surveying

Introduction
History
Modern surveying
- Basic control surveys
- Triangulation
- Global positioning
- Establishing the framework
- The theodolite
- Detail surveying
- Aerial surveying
- Hydrography
- Height determination

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

Ensuring maritime safety through hydrographic surveys

A surveyor wearing a white hard hat looks through an orange theodolite mounted on a tripod at a construction site, with a yellow crane and building structures in the background.

At a Glance

surveying summary

Related Questions

How accurate must measurements be in high-order geodetic surveying?
How did aerial photography change mapmaking and surveying?
How did annual Nile floods make boundary surveying necessary in ancient Egypt?
How did electronic distance measurement change surveying work?
How did the ancient Egyptian A-frame level work?
How did the astrolabe contribute to the history of surveying?
How did the invention of the theodolite improve surveying?
How do CAD BIM and GIS use surveying data in civil engineering?
How do bench marks provide vertical control for surveying?
How do quadrangles improve the accuracy of triangulation surveys?
How do surveyors create accurate maps of the Earth’s surface?
How do surveyors use traversing to establish control points?
How does a plane table locate map features using an alidade?
How does a theodolite measure horizontal and vertical angles?
How does atmospheric pressure help surveyors estimate elevation?
How does electronic distance measurement calculate the distance between survey stations?
How does spirit leveling measure differences in elevation?
How does the geoid serve as a reference surface in surveying?
How does triangulation establish a surveying framework?
How does trigonometric leveling determine the elevation of an inaccessible point?
How is an ellipsoid used to represent the shape of the Earth in surveying?
How is mean sea level used as an elevation datum?
How is trilateration different from triangulation in surveying?
What are the two main functions of surveying in civil engineering?
What kinds of targets are used with theodolites for short and long distances?
Which construction projects depend on surveying measurements?
Which corrections are needed when a measuring tape is used for precise surveying?
Which tools did ancient Egyptians use to measure land?
Why are accurate height measurements important for railway and drainage projects?
Why are ground surveys still needed under forest canopies?
Why are orthometric corrections needed for some long leveling lines?
Why are two barometers used when measuring height differences?
Why can radio-based EDM work in fog and heavy rain?
Why did electronic distance measurement make trilateration practical over large areas?
Why did older surveying methods use observations of the Sun and stars?
Why do surveyors measure at least one baseline in a triangulation system?
Why do surveyors repeat theodolite measurements and average the results?
Why is spirit leveling less efficient on steep hills?
Why must slopes be corrected when survey measurements are shown on a map?
Why must the angles in a survey triangle add up to 180 degrees?
Why should the distances from a surveying level to two staffs be equal?
Why is biotechnology important?
When did modern biotechnology emerge?

Technology Engineering Civil Engineering

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External Websites

University of Otago - What is Surveying?
Atlantic Canada Pressbooks Network - Technically Drawn - Surveying Field Notes
Ferris State University - What is Surveying Engineering?
Intergovernmental Committee on Survey and Mapping - Surveying
IOPscience - Journal of Physics: Conference Series - Progress of Surveying and Mapping Science and Technology in the Information Age (PDF)
PennState - College of Earth and Mineral Sciences - Land Surveying and Conventional Techniques for Measuring Positions on the EarthÂ’s Surface

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

surveying - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

surveying

civil engineering

Written by

John Wilfrid Wright

Land surveyor; freelance writer and lecturer. Author of Ground and Air Survey for Field Scientists.

John Wilfrid WrightAll

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 16, 2026 •History

surveying, a means of making relatively large-scale, accurate measurements of the Earth’s surfaces. It includes the determination of the measurement data, the reduction and interpretation of the data to usable form, and, conversely, the establishment of relative position and size according to given measurement requirements. Thus, surveying has two similar but opposite functions: (1) the determination of existing relative horizontal and vertical position, such as that used for the process of mapping, and (2) the...

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