Saturday, December 12, 2015

Interesting Jobs Related To Surveying

By Carey Bourdier


If you have a love for mathematics or perhaps you like the idea of helping to build things or create maps, then you might be interested in surveying or perhaps an occupation similar to surveying. You will have the opportunity to use a variety of unique instruments, such as theodolites and other optical tools. If you think surveying might be for you, take a look at these jobs that are in many ways similar to surveying.

Cartography, which is a branch of science devoted to making all types of maps, is one area of study you might consider. There are many types of maps that are needed for hundreds of applications, and these maps must be as precise as possible. Related to cartography, you also might be interested in photogrammetry, which goes hand in hand with cartography.

Photogrammetry, as the name suggests, has to do with photography and, in this case, aerial photography. You might not be aware of it, but many precise measurements can be taken from photographs. These photos might be satellite images or images captured from an airplane, drone or helicopter. A photogrammetrist won't be using a clinometer or even a theodolite to take land measurements; instead, they rely on a branch of physics known as optics as well as projective geometry to help them measure and calculate.

No surveyor, cartographer or photogrammetrist is an island, however, and they have assistants known as mapping technicians or surveying technicians. A surveying technician does not need a great deal of formal training but will need to learn how to use angle measuring tools such as the inclinometer or the theodolite, and much of these skills can be acquired with on-the-job training. On the other hand, a mapping technician will need some level of formal schooling in order to learn how to use the complex technology needed for cartography and photogrammetry projects.

Landscape architecture might conjure up the image of someone who simply decides where to place plants and shrubbery in someone's yard, but this profession is far more complex than that. Landscape architects use all sorts of optical tools, angle measuring tools and software to design land areas for private homeowners, public parks, college campuses, open space in planned communities and much more. They must create plans within a budget and take into consideration factors such as soil condition, water conservation, land usage and much more.

If building is something that sounds exciting to you, it might be a good idea to learn about the tasks given to a civil engineer. This is a person or team of people needed for virtually any kind of major construction project, including roads, bridges, tunnels and dams. Using items such as a total station, clinometer and theodolite to take measurements is one of the first steps of these big projects, so you can see that a civil engineer has many similarities to the profession of surveying.




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