CENG 50 - Fundamentals of Surveying The engineering ability of the Romans was

BS Civil Engineering demonstrated by their extensive construction

1st Semester AY 2020 – 2021 work throughout the empire. Surveying
necessary for this construction resulted in the
Lecture 1 - Introduction to Surveying organization of a surveyors’ guild. Ingenious
 Overview instruments were developed and used.
 History Among these were the groma, used for
 Definition sighting; the libella, an A-frame with a plumb
 Surveyor bob, for leveling; and the chorobates, a
 Types/ Classes/ Specialized Types horizontal straightedge about 20 ft long with
 Instruments supporting legs and a groove on top for water
 Types of Construction Projects to serve as a level.
 Mapping Agencies
 Surveying Profession
 Surveying Organization
 Surveying on the Internet
 Future Challenges

Overview
How does land surveying work? Practical
Engineering
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPCewaAfqPA

Questions:
1. Have you ever done a similar simple
surveying endeavor as shown in the video?
a. If so, how did it go? Did you face any
problems while conducting such
measurements?
b. If no, why?
2. What are your expectations about the
course, things you might learn and
experience? One of the oldest Latin manuscripts in
existence is the Codex Acerianus, written in
History about the sixth century. It contains an
About 1400 BCE - Herodotus recorded that account of surveying as practiced by the
Sesostris divided the land of Egypt into plots Romans and includes several pages from
for the purpose of taxation. Frontinus’s treatise.

Annual floods of the Nile River swept away

portions of these plots, and surveyors were
appointed to replace the boundaries. These
early surveyors were called rope-stretchers,
since their measurements were made with
ropes having markers at unit distances.

About 120 BCE – Heron authored several important

treatises of interest to surveyors, including
The Dioptra, which related the methods of
surveying a field, drawing a plan, and making
related calculations. It also described one of
the first pieces of surveying equipment
recorded, the diopter.

Sextus Julius Frontinus (c. 40 –

103 AD) – Roman civil
engineer who has the
best known writings in
surveying, in which the
original manuscripts
disappeared. His essay
remained the standard for These illustrate that the variation in shadow length governed by
many years. the time of year is crucial to obtaining sufficient usable
information from the shadow’s length.
https://www.cartographyunchained.com/rm5/

CENG 50 – Fundamentals of Surveying Lecture 1 – Introduction to Surveying

During the Middle Ages, the Arabs kept Greek and
Roman science alive. Little progress was
made in the art of surveying, and the only
writings pertaining to it were called “practical
geometry.”
Fibonacci (c. 1170 – c. 1240–50) – authored
Practica Geometria, which contained
instructions on surveying. He also authored
Liber Quadratorum (The Book of Squares),
dealing chiefly with the quadrans, a square
brass frame having a 90° angle and other
graduated scales. A movable pointer was
used for sighting.
Early civilizations assumed the Earth to be a flat
surface, but by noting the Earth’s circular
shadow on the moon during lunar eclipses
and watching ships gradually disappear as
they sailed toward the horizon, it was slowly
deduced that the planet actually curved in all
directions.
About 200 BCE – Eratosthenes was first to compute
the Earth’s true size and shape. He had
concluded that the Egyptian cities of
Alexandria and Syene were located
approximately on the same meridian, and he
had also observed that at noon on the
summer solstice, the sun was directly
overhead at Syene. (This was apparent
because at that time of that day, the image of
the sun could be seen reflecting from the
bottom of a deep vertical well there.) He
reasoned that at that moment, the sun,
Syene, and Alexandria were in a common
meridian plane, and if he could measure the
arc length between the two cities, and the
angle it subtended at the Earth’s center, he
could compute the Earth’s circumference. He
determined the angle by measuring the
length of the shadow cast at Alexandria from
a vertical staff of known length. The arc
length was found from multiplying the
number of caravan days between Syene and
Alexandria by the average daily distance
traveled. From these measurements,
Eratosthenes calculated the Earth’s
circumference to be about 25,000 mi.
Subsequent precise geodetic measurements
using better instruments, but techniques
similar geometrically to Eratosthenes’, have
shown his value, though slightly too large, to
CENG 50 – Fundamentals of Surveying
be amazingly close to the currently accepted
one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfZ2HZH5CkA
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the art of surveying
advanced more rapidly. The need for maps
and locations of national boundaries caused
England and France to make extensive
surveys requiring accurate triangulation;
thus, geodetic surveying began
Developments in surveying and mapping
equipment have now evolved to the point
where the traditional instruments that were
used until about the 1960s or 1970s—the
transit, theodolite, dumpy level, and steel
tape—have now been almost completely
replaced by an array of new “high-tech”
instruments. These include electronic total
station instruments, which can be used to
automatically measure and record horizontal
and vertical distances, and horizontal and
vertical angles; and global navigation satellite
systems (GNSS) such as the global
positioning system (GPS) that can provide
precise location information for virtually any
type of survey. Laser-scanning instruments
combine automatic distance and angle
measurements to compute dense grids of
coordinated points.
Also new aerial cameras and remote sensing
instruments have been developed, which
provide images in digital form, and these
images can be processed to obtain spatial
information and maps using new digital
photogrammetric restitution instruments
(also called softcopy plotters)
In the Philippines, the first professional association
of architecture and surveyors was born on
September 14, 1902 with the creation of the
Academia de Arquitectura y Agrimensura de
Filipinas (AAAF).
The Reorganization Act 2666 as amended by
Act No. 2803 dated November 18, 1916 gave
birth to the Department of Commerce and
Communications (Department of Commerce
and Police transformed to The Department of
Commerce and Communications), consisting
of the Bureau of Commerce and Industry,
Bureau of Supply, Bureau of Public Works,
Bureau of Posts, Bureau of Labor and
Bureau of Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Increased land values and the importance of
precise boundaries, along with the demand
for public improvements in the canal,
railroad, and turnpike eras, brought
surveying into a prominent position. More
recently, the large volume of general
construction, numerous land subdivisions
that require precise records, and demands
posed by the fields of exploration and
Lecture 1 – Introduction to Surveying
 ecology have entailed an augmented
surveying program. Surveying is still the sign
of progress in the development, use, and
preservation of the Earth’s resources.
The Great Arc: Dramatic Tale of How India was
Mapped and Everest was Named
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-C5CQz-PKg
Activity:
1. Create your own timeline that includes the
development of surveying from its inception
up to now
Definition
Surveying is the art and science of measuring
distances, angles, and positions, on or near the
surface of the earth. It is an art in that only a
surveyor who possesses a thorough
understanding of surveying techniques will be
able to determine the most efficient methods
needed to obtain optimal results over a wide
variety of surveying problems.
Surveying is scientific to the degree that rigorous
mathematical techniques are used to analyze
and adjust the field survey data. The accuracy,
and thus reliability, of the survey depends not
only on the field expertise of the surveyor, but
also on the surveyor’s understanding of the
scientific principles underlying and affecting all
forms of survey measurement.
Surveying is the art and science of taking field
measurements on or near the surface of the
Earth. Survey field measurements include
horizontal and slope distances, vertical
distances, and horizontal and vertical angles.
In addition to measuring distances and angles,
surveyors can measure position as given by the
northing, easting, and elevation of a survey
station by using satellite-positioning and remote-
sensing techniques. In addition to taking
measurements in the field, the surveyor can
derive related distances and directions through
geometric and trigonometric analysis.
Surveying has traditionally been defined as the
science, art, and technology of determining the
relative positions of points above, on, or beneath
the Earth’s surface, or of establishing such
points.
In a more general sense, however, surveying
(geomatics) can be regarded as that discipline
which encompasses all methods for measuring
and collecting information about the physical
earth and our environment, processing that
information, and disseminating a variety of
resulting products to a wide range of clients.
Surveying has been important since the beginning
of civilization. Its earliest applications were in
measuring and marking boundaries of property
ownership. Throughout the years its importance
CENG 50 – Fundamentals of Surveying
has steadily increased with the growing demand
for a variety of maps and other spatially related
types of information and the expanding need for
establishing accurate line and grade to guide
construction operations.
Question:
1. In your own words, how do you define
surveying?
Surveyor
A surveyor is a professional person with the
academic qualifications and technical expertise to
conduct one, or more, of the following activities;
 to determine, measure and represent the
land, three-dimensional objects, point-fields,
and trajectories;
 to assemble and interpret land and
geographically related information;
 to use that information for the planning and
efficient administration of the land, the sea
and any structures thereon; and
 to conduct research into the above practices
and to develop them.
Detailed Functions
The surveyor’s professional tasks may involve
one or more of the following activities, which
may occur either on, above, or below the surface
of the land or the sea and may be carried out in
association with other professionals.
1. The determination of the size and shape of the
earth and the measurements of all data
needed to define the size, position, shape and
contour of any part of the earth and monitoring
any change therein.
2. The positioning of objects in space and time
as well as the positioning and monitoring of
physical features, structures and engineering
works on, above or below the surface of the
earth.
3. The development, testing and calibration of
sensors, instruments and systems for the
above-mentioned purposes and for other
surveying purposes.
4. The acquisition and use of spatial information
from close range, aerial and satellite imagery
and the automation of these processes.
5. The determination of the position of the
boundaries of public or private land, including
national and international boundaries, and the
registration of those lands with the appropriate
authorities.
6. The design, establishment and administration
of geographic information systems (GIS) and
the collection, storage, analysis, management,
display and dissemination of data.
7. The analysis, interpretation and integration of
spatial objects and phenomena in GIS,
including the visualization and communication
of such data in maps, models and mobile
digital devices.
8. The study of the natural and social
environment, the measurement of land and
marine resources and the use of such data in
Lecture 1 – Introduction to Surveying
 the planning of development in urban, rural 2. property lines
and regional areas. 3. roadway centerlines, and
9. The planning, development and 4. arbitrarily placed baselines or grids
redevelopment of property, whether urban or
rural and whether land or buildings. Preliminary Surveys (also known as pre-
10. The assessment of value and the engineering surveys, location surveys, or data
management of property, whether urban or gathering surveys) are used to collect
rural and whether land or buildings. measurements that locate the position of natural
11. The planning, measurement and features, such as trees, rivers, hills, valleys, and
management of construction works, including the like, and the position of built features, such
the estimation of costs. as roads, structures, pipelines, and so forth.

In application of the foregoing activities surveyors Preliminary surveys (data gathering) gather
consider the relevant legal, economic, geospatial data (distances, positions, and
environmental, and social aspects affecting each angles) to locate physical features (e.g., water
project. boundaries, trees, roads, structures, or property
markers) so that the data can be plotted to scale
Question: on a map or plan. Preliminary surveys also
1. Are you willing to be a surveyor someday? include the determination of differences in
If so, what activities or function do you want elevation (vertical distances) so that elevations
to partake in and why? If not, why? and contours may also be plotted.

Classification of Surveys Layout surveys involve marking on the ground

Plane Surveying
 the Earth is considered to be a flat surface,
 and where distances and areas involved
are of limited extent that the exact shape of
the earth is disregarded
With regard to horizontal distances and
directions
 a level line is considered as
mathematically straight;
 the direction of the plumb line is
assumed to be the same at all points
within the limits of the survey; and
 all angles are considered to be plane
angles.
Geodetic Surveying
 survey that take into account the spheroidal
shape of the Earth
 These surveys employ the principles of
geodesy, are of high precision, and the
related calculations involve the solving of
equations derived from advanced
mathematics particularly spherical
trigonometry, calculus, and some
applications of the theory of least squares.
Mostly undertaken by government agencies to
serve as a basis to produce accurate base and
topographic maps.
Classes of Surveys
Control Surveys establish reference points and
reference lines for preliminary and construction
surveys.
Vertical reference points, called benchmarks,
are established using leveling surveys or
satellite-positioning surveys.
(using wood stakes, iron bars, aluminum and
concrete monuments, nails, spikes, etc.) the
features shown on a design plan. The layout can
be for boundary lines, as in land division
surveying or it can be for a wide variety of
engineering works (e.g., roads, pipelines,
structures, bridges); the latter group is known as
construction surveying. In addition to marking
the proposed horizontal location (X and Y
coordinates) of the designed feature, data will
also be given for the proposed (design)
elevations which are referenced to MSL.
Construction surveys provide the horizontal location
and the height above sea level (also known as
the provision of line and grade) for all component
of a wide variety of construction projects—for
example, highways, streets, pipelines, bridges,
buildings, and site grading.
Construction layout marks the horizontal
location (line) as well as the vertical location or
elevation (grade) for the proposed work.
The builder can measure from the surveyor’s
markers to the exact location of each component
of the facility to be constructed.
Layout markers can be wood stakes, steel bars,
nails with washers, spikes, chiseled marks in
concrete, and so forth.
Modern layout techniques also permit the
contractor to position construction equipment for
line and grade using machine guidance
techniques involving lasers, total stations, and
satellite-positioning receivers.

Horizontal control surveys use any of a variety
of measuring and positioning techniques
capable of providing appropriately precise
results; such surveys can be tied into
1. state or provincial coordinate grids
When commencing a construction survey, it is
important that the surveyor use the same control
survey points as those used for the preliminary
survey on which the construction design was
based.

CENG 50 – Fundamentals of Surveying Lecture 1 – Introduction to Surveying

Specialized Types of Surveys
Topographic surveys: preliminary surveys used to
locate and map the natural and manmade
surface features of an area. The features are
located relative to one another by tying them all
into the same control lines or control grid.
Hydrographic surveys: preliminary surveys that are
used to tie in underwater features to surface
control points. Usually shorelines, marine
features, and water depths are shown on the
hydrographic map or electronic chart.
Route surveys: preliminary, layout, and control
surveys that range over a narrow but long strip
of land. Typical projects that require route
surveys are highways, railroads, electricity
transmission lines, and channels.
Property surveys: preliminary, layout, and control
surveys that are involved in determining
boundary locations or in laying out new property
boundaries (also known as cadastral or land
surveys).
Final (“as-built”) surveys: like preliminary surveys.
Final surveys tie in features that have just been
constructed to provide a final record of the
construction and to check that the construction
has proceeded according to the design plans.
Aerial surveys: preliminary and final surveys using
both traditional aerial photography and aerial
imagery. Aerial imagery includes the use of
digital cameras, multispectral scanners, LiDAR,
and radar.
Construction surveys: layout surveys for
engineering works.
Essay:
1. In your own words, differentiate the various
classifications, classes and specialized
types of surveys.
Development of Early Surveying Instruments
1. Astrolabe
2. Telescope
3. Transit
4. Semicircumferentor
5. Plane Table
6. Dioptra
7. Roman Groma
8. Libella
9. Vernier
10. Compass
11. Gunter’s Chain
12. Chorobates
13. Merchet
Activity:
1. Draw, label the parts and give the function
of each early surveying instruments.
CENG 50 – Fundamentals of Surveying
Types of Construction Projects
Listed below are the types of construction projects
that depend a great deal on the construction
surveyor or engineering surveyor for the successful
completion of the project:
1. Streets and highways
2. Drainage ditches
3. Intersections and interchanges
4. Sidewalks
5. High- and low-rise buildings
6. Bridges and culverts
7. Dams and weirs
8. River channelization
9. Sanitary landfills
10. Mining—tunnels, shafts
11. Gravel pits, quarries
12. Storm and sanitary sewers
13. Water and fuel pipelines
14. Piers and docks
15. Canals
16. Railroads
17. Airports
18. Reservoirs
19. Site grading, landscaping
20. Parks, formal walkways
21. Heavy equipment locations (millwright)
22. Electricity transmission lines
Question:
1. List down other construction projects that
depend a great deal on the construction
surveyor.
Mapping Agencies
National Mapping And Resource Information
Authority (NAMRIA) (Pambansang
Pangasiwaan sa Pagmamapa at
Impormasyon sa Yaman) - mandated to
provide the public with mapmaking services and
to act as the central mapping agency,
depository, and distribution facility for natural
resources data in the form of maps, charts, texts,
and statistics.
Technical Departments
1. Hydrography Branch - acquire and analyze
hydrographic and oceanographic data used
for promoting navigational safety and
oceanographic research. Outputs are
nautical charts, navigational warnings, tide
and current predictions.
2. Mapping and Geodesy Branch - maintains
and updates base maps that will serve as
basic inputs in various development
activities of the government, the academic
and scientific community, and the private
sector.
These maps are produced based on data
obtained from aerial photography and
satellite imagery.
3. Resource Data Analysis Branch - mandated
to conduct land use assessment/evaluation
and land classification. Its functions are:
Lecture 1 – Introduction to Surveying
 a. to provide remote sensing services and
vital data on the environment, land use,
forestry, agriculture, water resources,
coastal zone, among others, and
b. to conduct researches on remote sensing
and GIS applications.
4. Geospatial Information System
Management Branch - works toward the
sharing, transfer, exchange, packaging and
dissemination of environment and natural
resources data. It develops and maintains
information systems and environment and
natural resources databases for use not only
within NAMRIA but also by outside clients.
It also serves as the marketing arm of the
agency for all its products and services.
Surveying Profession
Geodetic Engineering
General practice of Geodetic Engineering
The practice of Geodetic Engineering is a
professional and organized act of gathering
physical data on the surface of the earth with the
use of precision instruments.
It is also the scientific and methodical processing of
these data and presenting them on graphs,
plans, maps, charts or documents. It shall
embrace, but is not limited to, the following
activities:
1. Professional Geodetic Engineering
services with the use of surveying and
mapping equipment such as graduated
rods, measuring tapes, transits, levels,
theodolites, fathometers/echosounders,
electronic distance meters, global
positioning systems, stereoplotters and
all other instruments that are used to
determine metes and bounds of lands
positions of points on the surface of the
earth, water depths, underwater
configuration, ground elevation, gravity,
isostasy, crustal movements and the size
and shape of the earth, and other
instruments used for construction
survey, and those instruments used to
guide the installation of large industrial
equipment and machineries;
2. Horizontal and vertical control surveys
and political boundary surveys;
3. Land surveys to determine their metes
and bounds and prepare the plans
thereof for titling and for other purposes;
4. Subdivision, consolidation and/or
consolidation-subdivision of titled
properties;
CENG 50 – Fundamentals of Surveying
5. Submission of survey plans of
subdivided, consolidated and/or
consolidated subdivision titled properties
to the government agencies concerned;
hereafter, such plans on surveyed titled
properties submitted by geodetic
engineers shall not be subject to
verification and approval;
6. Preparation and making of sketch, lot
and location plans;
7. Conduction of engineering surveys and
the technical preparation of engineering
survey plans such as topographic,
hydrographic, tidal, profile, cross-
section, construction and boundary
surveys;
8. Parcellary surveys of lands traversed by
infrastructure projects; and the
preparation of subdivision plans;
9. Conduction of gravimetric and
photogrammetric survey and the
technical preparation of such survey
plans;
10. Survey and mapping works such as the
preparation of geographic and/or land
information systems;
11. Survey to determine and establish line
and grade for the construction of
buildings and other structures and its
attachments;
12. Construction of as-staked and as-built
surveys for infrastructures;
13. Conduction of mineral and mining
surveys;
14. Installation of machineries requiring the
use of precision instruments;
15. Engagement in the transfer of the
knowledge and technology of geodetic
engineering in any institution of learning;
Professional Surveying Organization
The Geodetic Engineers of the Philippines is the
only professional organization of geodetic
engineers accredited by the Professional
Regulations Commission.
Lecture 1 – Introduction to Surveying
Surveying on the Internet
The explosion of available information on the
Internet has had a significant impact on the field
of surveying (geomatics). The Internet enables
the instantaneous electronic transfer of
documents to any location where the necessary
computer equipment is available.
Many agencies and institutions maintain
websites that provide data free of charge on the
Internet. Additionally, some educational
institutions now place credit and noncredit
courses on the Internet so that distance
education can be more easily achieved.
U.S. Agencies offering surveying data
National Geodetic Survey
https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/
U.S. Geological Survey
https://www.usgs.gov/
LISs that contain a variety of land-related data
such as ownership, location, acreage, soil types,
land uses, and natural resources must be
designed, developed, and maintained.
Cadastral surveys of the yet unsurveyed public
lands are essential. Monuments set years ago
by the original surveyors have to be recovered
and remonumented for preservation of property
boundaries.
Appropriate surveys with very demanding
accuracies will be necessary to position drilling
rigs as mineral and oil explorations press further
offshore.
Other future challenges include making precise
deformation surveys for monitoring existing
structures such as dams, bridges, and
skyscrapers to detect imperceptible movements
that could be precursors to catastrophes caused
by their failure.

Bureau of Land Management Timely measurements and maps of the effects of

https://www.blm.gov/
U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center
https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/
U.S. Naval Observatory
https://www.usno.navy.mil/
National Society of Professional Surveyors
https://www.nsps.us.com/default.aspx
American Society for Photogrammetry and
Remote Sensing
https://www.asprs.org/
natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods,
and hurricanes will be needed so that effective
relief and assistance efforts can be planned and
implemented. In the space program, the desire
for maps of neighboring planets will continue.
And we must increase our activities in measuring
and monitoring natural and human-caused
global changes (glacial growth and retreat,
volcanic activity, large-scale deforestation, and
so on) that can potentially affect our land, water,
atmosphere, energy supply, and even our
climate.

American Society of Civil Engineers

https://www.asce.org/

Activity:
1. Perform the same procedure in the video in
the link below on a 2km x 2km area.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpDDWi_ehKU

Future Challenges in Surveying

Surveying is currently in the midst of a revolution in
the way data are measured, recorded,
processed, stored, retrieved, and shared. This is
in large part because of developments in
computers and computer-related technologies.

Concurrent with technological advancements,

society continues to demand more data, with
increasingly higher standards of accuracy, than
ever before.

Consequently, in a few years the demands on

surveying engineers (geomatics engineers) will
likely be very different from what they are now.

In the future, assessment of environmental impacts

of proposed construction projects will call for
more and better maps and other data. GISs and

CENG 50 – Fundamentals of Surveying Lecture 1 – Introduction to Surveying