25/09/2017

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science &

Technology

INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING
SURVEYING
A. Arko-Adjei, PhD
Department of Geomatic Engineering
KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana
arkoadjei@hotmail.com

September, 2017

COURSE CONTENT
 Lecture 1: Introduction to engineering surveying
 Lecture 2: Methods for setting out engineering projects
 Lecture 3: Computation of areas and volumes for
earthworks
 Lecture 4: Mass-haul curves
 Lecture 5: Setting out of curves

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LECTURE OVERVIEW
 This lecture provides an overview of:
– Engineering surveying defined
– Purpose of carrying out engineering surveying
– Principles underlying engineering surveying
– Engineering surveying procedures
– Recap
– Plan scales

– Coordinate systems

– Positioning techniques

– Errors in surveying

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LEARNING OUTCOMES
 Upon completion of this lecture students should be able
to:
– Define engineering surveying;
– Explain the basic principle underlying engineering surveying;
– Describe the purpose of carrying out engineering surveys;
– Describe various types of errors that can occur in engineering
surveying; and
– Describe the various terminology useful in engineering
surveying.

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ENGINEERING SURVEYING DEFINED

 What is engineering surveying?

– Engineering surveying is a general expression for any
survey work carried out in connection with the
construction of civil engineering and building projects
(Uren and Price)
– Engineers and Surveyors involved in site surveying are
responsible for all aspects of dimensional controls on
such schemes

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ENGINEERING SURVEYING DEFINED

 According to FIG, Engineering Surveying includes the

following activities:
– Acquisition, processing and management of topographic
and related information throughout the life cycle of a
project;
– Setting out methods in engineering projects;
– Validation and quality control for civil construction and
manufacturing;
– Deformation prediction, monitoring, analysis and
interpretation

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WHY ENGINEERING SURVEYING

 In engineering and built environment surveys are
required to plan, construct and maintain:
– Highways and railroads
– Buildings and construction
– Irrigation
– Water and sewerage systems
– Mining and mineral exploration

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PURPOSE OF ENGINEERING SURVEYING

1. To provide large scale topographical surveys and other

measurements upon which the projects are designed at
the Concept and Design Stage;
– Precision at this stage is very important since the reliability
of the design depends on the works executed at this stage

2. To provide the precise controls from which it is possible

to position the works and most importantly, to ensure
that engineering projects are built in their correct
relative and absolute positions during the construction
stage (setting out)

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PURPOSE OF ENGINEERING SURVEYING

3. To monitor for any structural movement on major

retaining structures at the Post Construction stage
(Deformation measurements)

*** All these are based on horizontal and vertical control

frameworks which consists of fixed points called control
stations

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BASIC SURVEY PRINCIPLES

 Basic survey principles
– Working from the whole to the part
– Consistency
– Economy
– Redundancy
– Accuracy
– Precision

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BASIC SURVEY PRINCIPLES

 Working from the whole to part:
– Establish an initial framework of control points to cover the
entire area
– “Break down” area into smaller networks with points closer
together.
– Think about the whole wider area before you attack the detailed
parts, or put in your control before you do your detail work

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BASIC SURVEY PRINCIPLES

 Consistency:
– Once the higher order networks have been established, it is
possible to work to less rigorous standards in the lower
orders without affecting overall accuracy of the work.
– There has been no point in working to higher standards
since in connecting the later work to the earlier, the higher
order work is held fixed and hence the new survey cannot be
better than the higher order control.

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BASIC SURVEY PRINCIPLES

 Economy:
– Higher accuracy in general costs more money
– Surveyor should seek no higher accuracy than is necessary and
sufficient for the task at hand.
– In general, there should be a balance between accuracy and cost.
– “It is a fallacy that an accurate survey must be more expensive
than a less accurate one”.

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BASIC SURVEY PRINCIPLES

 Redundancy:
– Redundant measurements are necessary for determination of
data quality and detection of blunders.
– Measuring more data than strictly necessary enables to carry
out independent checks on the data
– It helps to built-in quality control
– For example, by measuring all three angles of a triangle even
though the third angle measurement is redundant.

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BASIC SURVEY PRINCIPLES

 Accuracy
– Difference of true value and most probable value
– In most case, the true value is not known
– With several observations, overall accuracy can be assessed

 Precision
– The spread of observations
– Consistency
 An observation can be very precise but totally inaccurate

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PROCEDURE FOR CARRYING OUT SURVEYING

 Procedures for surveying (six steps)

1. Pre-survey office work (office preparation)
2. Reconnaissance
3. Fieldwork
4. Reduction and adjustment of observation
5. Plotting/drawing
6. Submissions

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PROCEDURE FOR CARRYING OUT SURVEYING-CONT’D

1. Pre survey office work (office preparation)

– Maps and plans
– Points needed to be surveyed
– How to get there (distances, transportations)
– Facilities in the area
– Owners of the land, need permission to enter?
– Check equipment (what needed, how to use them, any thing
missing)

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PROCEDURE FOR CARRYING OUT SURVEYING-CONT’D

2. Reconnaissance
 Reconnaissance mainly involve verification of information
on the ground and other activities:
– Looking for points of departure
– Selection of stations
– Preparation of recce diagram
– Station marking and beaconing
– Selection of base lines
– Visiting land owners and other persons who are affected by the
survey
***This exercise helps to confirm the method and equipment
to be used for the survey

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PROCEDURE FOR CARRYING OUT SURVEYING-CONT’D

 Recce diagrams
– A draft picture to show all control points and their
relative relations (not precisely)
– Start with maps, and update during whole procedures
– Points, lines to observe, which to measure, in which
directions

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PROCEDURE FOR CARRYING OUT SURVEYING-CONT’D

 Station marking and beaconing

– Concrete Pillar (national survey organisation or control for
large scale projects)
– Wooden Peg
– Nails and Bolts (rock or concrete)
– Minimum three witness marks for important points

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PROCEDURE FOR CARRYING OUT SURVEYING-CONT’D

 Control point description
– Name, Station No
– Type of Marks: concrete pillar, wooden peg,…
– Location Description
– Land owner and address
– Name of person responsible for siting and marking, with date
– Measurements to reference or witness marks
– Map sheet No and approximate coordinates

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PROCEDURE FOR CARRYING OUT SURVEYING-CONT’D

3. Field measurements
– Use appropriate equipment to measure parameters for
survey – distances, angles, coordinates, bearings, etc
– Field booking
– Make repeated observations

 Field booking
– Tidy and legible
– Systematic booking layout should be adopted
– Errors should be cross out using a single diagonal line: 1.553
– Reduced and checked at stations before moving instruments

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PROCEDURE FOR CARRYING OUT SURVEYING-CONT’D

4. Reduction and adjustment of observations

– Field reductions checked by another member of the team
– Methods of adjustment should be agreed and consistently
apply to all observations

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PROCEDURE FOR CARRYING OUT SURVEYING-CONT’D

5. Plotting
– Use appropriate scale to plot observations
– Plotting can be done in analogue or using computer assisted
drawing (CAD)
– Plotting is done using recce diagram

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PROCEDURE FOR CARRYING OUT SURVEYING-CONT’D

6. Preparation of survey report and submission

 Survey reported should include the following:
– List of personnel
– Equipment used
– Methods used in surveys and computations
– A final survey diagram (recce diagram completed)
– Results (coordinates of all points)
– Information useful for other parties in the area or adjoining
areas

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RECAP
 What you have learnt in GE 282 Large Scale Surveying
Basic Concepts:
– Permanent adjustment of Theodolites and levels
– Distance and angular measurements
– Traverse computations and adjustments
– Spirit and triogonometrical levelling
– Introduction to triangulation, trilateration, resection,
intersection and radiation as methods for provision of controls
– Field booking and checking
– Error sources and corrections
– Adjustment of Results

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RECAP
 What you have learnt in GE 282 Large Scale Surveying
Use Basic Surveying Equipment
– Tape
– Levelling Instrument
– Theodolites
– Stadia Tacheometry

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RECAP
 What you have learnt in GE 282 Large Scale Surveying
Procedures to carry out surveying
– Pre-survey office work
– Reconnaissance
– Field operation
– Booking and checking
– Data processing
– Report
– ……..

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RECAP
• What you have learnt in GE 282 Large Scale Surveying
Point Positioning Techniques
– Radiation
– Intersections
– Triangulation

Surveying Tasks
– Levelling
– Detail Survey
– Traverse
– ………..

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RECAP - POSITIONING TECHNIQUES

 Linear measurements only
– Offsets
– Triliteration

 Angles and distances

– Triangulation
– Polar coordina tes

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RECAP - POSITIONING TECHNIQUES

 Offset
– The position of the point C can be
fixed by measuring the lengths AC’
and CC’ in the field.
– AC’ is measured along line AB.
– CC’ is set perpendicular to AB and
measured
– Using a set-square and scale rule,
point C can again be plotted in its
correct relationship with A and B B.

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RECAP - POSITIONING TECHNIQUES

 Triliteration
– A and B are known control points.
AB is a base line whose distance is
known.
– C is a ground point whose position
is to be determined.
– To be able to fix the position C by
trilateration, the distances AC and
BC are measured in the field.
– Arcs representing the lengths AC
and BC are drawn using compasses
to intersect at point C.

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RECAP - POSITIONING TECHNIQUES

 Triangulation
– A and B represent original or
known points
– C is the known point to be located
relative to the line AB on paper
– The position of point C can be
determined by triangulation by
measuring angles  and  in the
field

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RECAP - POSITIONING TECHNIQUES

 Radiation or polar coordinates
– Employs both distance and angle
measurements
– Method is based on polar coordinate
methods
– A and B are known points and C is
the new point to be fixed or whose
positioning is to be determined
– Angle  and distance d are measured
to determine the position C
– Survey is plotted using scale rule and
protractor

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RECAP - POSITIONING TECHNIQUES

 Resection
– Uses distance or angle measurements
– A minimum of three known points is
needed to accurately determine the
position of unknown point.
– Instrument is set at known points
– Angles 1, 2 and 3 are measured 2 3
from the unknown point P from the 1
known points A, B and C.
– GPS technology is based on this
principle P

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RECAP - POSITIONING TECHNIQUES

 Traversing
– Starts from a known point from which there is a known
direction
– Traversing then proceeds by measuring the angle and linear
distance to the next point on the traverse
– Engineering surveys require closed traverses

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RECAP - MAP SCALES

 ‘A map scale is the ratio between a distance on a map

and the corresponding distance in the terrain’
 Types of scale
– Verbal scale - “One inch represents 16 miles”
– Graphical scale
– Representative fraction – 1: 25000

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RECAP - REFERENCE SYSTEMS

 Systems of reference
– Position referred to a coordinate system
– Height referred to a vertical datum
– A direction referred to a bearing

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RECAP - REFERENCE SYSTEMS

Reference directions
 True North
– Point to the Earth’s rotation axis (astronomical observations)
 Grid North
Grid
– Dependent on projections
 Magnetic North
– Compass (easy to get)
– But not accurate Magnetic True

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RECAP - REFERENCE SYSTEMS

Coordinate systems
Y
 Grid System P(x,y)

X
O

P(d,)
d

 Polar System
O D

 Geographic system - latitude and longitude

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RECAP - REFERENCE SYSTEMS

Height datum
 Absolute Height
– Referred to a datum level surface
– Mean Sea Level (MSL)

 Relative Height
– Height difference between survey points
– Give a point to an arbitrary value

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RECAP - PRINCIPLES OF LEVELLING

 Booking and reduction of levels

– Rise and fall
– Height of collimation

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RECAP - REASONS FOR ERRORS

 Natural errors
– Weather, refraction, gravity….
 Instrumental errors
– Imperfect construction and adjustment
 Personal errors
– Inability of a person to make exact observations

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RECAP - CLASSIFICATION OF ERRORS

 Blunders (Gross errors)
– Mistakes (people or equipment)
 Systematic errors
– Conform to mathematical or physical laws
– Can be adjusted (or corrected)
 Random errors (accidental errors)
– Can be determined and adjusted through statistical process

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