There are many different kinds of surveys but three of the more commonly 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 can reveal what natural or man-made geographical features exist in an area, large or small, the contours and shapes of the features themselves and also vegetation and the influence of human presence. The object of all that is to produce a three-dimensional map.
In order to provide this sort of accurate detail of the many 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. Nowadays 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.
Land Surveys and surveying
Land Surveying is the measurement and accurate determination of the three dimensional positions of various points on a terrain. The purpose of this is generally to determine boundaries. Surveyors produce land maps marking out areas of private, communal or government ownership limits. That is constantly being done whenever there are serious property rights disputes or changes are planned for the area, such as for example 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 just about the most tricky and difficult forms of exploration. Surveyors have to determine what is underground and can't be seen. Before any development may take place it must be discovered what, if anything lies under the ground. Helpful site may 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 little bit of electronic data available for the area. This is not totally accurate, but gives an idea of what installations were situated in the immediate area.
The next level involves selecting visible features, such as for example manholes, inspection hatch covers, meters, electrical poles, etc. Straight lines showing the shortest distance between them are drawn, and this narrows down the search. However these lines cannot continually be totally relied on as rocks and other underground barriers could cause deviations, and sometimes the pipes or cables don't run from the centre of every inspection element to another, but slightly to one side or another.
An indirect survey involves the most recent technology, such as for example radar that penetrates the ground, X-rays, and frequency resonance. If uncertainty still persists, the final step is drilling or digging potholes at regular intervals to verify the data collected by the above methods.