33 - Modern Surveying Techniques for Mining and Civil Engineering

Abstract

Surveying is the field of applied science and engineering that deals with spatial information about positions of points on, above or below the earth's surface. This information serves as a base for the establishment of geographic information systems (GIS) for the management of land and marine resources, for monitoring environmental changes, and for planning, designing and setting out engineering works. The spatial information may be displayed in the form of maps, digital terrain models, or just as a list of coordinates of the points of interest in a selected coordinate system. Surveying is needed at all stages of most civil engineering or mining projects: in planning and design, during the construction or mining process, and, finally, in monitoring the stability of the constructed object or surrounding rocks. The accuracy requirements for engineering and mining surveys are usually higher than for any other surveying application. They may range from submillimeter requirements in setting out and alignment of such high precision objects as nuclear accelerators, or in deformation measurements of such sensitive structures as large power dams and underground excavations for the storage of toxic materials, to millimeters and a few centimeters in the alignment of long tunnels and bridges or in ground subsidence surveys.