Earth quantities

Volumes and areas

H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 : Land Surveying 1
 Introduction
v Estimation of areas and volumes key component of
many engineering construction projects
v Huge quantities of material have to be moved in order
to form the necessary embankments, cuttings,
foundations, basements, lakes and so on, that have
been specified in the design
v The excavation and hauling of materials in
engineering projects is the most significant and
costly aspect of the work on which profit or loss may
depend

H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
 Area
u Computation of area is based on:
v Data scaled from plans
v Data directly obtained from the field survey

u Land parcels can be either

v Straight sided
v Irregular

vA combination of both

H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
 Plotted areas
u Area of any straight sided figure can be
calculated by splitting it into triangles
v Sum of triangles gives the area of the figures
v The area calculations can be done using one of the
following formulae
Area = √[S(S - a) (S - b) (S - c)], where a, b, and c are sides
and S = ½(a+b+c)

Area = ½(base x height of the triangles)

Area = ½ x ab sinC, where C is angle btn sides a and b

H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
 Plotted irregular areas

u These can be determined in one of the following

ways:
v Superimposing a gridded transplant sheet of material
üWith number of squares and scale, area can be estimated

v Give and take technique

Take

Give Give and take line

H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
Plotted irregular area

planimetre
This instrument measures the area of a plane figure as a pointer
is moved around the figure's edge

H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
 Computing irregular area
Two
Trapezoid
fundamental
rule rules used in computing irregular
areas
(i) Trapezoid rule and (ii) Simpson’s rule

O1 O2 O3 O4 O5 O6 O7 O8 O9

d d d d d d d
d

Survey line

The survey line divided into a number of small equal intercepts

of length d and offsets O1, O2, …, On, `

H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
 Trapezoid rule
u If d is short enough for the length of the boundary between
the offsets to be assumed straight, then the area is divided
into a OseriesOof trapezoids
1 O
2
O O3 O
4
O O 5
O 6 7 8 9

d d d d d d d
d

Survey line

O  O
Area of trapezoid (1) = 1 2
* d
2
Area of trapezoid (2) = O  O
2 3
* d
2
d
Summing up we get: O1  2 O 2  2 O 3  .....  O 9 
Area = 2
H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
 Trapezoid rule

O1 O2 O3 O4 O5 O6 O7 O8 O9

d d d d d d d
d
Survey line

O1  O2 O2  O3
Area (1)  xd Area (2)  xd
2 2
O7  O8 O8  O9
Area (7)  xd Area (8)  xd
2 2
d
Area  O1  2O2  2O3  .....  O9  In general case we get
2
 O1  On 
Area  d   O2  O3  .....  On 1 
 2 
H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
 Example
The following offsets, 8m apart, were measured at right at right
angles from the traverse to an irregular boundary.

0 m 2.3 m 5.5 m 7.9m 8.6 m 6.9 m 7.3 m 6.2 m 3.1 m 0 m

Calculate the area between the traverse line and the irregular boundary using
the trapezoid rule.

 O1  On 
Area = d  O2  O3  .....  On 1 
 2 

Area = 8.00 x

= 382.4 m2

H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
 Simpson’s rule
G
C
B F

O1 A1 O2 A2 O3

A D
d d

Area =

In general we get

Area =

H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
 Simpson’s rule

Area =

u Simpson’s Rule states that: the area enclosed by a

curvilinear figure divided into an even number of strips
of equal width is equal to one –third the width of a strip,
multiplied by sum of the two extreme offsets, twice the
sum of the remaining odd offsets, and four times the
sum of the even offsets.

H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
 Area by coordinates
N
C Consider closed traverse
B ABCDEA
A D
Stn coords are: EA, NA;
EB, NB; EC, NC ….etc.

E
0 T P S Q R E

Area ABCDEA = areas (ABPT + BCQP + CDRQ – DESR – EATS)

H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
 Area by coordinates
=

In general, area =

Note that the polygon should be labeled in a clockwise order*

H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
 Area by coordinates
N C
B
Determine the area in
A hectares enclosed by the
D
line of a closed traverse
survey ABCDE from the
following data
E Point Id E (m) N (m)
0 T P S Q R E A 613.26 418.11
B 806.71 523.16
C 942.17 366.84
Area = D 901.89 203.18
E 652.08 259.26

Point Ni Ei+1 E i-1 N i(Ei+1-Ei-1)

Id
A 418.11 806.71 652.08 64652.3493
= 13.7870 ha
B 523.16 942.17 613.26 172072.556
C 366.84 901.89 806.71 34915.8312
D 203.18 652.08 942.17 -58940.4862 Area = 13.7870 ha *0.5
E 259.26 613.26 901.89 -74830.2138 = 6.8935 ha
Sum 137870.0365
H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
 Area from cross sections
C
L Formation level C
L
W W b b

Embankment
Original
ground h 1 in n h
surface Side slope 1
Cutting vertical in n
horizontal W
b b W

Depth at centerline = h units Plan width = 2W = 2(b + nh)

Formation width = 2b units Area of cross-section = h(2b + nh)

Side width = w Same formula used for cut and

embankment
Plan width = 2w

Side slopes I in n

H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
 Volume of earthworks
End areas method
If two cross-sectional areas A1 and A2 are horizontal
distance d1 apart volume between them V is given
by:

V1  d1
 A1  A2 
2
Vtotal  d1
 A1  A2   d  A2  A3   d  A3  A4   ........ d ( An1  An
2 3 n1
2 2 2 2
d
Total volume =  A1  An  2( A2  A3  ...... An1 )
2
H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
 Volume of earthworks
u Prismoidal formula
d d
V1-3 =  A1  4 A2  A3  V3-5 =  A3  4 A4  A5 
3 3
d
V=
3

A1  A5 4( A2  A4 )  2 A3 
The general formula for n cross-sections,
where n must be odd is:

d
V= A1  An  4 even areas  2 remaining odd areas 
3

H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
 Volume from spot heights
h1 h2 h3 h4
Method generally used for calculating

h8
volumes of huge open excavations
h5 h6 h7
such as:
h9 h10 h11
ØBasements
ØBorrowpits
ØUnderground tanks
ØSpoil heaps
Øetc

Typically a square or triangular grid is established on the

ground and spot levels are taken at each grid intersection
just as described in contouring by spot levels

H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)
 Volume from spot heights
h1 h2 h3 h4
4.76 5.14 6.72 8.10 Plan area of each Grid square = 100 m2

h5 h6 h7 h8 The volume of grid square h1h2h6h5

3.21 4.77 5.82 6.07
Volume = mean height x plan area
h9 h10 h11
1.98 2.31 3.55 = ¼ (4.76 + 5.14 + 4.77 + 3.21)* 100
= 447 m3
Applying the formula to all the grids we obtain the general formula:

A
V=  single depths  2 double depths  3 triple depths  4 quadruple depths   V
4

100
V= 4.76  8.10  6.07  1.98  3.55  2(5.14  6.72  3.21  2.31)  3(5.82)  4(4.77)]
4

V= 25(24.46  34.76  17.46  19.08)  2394 m 3

∂V is outside the grids and is calculated separately

H. Shamaoma SBE Dept of Urban and Regional Planning ES230 Land Surveying (i)