Land surveyors once used tape measures and transits to measure distances and positions. Since the 1980s, electronic distance measurement, or EDM, devices have allowed for a lot more efficient and accurate measurements. These use a wave of energy that's shot between the EDM instrument and a reflector. Check out this site takes to return is then calculated as distance. Today, such calculations can be done using sophisticated GPS systems.
The Global Positioning System uses a network of satellites to precisely pinpoint the device's location on Earth at any moment. GPS uses the principle of trilateration, using the location of several satellites to pinpoint a precise location. A receiver can determine the latitude, longitude, and elevation of a spot using four or even more satellites; there are a total of 24 Global Positioning System satellites currently used. First developed by the U.S. Department of Defense as a navigational assist in 1994, today it really is found in many devices, tracking from cell phones and delivery vehicles to the movement of the tectonic plates of Earth's crust.
Land surveyors use Global Position Systems to notice the precise coordinates of spatial locations. Exact measurement of these positions is among the fundamental components of land surveying. The benefit of is that it's much more accurate than hand-measuring these locations. There's some degree of error in all land surveying measurements, because of human errors, environmental characteristics like variations in magnetic fields, temperature, and gravity, and instrument errors. GPS allows for much more precise measurements than previously available to land surveyors using measuring tape and an angle sight.
Another benefit of the usage of its use as a land surveyor is that the coordinates could be located precisely, while other ways of land surveying depend on measurements from other known locations, including the edge of the house line, the corner of a house, or another landmark. These locations could change as time passes, such as in case a house is torn down or another obstacle is built between the structure and the measured point; even a surveyor's stake may be removed before the land is re-surveyed. The coordinate of a given location on Earth, however, remains the same. Therefore, using GPS as a land surveyor produces measurements which will be accurate whatever happens to the surrounding land.
Although Global Position System receivers enable very precise measurements, there's still a degree of error involved. A receiver on a tripod will record the positioning slightly differently each and every time; when many measurements are taken, these data points will form a cluster round the actual location. Better-quality receivers, of course, reduce this quantity of error. Survey-grade receivers, rather than those meant for non-surveying uses, may create a group of measurements clustered within just one centimeter of the actual location. Today's receivers are steadily gaining used, but might not be as accurate because the surveyor would like, especially in areas that are heavily wooded or which have other large obstructions. However, the technology is rapidly advancing and gaining a foothold in the available equipment for land surveyors. Since 1994, the accuracy available when working with GPS units has improved steadily.