They say the quickest way to connect two dots is to draw a straight line between them. This might be true in the hypothetical world, but when it comes to surveying land, you’d be hard pressed to meet any topographic surveyors in Floresville, TX that have ever simply connected two points with a line and called it a day. The truth of the real world is that determining things like property boundaries or topographical mappings involve a whole lot more heavy lifting and, at the end of the day, a straight line isn’t always going to be the most effective way to connect the dots.
Topographic surveyors in Floresville, TX actually have a whole arsenal of techniques that they use to determine where certain boundaries lie and where landmarks are relegated to. Take a look at just a few of them that come into play on a daily basis:
- Distance measurement: An easy enough term to understand, this is simply figuring out what the actual distance between two points is. This isn’t quite as easy as tying a piece of string to a pole and walking it to another pole to measure the distance—surveyors actually use lasers and there’s an entire field of study devoted to understanding actual distance between two objects called Tacheometry!
- Angle measurement: Using what’s called a theodolite, topographic surveyors in Floresville, TX can generate precise angle measurements between two points, allowing a surveyor to more accurately map distance figures without being thrown by terrain changes or other disconcerting variables.
- Leveling: Have you ever heard the phrases “above or below sea level” before? This data explains what you think it might: your relative elevation position to sea level. In order to determine this information, however, surveyors need to level the area they’re surveying by taking measurements relative to barometric pressure using an altimeter. This in turn allows the surveyor to understand elevation changes around the property or land they’re considering.
- Determining position: Again, another term that may sound simple enough, but which actually comes with a lot of hard work—granted that hard work has been made easier in recent years with new technological developments. Today, determining position is as easy as whipping out a GPS unit and recording coordinates! Why is this important? Well, when you’re parceling out land, you have to have some universal way to map it, right? Coordinates do just that: provide the dots that you’re going to connect.
- Reference networks: A reference network is a series of points and distance measurements taken by a surveyor that helps to paint an actual picture of the land being mapped. But, more than that, a reference network acts as a control for the surveying that remains—each point already mapped can be used as a reference for the next step or to join existing data for a more comprehensive map of the land.
These are just a few of the skills and techniques in a topographical surveyor’s bag, but all are equally important in ensuring that a tract of land in question can be appropriately approached and measured.