This 14th Edition of Elementary Surveying: An Introduction to Geomatics
is a readable text that presents basic concepts and practical material in each
of the areas fundamental to modern surveying (geomatics) practice It is
written pri-marily for students beginning their study of surveying (geomatics)
at the college level Although the book is introductry to the practice of
surveying, its depth and breadth also make it ideal for self-study and
preparation for licensing examina-tions
In keeping with the goal of providing an up-to-date presentation of surveying
equipment and procedures, total stations are stressed as the instruments for making
angle and distance observations With this in mind, a section on planning a groundbased laser scanning survey has been introduced in this edition Additionally, the
LandXML format to exchange mapping files has also been introduced
Since taping is now limited to distances under one-tape length and since tape
corrections are seldom, if ever, performed in practice, tape correction problems
have been moved to Appendix A However, it is still important that the study of
surveying including a complete presentation of taping so that students understand
the proper use of tapes Thus a discussion of the correction for systematic errors
found in taping are still retained in this edition Furthermore, transits and theodolites, which are not used in practice, are just briefly introduced in the main body
of the text for historical purposes For those who still use these instruments, the
reader should refer to previous editions of this book
As with past editions, this book continues to emphasize the theory of
errors in surveying work At the end of each chapter, common errors and mistakes related to the topic covered are listed so that students will be reminded
to exercise caution in all of their work Practical suggestions resulting from the
authors’ many years of experience are interjected throughout the text
AcknoWledgMenTs
Previous editions of this book, and this current one, have benefited from the suggestions, reviews, and other input from numerous students, educators, and practitioners For their help, the authors are extremely grateful In this edition, those
professors and graduate students who reviewed material or otherwise assisted
include Robert Schultz, Oregon State University; Steven Frank, New Mexico
State University; Jeremy Deal, University of Texas-Arlington; Eric Fuller,
St Cloud State University; Loren J Gibson, Florida Atlantic University; John J
Rose, Phoenix College; Robert Moynihan, University of New Hampshire; Marlee
Walton, Iowa State University; Douglas E Smith, Montana State University;
Jean M Rüeger, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Thomas
Seybert, The Pennsylvania State University; Paul Dukas, University of Florida;
and Bon DeWitt, University of Florida The authors would like to acknowledge
the following professionals for their contributions and suggestions, including
Charles Harpster, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation; Preston Hartzell,
University of Houston; Eduardo Fernandez-Falcon, Topcon Positioning Sytems;
Joseph Gabor; and Brian Naberezny
In addition, the authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of charts,
maps, or other information from the National Geodetic Survey, the US
Geological Survey, and the US Bureau of Land Management Also, appreciation is expressed to the many instrument manufacturers who provided pictures
and other descriptive information on their equipment for use herein To all of
those named above, and to any others who may have been inadvertently omitted,
the authors are extremely thankful
