement of stadia distance
 the reticule in the telescope of the Theodolite is equipped with three
horizontal cross hairs; the upper and lower cross hairs are called
stadia hairs