CE 211 Fundamentals of Surveying

CEA - BSCE

AREA COMPUTATION

When the courses or sides of a loop traverse represent boundary lines, it is usually necessary to
compute the enclosed land area for the deed description or plotted survey plat. Traditionally, the
area is expressed in terms of square feet (ft2), or acres (ac) for relatively large parcels; in SI
metric units, area is expressed in terms of square meters (m2), or hectares (ha).
When the tract of land is formed by straight lines only, it is possible to divide up the tract into
adjacent triangles, rectangles, and trapezoids and to compute the sum of the areas of all those
regular geometric figures. Most surveyors, however, prefer to use the coordinate method to
determine the enclosed area of a traverse.
Another important application is determining end areas for earthwork volume calculations

METHODS OF MEASURING AREA Both field and map measurements are used to determine
area. Field measurement methods are the more accurate and include (1) division of the tract
into simple figures (triangles, rectangles, and trapezoids), (2) offsets from a straight line, (3)
coordinates, and (4) double-meridian distances.

AREA BY DIVISION INTO SIMPLE FIGURES A tract can usually be divided into simple
geometric figures such as triangles, rectangles, or trapezoids. The sides and angles of these
figures can be observed in the field and their individual areas calculated and totaled.An example
of a parcel subdivided into triangles is shown in Figure 12.1.

Formulas for computing areas of rectangles and trapezoids are well known. The area of a
triangle whose lengths of sides are known can be computed by the formula

Engr. Rubie Mae D. Fernandez

Faculty, Civil & Geodetic Engineering Department
 CE 211 Fundamentals of Surveying
CEA - BSCE

where a, b, and c are the lengths of sides of the triangle and Another formula for the area of a
triangle is

where C is the angle included between sides a and b.

Area by Coordinates Area of a trapezoid: one-half the sum of the bases times the altitude. Area
of a triangle: one-half the product of the base and the altitude. The area enclosed within a figure
can be computed by coordinates. This is done by forming trapezoids and determining their
areas. Trapezoids are formed by the abscissas of the corners. Ordinates at the corners provide
the altitudes of the trapezoids. A sketch of the figure will aid in the computations. This is similar
to the double meridian distance method but does not use meridian distances. For land area
calculations following a boundary traverse, the DMD method for area is more commonly used.
The DMD method will not be discussed here.

AREA OF A CLOSED TRAVERSE BY THE COORDINATE METHOD When the coordinates of

the stations of a closed traverse are known, it is a simple matter to then compute the area within
the traverse, Figure 6-16(a) shows a closed traverse 1, 2, 3, 4 with appropriate x and y
coordinate distances. Figure 6-16(b) illustrates the technique used to compute the traverse
area. Figure 6-16(b) shows that the desired area of the traverse is area 2 minus area 1, where
area2 is the sum of the areas of trapezoids 4œ 433’

Engr. Rubie Mae D. Fernandez

Faculty, Civil & Geodetic Engineering Department
 CE 211 Fundamentals of Surveying
CEA - BSCE

Engr. Rubie Mae D. Fernandez

Faculty, Civil & Geodetic Engineering Department
 CE 211 Fundamentals of Surveying
CEA - BSCE

Expanding this expression and collecting the remaining terms:

Stated simply, the double area of a closed traverse is the algebraic sum of each x coordinate
multiplied by the difference between the y coordinates of the adjacent stations.

This rule applies to a traverse with any number of sides. The final area can result in a positive or
a negative number, reflecting only the direction of computation (CW or CCW). The physical area
is, of course, positive; there is no such thing as a negative area.

Equation (12.6) can be reduced to an easily remembered form by listing the X and Y
coordinates of each point in succession in two columns, as shown in Equation (12.7), with
coordinates of the starting point repeated at the end. The products noted by diagonal arrows are
ascertained with dashed arrows considered plus and solid ones minus. The algebraic
summation of all products is computed and its absolute value divided by 2 to get the area.

Example 6-4: Area Computation by Coordinates Referring to the traverse example in Section
6.6 (Example 6-1) and to Figure 6-15:

Engr. Rubie Mae D. Fernandez

Faculty, Civil & Geodetic Engineering Department
 CE 211 Fundamentals of Surveying
CEA - BSCE

Irregular and Curved Boundaries Sometimes part of a tract of land may be bounded by an
irregular line, such as stream shoreline. And many properties are bounded by the curving
portion of a road, that is, by the arc of a circle. The surveyor must be able to compute the
enclosed area, even though direct traverse measurements cannot be made to coincide exactly
with the irregular or curved part of the boundary. A method is employed that makes use of a
scaled drawing, and a device called a planimeter.

Irregular tracts can be reduced to a series of trapezoids by observing right-angle offsets from
points along a reference line. The reference line is usually marked by stationing (see Section
5.9.1

The position of the irregular boundary can then be determined by making perpendicular offset
distance measurements (h), from the established traverse line to the boundary, at regular
intervals (d). The coordinate method is used to calculate the area enclosed within the looped
straight-line courses. A method called the trapezoidal rule may then be used to approximate the
area between the traverse line and the irregular boundary. The sum of the two areas represents
the total enclosed area of the property. In the trapezoidal rule, it is assumed that the boundary
line is actually straight between each offset interval distance (see Figure 7-17b). The smaller the
interval d, the more accurate this assumption. The area between the traverse line and the
irregular boundary is approximated by summing all the trapezoidal areas formed by the
boundary, the offset distances, and the offset interval(s). The formula for the area of a trapezoid
is applied here as Equation 7-9. Because the constant offset interval d forms one of the bases
of each trapezoid, it can be factored out, and the following formula can be written:

Engr. Rubie Mae D. Fernandez

Faculty, Civil & Geodetic Engineering Department
 CE 211 Fundamentals of Surveying
CEA - BSCE

Example 7-3 Perpendicular offsets are measured at regular intervals of 5 m from a traverse line
to a curved boundary. The values of the offset distances are given as follows: h1 = 3.5 m, h2 =
7.2 m, h3 = 9.7 m, h4 = 12.4 m, h5 = 16.7 m, h6 = 13.5 m, h7 = 7.9 m, and h8 = 3.2 m. The last
interval is 2.7 m. Determine the area between the traverse line and the irregular boundary line.
Solution From Equation 7-9, the trapezoidal rule, we get

Engr. Rubie Mae D. Fernandez

Faculty, Civil & Geodetic Engineering Department
 CE 211 Fundamentals of Surveying
CEA - BSCE

Irregularly Spaced Offsets For irregularly curved boundaries like that in Figure 12.3, the spacing
of offsets along the reference line varies. Spacing should be selected so that the curved
boundary is accurately defined when adjacent offset points on it are connected by straight lines.
A formula for calculating area for this case is

Segment of a Circle When one of the sides of a land parcel is formed by the right-of-way (ROW)
line of a curving road, the curve is typically an arc of a circle (see Figure 7-18). The radius of the
circle, R, and the central angle formed by the arc (and chord), Δ, are usually known. (If R and Δ
are not known, they can be computed by measuring the length of the chord and the offset to the
arc from the middle of the chord; circular curve formulas are covered in Chapter 10.)

Engr. Rubie Mae D. Fernandez

Faculty, Civil & Geodetic Engineering Department
 CE 211 Fundamentals of Surveying
CEA - BSCE

The geometric figure formed by the chord and the arc is called a segment of a circle; the
formula for the area of the segment may be written as (see Equation 3-13):

The area of a tract that has a circular curve for one boundary, as in Figure 12.7, can be found
by dividing the figure into two parts: polygon ABCDEGFA and sector EGF. The radius and either
central angle or length EF must be known or computed to permit calculation of sector area EGF.
If R and central angle are known, then the area of sector is

Another method that can be used is to compute the area of the traverse ABCDEFA, and then
add the area of the segment, which is the region between the arc and chord EF. The area of a
segment is found as

Example 7-4 Determine the enclosed area of Lot 5, shown in Figure 7-18. Also, compute the
length of the curving boundary line BC. The data for the curved boundary line BC are given: the
central angle Δ = 41.4° and the curve radius R = 200 ft. Solution In this illustration, it can be
seen that the figure formed by the property lines CD, DA, and AB and the chord BC is a
trapezoid (DC is parallel to AB). The area of that figure, obtained from the formula for a
trapezoid, is the height DA (100 ft) times the average of the bases DC and AB (150 ft), or area =
100 * 150 = 15,000 ft2. It can be seen from Figure 7-18 that the area of the segment (shaded)
must be subtracted from the area of the trapezoid to obtain the enclosed area of Lot 5. The area
of the segment is

Engr. Rubie Mae D. Fernandez

Faculty, Civil & Geodetic Engineering Department
 CE 211 Fundamentals of Surveying
CEA - BSCE

AREA BY DOUBLE-MERIDIAN DISTANCE METHOD The area within a closed figure can also
be computed by the double-meridian distance (DMD) method. This procedure requires balanced
departures and latitudes of the tract’s boundary lines, which are normally obtained in traverse
computations. The DMD method is not as commonly used as the coordinate method because it
is not as convenient, but given the data from an adjusted traverse, it will yield the same answer.

By definition, the meridian distance of a traverse course is the perpendicular distance from the
midpoint of the course to the reference meridian. To ease the problem of signs, a reference
meridian usually is placed through the most westerly traverse station.

In Figure 12.6, the meridian distances of courses AB, BC, CD, DE, and EA are . To express in
terms of convenient distances, MF and BG are dcourse plus half the departure of the course
itself. It is simpler to employ full departures of courses. Therefore, DMDs equal to twice the
meridian distances that are used, and a single division by 2 is made at the end of the
computation.

Engr. Rubie Mae D. Fernandez

Faculty, Civil & Geodetic Engineering Department
 CE 211 Fundamentals of Surveying
CEA - BSCE

Based on the considerations described, the following general rule can be applied in calculating
DMDs:The DMD for any traverse course is equal to the DMD of the preceding course, plus the
departure of the preceding course, plus the departure of the course itself. Signs of the
departures must be considered. When the reference meridian is taken through the most
westerly station of a closed traverse and calculations of the DMDs are started with a course
through that station, the DMD of the first course is its departure. Applying these rules, for the
traverse in Figure 12.6

A check on all computations is obtained if the DMD of the last course, after computing around
the traverse, is also equal to its departure but has the opposite sign. If there is a difference, the
departures were not correctly adjusted before starting, or a mistake was made in the
computations. With reference to Figure 12.6, the area enclosed by traverse ABCDEA may be
expressed in terms of trapezoid areas (shown by different color shadings) as

Engr. Rubie Mae D. Fernandez

Faculty, Civil & Geodetic Engineering Department
 CE 211 Fundamentals of Surveying
CEA - BSCE

SOURCES OF ERROR IN DETERMINING AREAS Some sources of error in area computations

are: 1. Errors in the field data from which coordinates or maps are derived. 2. Making a poor
selection of intervals and offsets to fit irregular boundaries. 3. Making errors in scaling from
maps. 4. Shrinkage and expansion of maps. 5. Using coordinate squares that are too large and
therefore make estimation of areas of partial blocks difficult. 6. Making an incorrect setting of the
planimeter scale bar. 7. Running off and on the edge of the map sheet with the planimeter drum.
8. Using different types of paper for the map and planimeter calibration sheet.

MISTAKES IN DETERMINING AREAS In computing areas, common mistakes include: 1.

Forgetting to divide by 2 in the coordinate and DMD methods. 2. Confusing signs of
coordinates, departures, latitudes, and DMDs. 3. Forgetting to repeat the coordinates of the first
point in the area by coordinates method. 4. Failing to check an area computation by a different
method. 5. Not drawing a sketch to scale or general proportion for a visual check. 6. Not
verifying the planimeter scale constant by tracing a known area.

Engr. Rubie Mae D. Fernandez

Faculty, Civil & Geodetic Engineering Department