Factors Affecting Surveying Fieldwork

Factors Affecting Fieldwork

The surveyor must constantly be alert to the different conditions encountered in the field. Physical factors, such as TERRAIN AND WEATHER CONDITIONS, affect each field survey in varying degrees. Measurements using telescopes can be stopped by fog or mist. Swamps and flood plains under high water can impede taping surveys. Sights over open water or fields of flat, unbroken terrain create ambiguities in measurements using microwave equipment. The lengths of light-wave distance in measurements are reduced in bright sunlight. Generally, reconnaissance will predetermine the conditions and alert the survey party to the best method to use and the rate of progress to expect.

The STATE OF PERSONNEL TECHNICAL READINESS is another factor affecting field-work. As you gain experience in handling various surveying instruments, you can shorten survey time and avoid errors that would require resurvey.

The PURPOSE AND TYPE OF SURVEY are primary factors in determining the accuracy requirements. First-order triangulation, which becomes the basis or "control" of future surveys, is made to high-accuracy standards. At the other extreme, cuts and fills for a highway survey carry accuracy standards of a much lower degree. In some construction surveys, normally inaccessible distances must be computed. The distance is computed by means of trigonometry, using the angles and the one distance that can be measured. The measurements must be made to a high degree of precision to maintain accuracy in the computed distance.

So, then, the purpose of the survey determines the accuracy requirements. The required accuracy, in turn, influences the selection of instruments and procedures. For instance, comparatively rough procedures can be used in measuring for earthmoving, but grade and alignment of a highway have to be much more precise, and they, therefore, require more accurate measurements. Each increase in precision also increases the time required to make the measurement, since greater care and more observations will be taken. Each survey measurement will be in error to the extent that no measurement is ever exact. The errors are classified as systematic and accidental and are explained in the latter part of this text. Besides errors, survey measurements are subject to mistakes or blunders. These arise from misunderstanding of the problem, poor judgment, confusion on the part of the surveyor, or simply from an oversight. By working out a systematic procedure, the surveyor will often detect a mistake when some operation seems out of place. The procedure will be an advantage in setting up the equipment, in making observations, in recording field notes, and in making computations.

Survey speed is not the result of hurrying; it is the result of saving time through the following factors:

1. The skill of the surveyor in handling the instruments

2. The intelligent planning and preparation of the work

3.             The process of making only those measurements that are consistent with the accuracy requirements

Experience is of great value, but in the final analysis, it is the exercise of a good, mature, and competent degree of common sense that makes the difference between a good surveyor and an exceptional surveyor.