CIV3403 ENGINEERING SURVEYING 1

LECTURE V
AREA MEASUREMENTS

Estimation of areas and volumes is basic to most engineering schemes such as route alignment,
reservoirs, tunnels, etc. The excavation and hauling of material on such schemes are the most
significant and costly aspect of the work, on which profit or loss may depend. Areas may be
required in connection with the purchase or sale of land, with the subdivision of land or with the
grading of land.

The computation of areas may be based on data scaled from plans or drawings, or data gained
directly from survey field data.

1. Plotted areas
i. It may be possible to sub-divide the plotted area into a series of triangles, measures the
sides a,b, c, and compute the areas using:

Area =[s(s − a)(s − b)(s − c)]0.5 where s = (a + b + c)/2

The accuracy achieved will be dependent upon the scale error of the plan and the accuracy
to which the sides are measured.

ii. Where the area is irregular, a sheet of gridded tracing material may be superimposed
over it and the number of squares counted. Knowing the scale of the plan and the size
of the squares, an estimate of the area can be obtained. Portions of squares cut by the
irregular boundaries can be estimated.
iii. Alternatively, irregular boundaries may be reduced to straight lines using give which
the areas ‘taken from the total area balance out with extra areas

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 Areas of give and take

iv. If the area is a polygon with straight sides it may be reduced to a triangle of equal area.
Consider the polygon ABCDE below. Take AE as the base and extend it as shown, Join
CE and from D draw a line parallel to CE on to base at F. Similarly, join CA and draw
a line parallel from B on to the base at G. Triangle GCF has the same area as the
polygon ABCDE.

Reduction of a polygon to a triangle

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 2. Calculated areas

i. Trapezoidal rule
In the figure below,
ℎ1 +ℎ2
area of the first trapezoid ABCD = 𝑤
2
ℎ2 +ℎ3
area of the first trapezoid BCEF = 𝑤
2
The total area of trapezoids;

ℎ1 +ℎ7
A= 𝑤( + ℎ2 + ℎ3 + ℎ4 + ℎ5 + ℎ6 )
2

If the first or last ordinate is zero, it must still be included in the equation.
The formula represents the area bounded by the broken line under the curving boundary; thus, if
the boundary curves outside then the computed area is too small, and vice versa.

ii. Simpson’s Rule

One-third the distance between ordinates, multiplied by the sum of the first and last ordinates, plus
four times the sum of the even ordinates, plus twice the sum of the odd ordinates.

A= 𝑤 {(ℎ1 + ℎ7 ) + 4(ℎ2 + ℎ4 + ℎ6 ) + 2(ℎ3 + ℎ5 )}/3

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This rule assumes a boundary modeled as a parabola across pairs of areas and is therefore more
accurate than the trapezoidal rule. If the boundary were a parabola the formula would be exact.
The equation requires an odd number of ordinates and consequently an even number of areas.

3.1.2 Areas by coordinates

Using appropriate field data it may be possible to define the area by its rectangular coordinates.
For example: The area enclosed by the traverse ABCDA in Figure below can be found by taking
the area of the rectangle a'cDd and subtracting the surrounding triangles, etc., as follows:

Area by coordinates

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Thus
A = 0.5[NA(EB− ED) + NB(EC− EA) + NC(ED− EB) + ND(EA− EC)]

= 0.5[0 + 71(163) + 148(263 − 71) − 25(0 − 163)]

= 0.5[11 573 + 28 416 + 4075] =22 032 m2

The stations must be lettered clockwise around the figure. If anticlockwise the result will be the
same but has a negative sign.