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Links
Classroom Activities
Surveying Education Programs
Surveying and Mapping Glossary
Acknowledgments
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Cadastral system
Public record of the extent, value, and ownership
of land within a district for taxation. The word comes
from the
Latin word cadastre referring to a registry of lands.
Geodesy
The science of measurement and mathematical description of the size and shape of the Earth taking into account its gravitational fields and the precise location of points on its surface.
Geographic Information System (GIS)
A collection of computer hardware, software, and geographic data designed to capture, store, update, manipulate, analyze, and display geographically referenced data. The surveyor is the one who collects, analyzes, and reports the geographic data. In combination with geographic data, a GIS study may include other data sets: sales figures, revenues, population census, real estate, and illness rates.
Geomatics Engineering
A relatively new term, geomatics generally describes the diverse career specialties that make up the surveying and mapping profession. Geometrics deals with geometry, or the mathematics of points, lines, planes and figures, along with their properties, measurements, and relationships. This study is used in all aspects of surveying.
Global Positioning System (GPS)
The GPS is a constellation of 24 satellites orbiting the earth twice a day. A ground receiver calculates its geographic position by determining its relative position to a set of at least three satellites. The receiver can calculate the exact location—usually within a centimeter—of an object on the surface of the Earth.
Hydrography
The science that deals with the measurement and description of the physical features of the land beneath oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, and their adjoining coastal areas. Hydrographic surveys are useful for measuring erosion, guiding dredging projects, exploring for oil and rare mineral deposits, and marking underwater hazards.
Photogrammetry
A 3D coordinate measuring technique that uses photographs
or other remote sensing systems in conjunction with on-the-ground
survey reference points—called ground controls—as
the fundamental medium for measurement.
Remote Sensing
The measurement of information about an object by a recording
device without coming into physical contact with the object.
Remote sensing involves the use an aircraft, spacecraft, satellites,
or ships for gathering information pertinent to the environment,
such as measurements of forcefields, electromagnetic radiation,
infrared sensing, land use, and water bodies. Such systems typically
use devices such as cameras, lasers, radio frequency receivers,
radar systems, infrared detectors, sonar seismographs, gravimeters,
magnetometers, and scintillation counters.
Surveyor
A person who uses measurements, mathematics, and evidence analysis to define the location of objects on the face of the Earth and their relationship to property boundaries and the elevation of important features on a parcel of land.
Topography
The graphic portrayal of a land parcel’s configuration in map form, as shown by contour lines that shows the elevation (relief) of the land surface. In oceanography, the term is applied to a surface such as the sea bottom or surface of given characteristics within the water mass. Hydrologists are well versed in the use of topographic surveying.
Sources: www.cadastral.com;
www.epa.gov; www.datum.com; www.geodetic.com; www.nalms.org;
www.geologyeducations.com; www.ngs.noaa.gov
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