History of Geomatics
It is very difficult to summarise the history of the discipline of surveying. Most text books have only a cursory background in order to set the scene. This web page will not be able to achieve much more but is designed to provide you with a brief glimpse into the historical foundation of the subject matter you are about to learn.
The current level of knowledge and technology is the end result of around 6000 years of activity by philosophers, astronomers, poets, mathematicians, 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 precedes 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...
Around 10,000±BCE bands of people started to settle in one place, and to domesticate animals and crops. They began to organise life socially, to trade and to create organised 'religions'. (There is much evidence to show that these attributes occurred before this time, in several 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. 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 smelted, writing developed, and records kept. Agriculture was firmly established. Armies were maintained to preserve the borders of the city/states and to expand these territories. Civil works were starting. To support the developing infrastructure of these new societies, taxes were needed and introduced. 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 practitioners 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 threatened if the marks were interfered with. Maps begin to appear on clay tablets. Astronomy was practiced in Messopotamia, China, the Pacific, South America. In Egypt there was much application of surveying to measure land, as land is taxed on area and payments made to the Royal Granary. Around 1250BCE Rameses II erected a tombstone to a surveyor/engineer, now held in Cairo Railway Station.
The mathematics of geometry and astronomy was 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 p to be 3.14159. Mirrors were in use, glass was manufactured, and optical geometry was 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 gained acceptance, although not by the Catholic Church.
1400-1700±, developments occurred 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 written 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 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 unprecedented pace, (though 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 and other spacebourne platforms, map production from digital images, dynamic real-time mapping, high speed computing and telecommunications, 3D Visulisation, faster computers, network communications. The list of innovations grows, further changing the face of geomatic science.
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).
If you would like to find out more about the development of geodesy visit this site:
This site is suggested for extra interest only - it is not part of the course material!
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