Lecture – 03

DIGITAL LAND SURVEYING

OVERVIEW
DR. JAYANTA KUMAR GHOSH
CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

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 CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• ESTABLISHMENT OF CONTROL POINTS
– GPS data observation
– GPS data processing
• Transformation
• COLLECTION OF FIELD DETAILS
• SUMMARY
• GLOSSARY
• REVIEW QUESTIONS
• FURTHER READING
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 INTRODUCTION
• The fundamental objective of land surveying is to collect properly
referenced field details suitable for preparation of a plan or map of an
area.
• To start field surveying work, it is required to know very accurately,
locations of control stations in desired reference system.
• Details about the objects and features present on the field gets collected
through field surveying work.
• State-of-art of land surveying is to accomplish all surveying works
digitally.
• Digital Land Surveying primarily consists of two steps: Establishment of
control points and collection of Field details.
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 Establishment of control points
• Control stations are points with known location,
in desired frame of reference
• In DLS control points get established through
GPS surveying.
• GPS surveying for control point establishment
accomplishes in two stages of operations: data
observation and data processing.
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Establishment of control points : GPS data observation
• Three steps: Planning, Preparation and field work.
• Planning:
involves inter-dependent steps reconnaissance, selection of station points, monument construction, selection of Receiver
Types, survey design and validation.
• Preparation:
Selection of observation window, Selection of observation sessions, arrangement for Receivers and Personnel, to provide
Identity of each site, arrangement of transport, training of personnel on instrument handing and operations, observation
procedures, data storage, data downloading and processing; arrangement for proper stay and other personal
requirements, testing and calibration of the different units of GPS instruments and for any other specific requirement
depending on project site field.
• Field works
consists of field observation, in-situ data processing and data transfer.
Field Observations includes setting up of GPS receiver, parameter selection and initialization followed by field
observations.
The adequacy and quality of GPS observations should be checked at the end of each observation session. To ensure
appropriateness, the data acquired are checked for Data availability, Signal to noise ratio, Cycle slip, Correlation
Coefficient, Data distribution, Blunders, Systematic error etc.
On ensuring the quality, the acquired data get transferred to appropriate storage device to be processed in office.

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 GPS data processing
Processing through post-processing scientific software;
observations imported to the software followed by pre-processing.
observations get transformed to Double Difference observables during
pre-processing followed by detection of cycle-slip, if any and repair.
Virtual reference stations (VRS) are identified and observations files of
the stations as well as their coordinates get downloaded through
internet.
All data including those of VRS are then processed using precise
ephemerides. First, Baseline processing is being done followed by
network adjustment satisfying the required standard of the project.

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Establishment of control points : Location Transformation
Finally, the locations of control points get transformed to local
(North [N], East [E], Orthometric height [H]) coordinate system

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 Collection of field details
• field details get collected using Total Station (TS).
• Involves three broad steps: planning, field surveying and data reductions.
• In order to achieve aim and desired accuracy of the survey work, detail planning and preparation
of specifications are required well before actual field works.
• Equipment and techniques to be used also get decided during planning. Specifications include
amount and type of details to be located along with intensity of spot levels. These depend on the
scale of plan to be produced as well as on the purpose of use.
• During field work, first the total station gets set up on any station with back sight to a known
control point (established using GPS) and the line joining the station and control point as
reference direction. Thus, total station starts with locations of control points in local (N, E, H)
coordinate system.
• TS picks up locations of field details one by one by using method of radiations and records their
3D positions in N, E and H.
• Field survey observations get stored in a database compatible to data reduction software.
• Finally, TS field observations get reduced to data required for the project work and stored in
format suitable to digital mapping software.

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 Summary of Lecture 03
• Fundamental objective of land surveying is to collect properly referenced
field details.
• Control stations provide a series of points with known location, in desired
frame of reference and a frame for building survey plan.
• State-of-art of land surveying is Digital Land Surveying
• Digital Land Surveying consists of Establishment of control points and
collection of Field details.
• Control points get established through GPS surveying
• Field detailing is being carried out using total station back sighting to control
point of known local coordinates.

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•
Glossary
Back Sight: short for "back sight reading" is the first staff reading taken by the surveyor after temporary adjustment of the instrument. B.S
is generally taken on the point of known reduced level as on the benchmark or a change point.
• Baseline processing: is the method of processing of GPS data in which observations from reference and rover stations are taken together for
processing.
• Blunder: Careless mistake in any surveying measurement.
• Correlation Coefficient: A number that quantifies correlation and dependence relationships between two or more random variables or
observed data values statistically.
• Cycle slip: a discontinuity in a receiver's continuous phase lock on a satellite's signal.
• Datum: A reference plane used to define height of any point or station.
• Fore Sight: is the last staff reading taken before changing the instrument to the other position. It is the staff reading taken on point whose
RL is to determined. This sight is considered as negative and deduced from Height of Instrument to determine RL of the point.
• GPS: Acronym of Navigational Satellite for Timing and Ranging (NAVSTAR) Global Positioning system (GPS). It is a radio-navigation
system designed for Position, Navigation and Time for all throughout a day and all days in a year.
• Latitude: the angular distance above or below the plane of the equator;
• Longitude: the angular distance measured in the plane of the equator east or west of the Greenwich Meridian.
• Network adjustment: is performed primarily to identify and remove blunders from GPS observations and to compute final coordinates of
control stations to obtain proper mutual orientation thus geometry of the network, correct scaling factor and presentation of geo-spatial
location with respect to the reference coordinate system.
• Radiation method: The method in which an object is located by bisecting object or point along a radial line of sight from the instrument.
• Reference system: is a coordinate used to locate geographical entities.
• Signal to noise ratio: is the ratio of the strength of signal carrying information to that of unwanted interference.
• Systematic error: error that is introduced by an inaccuracy (as of observation or measurement) inherent in the system.
• Total Station: is an electronic theodolite (transit) integrated with an electronic distance meter (EDM) that provides all land surveying
measurements in a single go.
• Virtual reference station: is a non-existent reference station whose data or observables and position may be used through internet.

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 Review Questions
1. State the fundamental objective of land surveying.
2. Write an overview for establishment of Control point in Digital Land
Surveying.
3. Write an overview of Digital Land Surveying.
4. Define the following terms along with their significance in Surveying:
(i) Datum; (ii) Reference system; (iii) Virtual Reference Station; (iv) Blunder.
5. State True or False. If False, correct the statement
(i) The first staff reading is called foresight and that last reading is
backsight.
(ii) The angular distance from equatorial plane is called longitude and that
from prime meridian latitude.

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 Further reading
• A Text Book on GPS Surveying (2016) by Jayanta Kumar Ghosh,
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (An Amazon Company),
US [www.amazon.com/dp/1522952748].
• Surveying for Engineers (2006) by J. Uren & W.F.Price

Meet You Next Class on

“GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM : INTRODUCTION”
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Thanking You

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