Land Surveying History
Land surveying is amongst the oldest professions on this planet. After man has decided that a section of land should fit in with a tribe, the demand for surveying began.
Land surveying is fascinating. The methods used try to choose which part of land is owned by whom, hopefully ending arguments once and for all.
In short, surveying is actually a process using mathematical means to survey land.
How did land surveying started?
The first accounts of surveying land goes back to ancient Egypt. Experts have discovered evidences which the ancient Egyptians used basic geometry to redraw the lines of boundary once the Nile River overflowed. An Egyptian land register dating back 3000 BC was also found.
Following the Egyptians, the Romans – also among the most powerful civilizations within the ancient world – practiced land surveying.
They took it a pace further and made “land surveyor” a state position throughout the Empire. These folks called agrimensores, best known as Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum.
Whilst they used simple tools, people were very thorough with their jobs and would create straight lines and proper angles using these tools. After the lines were measured, they would create shallow ditches to mark the lines. In fact, a lot of the furrows they made exist today.
One of the recorded land surveying in the “modern” times is that of William the Conqueror who wrote the Domesday Book in 1086. This book serves as a menu of names of land owners, how many land they owned along with other information about the land.
While it was a marvelous measure of information during this period, the bits of information weren’t 100% correct. The locations weren’t accurate and the maps had not been created to scale.
One among history’s greatest icons had also been a passionate surveyor – Napoleon Bonaparte. The interest in surveying land was actually simply a product of his desire to conquer the planet.
Napoleon Bonaparte founded a registry called cadastre. This consists of a registry of properties of a county, ownership details, locations and as many details concerning the land’s value. Yes, Napoleon Bonaparte can be regarded as a land surveyor – and a very smart man.
The strategy used for land surveying also have evolved over the centuries, over time. In the past, people would use whatever may help them determine the length from one point to another.
This simply means using chains with links and even ropes. Obviously, this didn’t give accurate results but they did not have the technology we’ve got in the past.
Today, land surveyors enjoy the best technologies to help them with their job. There’s GPS, or Global Positioning System, which is one of the most accurate technologies being utilized today.
Total stations are also very important to a land surveyor, which employs the utilization of an EDM or Electronic Distance Measurement device along with a theodolite which enables for further precise angle and distance measurements.