Although much has changed in the profession of geospatial surveying, the same basic geometrical principles still apply - as does the need for instrumental calibration, its proper application, the suitable analysis of data and the presentation of results to users. Although the hands-on nature of day-to-day work has almost disappeared, to be replaced by rapid turnkey systems of amazing sophistication, the geospatial surveyor still has to plan and organise the work and above all remains responsible to the client for its outcome, and must be able to defend the work if necessary.

Since most practical work is carried out by prescribed systems and processed by software packages, the book concentrates on those essential principles which the user needs to know, if the results are to be verified and assessed with understanding and wisdom. The text outlines the fundamentals of geospatial surveying including relevant worked examples that make liberal use of Excel spreadsheets. The mathematical treatment relates directly to those topics found in the author's successful textbook, Maths for Map Makers.

Contents:

Introduction to geospatial surveying; Technical procedures; Coordinate systems; Coordinate transformations; Theory of errors and quality control; Least squares estimation; Satellite surveying; Survey computations; Heights and levels; Maps and map data processing; Construction and curves; Industrial and engineering surveying; Instrumentation. Appendices: Useful data; Spherical trigonometry; General least squares; The Earth ellipsoid; Survey control for photogrammetric mapping; Quality control; Field astronomy; Survey projections; Satellite surveying; References