There are many different kinds of surveys but three of the additionally used ones are topographical surveying, land surveying and underground utilities surveys. Exploring and understanding the various types or surveys and surveying is easy when you understand how.

Topographical Surveys or Topo surveying

Topographical Surveying is the study and measurement of the Earth’s surface. This can reveal what natural or man-made geographical features exist within an area, large or small, the contours and shapes of the features themselves and even vegetation and the influence of human presence. The thing of all this is to make a three-dimensional map.

In order to provide this sort of accurate detail of the various 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 confirm accuracy. In today’s world 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 may be 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 regions of private, communal or government ownership limits. This 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 one of the tricky and difficult types of exploration. Surveyors have to determine what is underground and cannot be seen. Before any development can take place it needs to be discovered what, if anything lies beneath the ground. These could be drains, electrical or gas cables, sinkholes, water pipes or water pockets or buried tanks.

The first level of exploration would be to collect every drawing, plan or little bit of electronic data designed for the area. This is often not totally accurate, but gives an idea of what installations were situated in the immediate area.

Another level involves picking out 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 always be totally relied on as rocks along with other underground barriers could cause deviations, and sometimes the pipes or cables don’t run from the centre of each inspection element to the next, but slightly to 1 side or the other.

Utility Surveys Mottingham involves the latest technology, such as radar that penetrates the bottom, X-rays, and frequency resonance. If uncertainty still persists, the final step is drilling or digging potholes at regular intervals to verify any of the data collected by the above methods.