Though for sketch maps the compass or graphic techniques are acceptable for measuring angles, only the theodolite can assure the accuracy required in the framework needed for precise mapping. The theodolite consists of a telescope pivoted around horizontal and vertical axes so that it can measure both horizontal and vertical angles. These angles are read from circles graduated in degrees and smaller intervals of 10 or 20 minutes. The exact position of the index mark (showing the direction of the line of sight) between two of these graduations is measured on both sides of the circle with the aid of a vernier or a micrometer. The accuracy in modern first-order or geodetic instruments, with five-inch glass circles, is approximately one second of arc, or 1/3,600 of a degree. With such an instrument a sideways movement of the target of one centimetre can be detected at a distance of two kilometres. By repeating the measurement as many as 16 times and averaging the results, horizontal angles can be measured more closely; in geodetic surveying, measurements of all three angles of a triangle are expected to give a sum of 180 degrees within one second of arc.

In the most precise long-distance work, signaling lamps or heliographs reflecting the Sun are used as targets for the theodolite. For less demanding work and work over shorter distances, smaller theodolites with simpler reading systems can be used; targets are commonly striped poles or ranging rods held vertical by an assistant.

An extensive set of these measurements establishes a network of points both on the map, where their positions are plotted by their coordinates, and on the ground, where they are marked by pillars, concrete ground marks, bolts let into the pavement, or wooden pegs of varying degrees of cost and permanence, depending on the importance and accuracy of the framework and the maps to be based on it. Once this framework has been established, the surveyor proceeds to the detail mapping, starting from these ground marks and knowing that their accuracy ensures that the data obtained will fit precisely with similar details obtained elsewhere in the framework.

Detail surveying

The actual depiction of the features to be shown on the map can be performed either on the ground or, since the invention of photography, aviation, and rocketry, by interpretation of aerial photographs and satellite images. On the ground the framework is dissected into even smaller areas as the surveyor moves from one point to another, fixing further points on the features from each position by combinations of angle and distance measurement and finally sketching the features between them freehand. In complicated terrain this operation can be slow and inaccurate, as can be seen by comparing maps made on the ground with those made subsequently from aerial photographs.

Ground survey still has to be used, however, for some purposes; for example, in areas where aerial photographs are hard to get; under the canopy of a forest, where the shape of the ground—not that of the treetops—is required; in very large scale work or close contouring; or if the features to be mapped are not easily identifiable on the aerial photographs, as is the case with property boundaries or zones of transition between different types of soil or vegetation. One of two fundamental differences between ground and air survey is that, as already mentioned, the ground survey interpolates, or sketches, between fixed points, while air survey, using semiautomatic instruments, can trace the features continuously, once the positions of the photographs are known. One effect of this is to show features in uniform detail rather than along short stretches between the points fixed in a ground survey.

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laser: Surveying

The second difference is that in ground survey different techniques and accuracies may be adopted for the horizontal and vertical measurements, the latter usually being more precise. Accurate determinations of heights are required for engineering and planning maps, for example, for railway gradients or particularly for irrigation or drainage networks, since water in open channels does not run uphill.

The methods used for fixing locations within the horizontal detail framework are similar to, but less accurate than, those used for the primary framework. Angles may be measured with a hand-held prismatic compass or graphically with a plane table, or they may be estimated as right angles in the case of points that are offset by short distances from straight lines between points already fixed. Detail points may be located by their distances from two fixed points or by distance and bearing from only one.

The surveyor may record measurements made in the field and plot them there on a sketch board or in the office afterward, but if the country is open and hilly, or even mountainous, the plane table offers the best way of recording the data. A disadvantage of plane-table work is that it cannot be checked in the office, and so it requires greater intelligence and integrity of the surveyor. The plane table reached its most efficient form of use in the Survey of India, begun in 1800, in which large areas were mapped with it by dedicated Indian surveyors. It consists of a flat board that is mounted on a tripod so that it can be fixed or rotated around a vertical axis. It is set up over a framework point or one end of a measured baseline with its surface (which is covered with paper or other drawing medium) horizontal. It is turned until the line joining its location with another framework point or the other end of the baseline is parallel to the same line as drawn on the paper. This alignment is performed with the aid of an alidade, or sight rule, a straightedge fitted with simple sights. The alidade is then directed toward points on features that are to be fixed, and pencil rays are drawn along the sight rule toward them. The procedure is repeated at the other framework point or the other end of the baseline; the points where the rays intersect on the table will be the map positions of the features.

In surveying for engineering projects, more sophisticated instruments are employed to maximize accuracy. For example, distances may be measured by EDM or by tachymetry, a geometric technique in which the vertical distance on a graduated vertical staff, seen between two stadia hairs in the theodolite eyepiece, is a measure of the horizontal distance between the theodolite and the staff—usually 100 times the difference between the two readings. This method requires at least one assistant to move the staff from place to place. Modern surveying instruments combine a theodolite, EDM equipment, and a computer that records all the observations and calculates the height differences obtained by measuring vertical angles.