Origins of Land Surveying

The principles of land surveying date back almost as far as the idea of land ownership. Ever since ancient man determined that one piece of land would participate in one group, and another piece to some other group, there was a need to mediate between land disputes. This is where land surveying came in, although today surveys may also be used for a great many other purposes.

Since then, every major civilization in the annals of the planet has used some form of land surveying, although they have certainly are more sophisticated over the years both with changing laws and improved technologies. Today, GPS and other technologies allow for a more exact survey than was possible just a couple of short decades ago. Obviously, ancient maps and land surveys were even less accurate.

One of the first types of a land survey using mathematical means was in ancient Egypt. THE FANTASTIC Pyramid, built around 2700 BC at Giza, demonstrates Egyptians' knowledge of surveying techniques. Ancient Egyptians also redrew boundary lines using basic geometry after the Nile River flooded the plains.  Helpful resources  existed as early as 3000 BC, or five thousand years ago, to record the owners of various bits of land and their locations. These early surveying efforts by the Egyptians were years before other civilizations, as was true in lots of the areas of Egyptian technology as well. These surveys were based on geometry and also simple declarations that they believed these boundaries to be correct.

In the Roman Empire., the Romans actually established 'land surveyor' being an official position. These were called agrimensores. Texts describing their actions date back again to the first century AD. Thorough and precise, they were known for creating impeccably straight lines and right angles using simple tools. After measuring these lines, they would dig a shallow ditch to represent the lines. Amazingly, some of these ditches still exist for this day.

In eleventh century England, William the Conqueror wrote his now-famous Domesday Book. This book, covering all of England, meticulously covered the names of all land owners, the quality and quantity of this land, and home elevators the people and resources in each area. Although the amount of information within this book was quite impressive, this is not a technical survey, and the maps were not drawn to scale and weren't very accurate.

Napoleon Bonaparte was the first to mandate a cadastre, in 1808. Sometimes, Napoleon even thought that the cadastre will be his greatest contribution to civil law. The cadastre is a thorough register of the property in confirmed county. The information it contains includes ownership details, location (as precisely measured as possible given then-current technology), and as much information about the value and using the land as was available. This cadastre included scale maps at both 1:2500 and 1:1250. Cadastre use spread quickly, and even it was the origin of today's cadastral surveys. However, it was difficult to make a cadastre in rural areas or those where land was in dispute.

Today's surveys are much more accurate than those done in decades or centuries past thanks to sophisticated opportinity for measuring and recording boundaries and land features. There are various more applications of land surveys than recording land ownership