THE CONFERENCE OF COMMONWEALTH SURVEY OFFICERS 1963

Abstract

The session on Friday morning dealing with Cadastral Surveys with Mr. Rogers of Australia as Chairman also aroused a good deal of interest, particularly as regards the work in Kenya, and the applications of air survey. Mr. Warren, Director of Surveys, introduced the first paper, on land tenure surveys in Kenya. This continued the story of surveys for African small holdings told by Mr. Ratzeburg in the previous Conference, and gave an idea of the very considerable and successful effort which had been made by the Survey of Kenya, in spite of the considerable difficulties caused by reliance on hedges (which had often not grown properly) as boundaries. Some two million acres of base mapping at 1/2,500 scale with 25-foot contours had been completed, and final registration maps for over 60,000 parcels covering nearly 300,000 acres had been produced in the five districts concerned. One difficulty which had been expected—of reconciling accurately measured areas with the approximate ones obtained during demarcation—had caused considerably fewer complaints than had been expected. On the technical side the survey had found premarking of all control points—with a cross formed from carbide sludge or whitewashed stones—very much worth while. The procedures used in aero-triangulation were outlined. In 1961 the department had also started surveys for the subdivision and allocation of European farms to Africans, involving the same processes of preliminary topographical maps followed by demarcation of physical boundaries and finally survey of these by photogrammetry and ground methods. This would cover a million acres.