Equipment Used in Land Surveying
Not sure what a land surveyor does? To those with little knowledge of surveying, the services that surveyors provide may seem simple at times, but surveying is a vitally important aspect of construction, development, town planning and so much more, and requires the highest standards of precision. Using a variety of land surveying equipment and working with a variety of elements, surveyors measure precise distances and boundaries to create accurate maps, prepare building and construction sites, update boundary lines and ensure that legal disputes don’t arise due to contested property boundary lines.
As such, surveyors must be able to work with geometry and trigonometry, along with other elements which may include physics, engineering, regression analysis and the relevant laws. In addition to the theodolite, surveyors use a wide range of equipment, like total stations, drones, surveying software, clinometers, tablets, retroreflectors and many more.
The Theodolite
Taking into account the contour of the earth’s surface and other data, surveyors traditionally provided data using a theodolite, a tool which measures the horizontal and vertical angles between two points and then combines the angle data with a distance measurement taken using a tape measure or another measuring device. This enables the surveyor to triangulate the location of a given point and produce accurate maps and property boundary data. The theodolite is still very much in use today, but it’s backed by a range of additional equipment that enables even more precise surveying and trigonometrical accuracy than ever before.
Total Stations And Other Surveying Equipment
Total stations (TS) are the most commonly used item of equipment for surveying today, and are an integrated device that combines an electronic distance measurement (EDM), an electronic theodolite and a small yet powerful onboard computer to collect data gathered in the field and perform complex triangulation calculations. This optical surveying instrument measures both horizontal and vertical angles, and the distance of a slope from its location to a specified point.
Total stations are often used in combination with other devices, including retroreflectors, which is a highly precise means of measuring a distance between two points, often in interior spaces. The surveyor with the total station aims a laser beam at a retroreflector, and the instrument measures the distance between the two points by converting the propagation time of the light into a distance.
Drones, also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), are now used extensively for aerial mapping and surveying, with surveying specialists like the team at Arnold Development Consultants using the latest drone technology and high-resolution camera equipment to provide highly accurate and cost-effective surveying services. In addition to affordability and high levels of precision, further benefits to aerial mapping using drones includes fast deployment, fast turnaround times and the ability to process the data into a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) to provide a precise digital topographical map.
The skilled and qualified surveying team provides a complete range of surveying solutions, including aerial, building, site, property and cadastral surveys using the latest equipment, technical support, plan preparation and compliance documentation. When you’re ready to discuss your surveying requirements with an ADC surveying specialist, contact your nearest Arnold Development Consultants office in Brisbane or the Gold Coast.
