1. The purpose of these notes.

These notes are distributed as an adjunct to the lectures given in plane surveying in a range of subjects, notably Geomatics Science 1, Surveying (Forestry Course), Physical Geography (Surveying Component), Surveying (Engineering Course), and Introduction to Surveying (BPD). They are not intended to be a replacement for the prescribed text books, nor are they intended to stand alone, they are to be used in conjunction with the lectures.

They have been compiled from notes prepared over the last ten years or so by a variety of lecturing staff in the Department of Surveying and Land Information, including Cliff Ogleby, Leo Rivett, Frank Leahy, George Benwell, Gary Hunter and Vladimir Argeseanu. They are in a constant state of revision and modification to ensure the information is current and relevant to each course in which they are distributed.

2. A Definition of Geomatics.

It has been said that geomatics is many things to many people, but it is generally taken to be the science and technology of acquiring and managing information about our world and its environment. The name 'geomatics' was determined several years ago in Canada to represent the rapidly changing and expanding world of land information management, which consists of measuring, mapping, photogrammetry, computer systems, remote sensing, information systems, computer graphics, satellite position fixing and so on. All of the stages of data acquisition, manipulation, display and management. As you can see it takes a lot of words to explain what it is all about, hence the word 'geomatics'. The word has been adopted by several international bodies including the International Standards Organisation (ISO) so it is here to stay. The bit of geomatics that this subject is particularly concerned with is the measurement component, also known as surveying.

2.1 So what is surveying?

'Land surveying' has been defined as the art and science of determining the position of natural and artificial features on, above or below the earth's surface; and representing this information on plans, in tables or on computers. This definition however would be seen as a very narrow view of what is encompassed by surveying today. The definition is changing, to reflect the applications of surveying techniques and the impact that the introduction of computer technology has had on the more traditional aspects of the discipline. It is certainly very different from the public perception of a 'surveyor' as somebody who stands next to the road looking through that telescope thingy and waves their arms about.

Surveying science has a very long and distinguished history, dating at least back to the 'rope stretchers' of Babylonia and the Egyptian dynasties. The development of the principles of geometry, astronomy and time still forms the foundation on which current surveying knowledge is built. Today 'surveyors' use satellites to image the earth's environment, use different satellites for navigation and precise position fixing, use computer visualization techniques for mapping, micro-computer controlled equipment for measuring the earth's surface and information systems to present and analyse data about land. But, the underlying core of knowledge for all of this sophistication is the mathematics of geometry.

3. A History of the Discipline in Not Many Pages

It is very difficult to summarise the history of the discipline of surveying in a few pages, and most text books have only a cursory background in order to set the scene. This document will not be able to achieve much more. The current level of knowledge and technology is the end result of around 6000 years of activity by philosophers, astronomers, poets, mathematiticians, priests, scholars, geographers, navigators and adventurers. The most extensive collation of material on the heritage of the science of measurement can be found in a series of articles in The Australian Surveyor, by A.P.H. Werner from September 1966 to June 1968. It is interesting reading, especially as it illustrates the combination of philosophical thought that often preceeds the mathematical solution to problems of metaphysics, which very few people today in this world of extremely specialised disciplines would realise is necessary.

In any case, here's some background on why we are what we are. (The following dates are approximate and are given as BCE - Before Christian or Current Era, which although being a little eurocentric is in keeping with common practice. Creationists may adjust the following dates to suit their narrow dogma, Buddhists please add 543 years).

In the beginning...

• human kind were originally hunter gatherers, there was little need to delineate boundaries other than the limits of range, or game migration, or the edge of land to which the tribe or band had rights. But humans were capable of wondering...
• sometime around 10,000±BCE bands of people started to settle in one place, and to domesticate animals and crops. They also started to organise life socially, to trade and and to create organised 'religions' (although there is much evidence to show that these attributes occurred before this time in other locations around the world). Once crops and animals began to be domesticated, there was time left over from the task of food collection for more philosophical ramblings.
• these settlements increased in size and 'city states' began to form, around 6000BCE but nobody is confident of a more exact date
• city/states produced an ordered society, and rulers of dynasties emerged as well as systems of civil and religious administration. Metal was being smelted, records were being kept as writing had been developed, and agriculture was firmly established. Armies were being maintained to preserve the borders of the city/states as well as to expand the territories, civil works were starting, and therefor taxes were needed to support the infrastructure of these new societies. Land could be taxed if it could be measured, a perfect opening for entrepreneurial geomatic scientists!
• these events were occurring in several locations at around the same time, including Messopotamia, China, and parts of Europe. The practicioners of the black arts of measurement were the priest/surveyor/astronomers, people who explained various phenomena by the actions of the gods, or the position of the stars.
• around 4000BCE the Babylonians were already making records of land ownership on clay tablets which contained the measurements of the land and the signature of the 'surveyor'. (We continue this tradition today, the clay tablets being replaced by paper plans and computer maps). A standard unit of length had been adopted, and the sexagesimal system of measurement was in use.
• around 2780BCE the pyramids of Cheops were constructed using standard units of measurement and simple devices for setting out the constructions. Wall frescos in pyramids depict the 'rope stretchers' re-measuring the Pharo's lands after the annual Nile floods (for taxation purposes naturally). Around 1800BCE Babylonian boundary stones proliferated, with dire consequences warned of if the marks were interfered with. Maps begin to appear on clay tablets, astronomy was being practiced in Messopotamia, China, the Pacific, South America. In Egypt there was much application of surveying to measure land, land is taxed on area and payments made to the Royal Granary. Around 1250BCE RamesesII erected a tombstone to a surveyor/engineer, now held in Cairo Railway Station.
• the mathematics of geometry and astronomy was being continually refined during this time, also the development of levelling devices and angle determination instruments was undertaken from around 600BCE to 400BCE there were major advances made in philosophic/ scientific/mathematic thought. Many of the well known Greek philosopher/mathematicians make contributions during this period: Pythagoras, Anaximander, Democritus (600BCE±); Socrates, Plato, Aristoteles, (500-400BCE); Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonius, Eratosthenes (300BCE±). Eratosthenes determined the radius of the Earth by measuring shadows at Alexandria and Seyne, and was only about 320km off the radius we use today. (Geomatics Science 1 still uses the mathematical principles founded by many of these thinkers.) The borders of the known world were also expanding during this period, and there was a wish not only to delineate these boundaries but also to see what lay beyond.
• also around this period other major civil engineering works were constructed, a six mile canal was constructed at Mt Athos during Xerxes time, the Romans constructed aqua appia and via appia, as well as bridges and tunnels. The people of China, India and the Americas were also involved in major civil works. The magnetic compass was in use, the concept of longitude and latitude was in use, large numbers were expressed in multiples of 60 (Babylonians), 10 (Chinese), and 12 (Romans), and the Hindu-Arabic numbers in use today were being developed. The Chinese define ? to be 3.14159. Mirrors were in use, glass was being manufactured, and optical geometry was being developed.
• around 150BCE, a school of surveying was established by the Romans to teach town planning, map making and building of roads and aquaducts.
• around 120 Ptolemaios (Ptolomy) produced maps, and established the doctrine that if the earth was spherical then a proper representation could be obtained by a geometrical projection of that surface. He was also an astronomer and instrument maker, and developed a cartographic philosophy that lasted centuries.
• developments now moved from the Greeks and Romans to the Arab world, where many of the terms used in astronomy and navigation today originated (nadir, azimuth, algebra for example). Developments continued in China and in India, regular contact between these three regions ensured dissemination of knowledge. Surveying developments in Europe stagnated until Arab conquests revived investigations in this area. European research was generally confined to monasteries and religious orders. Also during this epoch, there appeared the 'zero' , sine tables, algebra, tangent functions.....
• around 1200 translations of Arab works undertaken, deep water navigation by Chinese using the compass, Europe starting to awaken
• 1350± the Renaissance begins in Europe, the sciences and arts revived. New worlds are being conquered, there are continuing needs for navigation and astronomy (time/longitude), and artillery ranging,. The heliocentric model of planetary motion gaining acceptance although not by the Catholic Church.
• 1400-1700±, developments occured in telescope design and construction, measurement of magnetic declination, measurement of time, standardisation of units of measurement, determination of longitude, surveying instruments, and reference books on surveying methods. Da Vinci, Kepler, Napier, Dürer, Pascal, Newton, Galileo, Coppernicus. Jesuits spread European knowledge to China, and brought Chinese developments back to Europe. New worlds were settled, indigenous cultures obliterated, souls converted, new maps produced, and new ways of representing a spherical earth on a flat piece of paper were developed. Maps were an integral part of the colonisation of the 'new' world, not only were they necessary for use in navigation but the act of measuring, naming and mapping endorsed the conquest of the colonisers. What could be mapped could be ruled. Universities were also established, education became a little easier to acquire and knowledge began to become separated from the church. Columbus adopts a radically new (but incorrect) radius of the Earth, sails westwards from the known world to prove a shorter route to India, runs into the Americas and calls the indigenous people 'indians'. Brilliant PR staff ensure he is credited with discovering America, in fact it was Vespucci Amerigo as Columbus was too far south.
• from 1700±, the new age of geodesy begins (the measurement of the shape of the world). Soon we have differential calculus, logarithms, Descartes' analytic geometry (and his concept of dualism), sextants, octants, the Harrison's ships chronometer (essential for Cook's voyages), the spirit level, micrometer theodolites, and many other products of the industrial revolution. The accurate time keeper has been one of the most significant inventions for navigation, exploration and discovery.
• 1770 James Cook sails up the east coast of Terra Australia/New Holland/ VanDieman's Land/New South Wales. Europeans arrive in Australia soon after, which is the subject of a separate set of notes (the opening ceremony text from the XX FIG Congress in Melbourne, 1994). The Montgolfier brothers also flew in a hot air balloon around this time. The settled world in Europe was also moving from an agrarian society to an industrialised society, changing the social, political and religious structure of nations.
• the 1800s saw the development of photography, then aerial photography and also architectural photography. In the 1864 Aimé Laussedat made a map of Paris from photographs taken from rooftops, building the foundation for photogrammetric mapping as practiced today. Instruments were designed to aid in the measurement of photographs for map production, the internal combustion engine made its appearance and humans pioneered powered flight. Newly established empires were crumbling, and the borders of the known world was reaching the limits we know today.
• the 1900s saw the rapid development of the mapping sciences as a result of the two major wars (there's nothing like a good war to increase research and development). Aerial photography and reconnaissance, mapping, radio, radar, lasers, jet engines, space exploration, the establishment of geodetic survey networks across the countries. Universal education seen as a right, intellectual development of humankind proceeds at an unprecidented pace (but according to some at the expense of the spiritual and social development).
• the digital revolution is now in progress; satellite position fixing, measurement by light and radio waves, imaging from satellite platforms, map production from digital http://www.sli.unimelb.edu.au/, dynamic real-time mapping, high speed computing and telecommunications, Nintendos, CD-ROM. . . . . . . .
• Some great Surveyors include George Washington, Daniel Boone, Thomas Mitchell, George Everest, and most well known navigators especially James Cook, along with many early Australian explorers and .......................... (insert your name here).
  

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