Surveying is an essential part of civil engineering that involves making all essential measurements to determine the relative position of points or physical and cultural details above, on, or beneath the surface of the Earth, and to depict them in a usable form, or to establish the position of points or details. The main purpose of surveying in civil engineering is to determine the three-dimensional relationships between different locations. Knowing information like the distances and angles between points and lines helps engineers determine how to draw up plans for public buildings, homes, roads, bridges, and a variety of other construction and infrastructure projects.
During a survey, surveyors use various tools to do their job successfully and accurately, such as total stations, GPS receivers, prisms, 3D scanners, radio communicators, digital levels, dumpy level, and surveying software, among others. The most common survey in civil engineering is the topographic survey, which focuses on analyzing and recording the characteristics of a land area span to help design a plan or map for construction.
Civil surveying is useful in a tremendous variety of different applications across industries and project scopes. Some of its uses include creating maps, preparing plots, planning and designing all civil engineering projects such as railways, highways, tunneling, irrigation, dams, reservoirs, waterworks, sewerage works, airfields, and more. Without surveying, the placement, security, and safety of projects cannot be assured.
