Three Types of Surveying

There are many different types of surveys but three of the more commonly used ones are topographical surveying, land surveying and underground utilities surveys. Exploring and understanding the different types or surveys and surveying is easy when you understand how.

Topographical Surveys or Topo surveying

Topographical Surveying is the study and measurement of the Earth's surface. This can reveal what natural or man-made geographical features exist in an area, large or small, the contours and shapes of the features themselves and also vegetation and the influence of human presence. The object of all this is to produce a three-dimensional map.

In order to provide this kind of accurate detail of the many levels and contours of the land, aerial surveys are conducted, and then at ground level survey teams with portable surveying equipment establish vertical and horizontal control points to verify accuracy. In today's world the data is collected and generated electronically.

Fed with  https://surveyingserviceslondon.co.uk/best-utility-surveyors-london/ , computers combine distances, angles, and elevations and produce pictures, using contour lines, hypsometric tints and relief shading.

Land Surveys and surveying

Land Surveying is the measurement and accurate determination of the 3d positions of various points on a terrain. The objective of this is generally to determine boundaries. Surveyors produce land maps marking out areas of private, communal or government ownership limits. This is constantly being done whenever there are serious property rights disputes or changes are planned for the region, such as for sub-dividing properties, new residential or town-planning layouts, when roads or other engineering structures are planned, or for the determination of ancient boundaries for historical or archaeological purposes.

Underground Utilities Surveys (electricity, Gas, Water and Television)

Underground Utilities Surveying has to be just about the most tricky and difficult types of exploration. Surveyors need to determine what is underground and cannot be seen. Before any development may take place it should be discovered what, if anything lies under the ground. These could be drains, electrical or gas cables, sinkholes, water pipes or water pockets or buried tanks.

The first degree of exploration would be to collect every drawing, plan or bit of electronic data designed for the area. This is often not totally accurate, but gives a concept of what installations were situated in the immediate area.
Another level involves picking out visible features, such as manholes, inspection hatch covers, meters, electrical poles, etc. Straight lines showing the shortest distance between them are drawn, which narrows down the search. However these lines cannot always be totally relied on as rocks and other underground barriers can cause deviations, and sometimes the pipes or cables don't run from the centre of each inspection element to another, but slightly to one side or another.

An indirect survey involves the latest technology, such as for example radar that penetrates the bottom, X-rays, and frequency resonance. If uncertainty still persists, the final step is drilling or digging potholes at regular intervals to confirm the data collected by the aforementioned methods.