Aerial surveying is a method of land surveying that assumes the land is flat, making it best for small areas. Surveyors use plane geometry, trigonometry, and algebra to calculate distances, densities, and depths. This type of surveying is important for civil construction and mapping projects, but larger areas require more specialized tools and mathematics. “Aerial survey” can also refer to land surveys conducted by air, but this is primarily used for tracking.
Aerial surveying is a common method of calculating the composition and topography of land which involves considering a given extent of land as a flat plan. This type of land survey works best for small areas of land, largely because the Earth isn’t actually flat. An aerial survey conducted over a large expanse of land risks being inaccurate because it cannot explain the natural curvature of the earth. In some circles, aerial ground surveying, what is done by airplanes, may also be called “aerial surveying,” although this usage is less common.
Civil engineers and planners have many uses for professional land surveys. Land surveys provide details about topography and help builders estimate distances, densities, and depths of land with great accuracy. Floor detection depends on visual indicators and individual calculations.
In aerial surveying, the terrain to be assessed is considered a flat plane. Surveyors use a variety of tools to place points on that plane, known as a plan table. They will then use the principles of plane geometry, trigonometry and algebra to calculate the relative distance between points, the density of some topographical features such as mountains, and the depths of ravines and other indentations in the terrain. Plane relief can also be known as table top relief.
Flat table survey calculations are very important for a wide variety of civil construction and mapping projects. Surveyors use planning techniques to ensure that buildings, highways, and other structures are built both on solid ground and in a linear, logical way. Accurate surveying is also one of the reasons modern city blocks are usually all about the same size and that streets often run exactly parallel to each other. Many GPS units are also programmed with data collected by aerial surveyors.
Most of the time, aerial surveying is only appropriate for relatively small areas of land. A neighborhood may be planned with aerial surveying, for example, but an entire city may not be able to do this, at least not all at once. In large part, this is because aerial surveying assumes that the ground as you can see is a flat plane.
Surveyors interested only in small areas of land usually don’t need to worry about the curvature of the earth, as that curvature is very subtle. However, over larger areas of land, disregarding the curved surface of the Earth can lead to results that are more than a little inaccurate. Large-scale land surveying generally requires more specialized tools and more complex mathematics.
The term “aerial survey” can also sometimes refer to land surveys conducted by air, by plane. Most of the time, however, this type of surveillance is known simply as “airborne surveillance.” It is used primarily as a form of tracking, not as a means of measuring and contouring land distances.
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