There are many different types 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 know how.

Topographical Surveys or Topo surveying

Topographical Surveying may be the study and measurement of the Earth’s surface. This may 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 object of all that is to make a three-dimensional map.

In order to provide this kind of accurate detail of the various levels and contours of the land, aerial surveys are conducted, and then at walk out survey teams with portable surveying equipment establish vertical and horizontal control points to verify accuracy. In today’s world the data 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 varied 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 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 probably the most tricky and difficult forms of exploration. Surveyors have to determine what is underground and cannot be seen. Before any development may take place it needs to be discovered what, if anything lies under 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 bit of electronic data available for the area. This is often not totally accurate, but gives an idea of what installations were located 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, which narrows down the search. However these lines cannot continually 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 every inspection element to another, but slightly to 1 side or another.

An indirect survey involves the most recent technology, such as radar that penetrates the ground, X-rays, and frequency resonance. If The original source persists, the final step is drilling or digging potholes at regular intervals to confirm the data collected by the above methods.