The principles of land surveying date back almost as far as the thought of land ownership. Since ancient man determined that one piece of land would participate in one group, and another piece to another group, there is a need to mediate between land disputes. That's where land surveying came in, although today surveys may also be used for a great many other purposes.
Since that time, every major civilization in the annals of the world has used some type of land surveying, although they will have certainly become more sophisticated over time both with changing laws and improved technologies. Today, GPS and other technologies allow for a more exact survey than was possible just a couple of short decades ago. As you can imagine, ancient maps and land surveys were even less accurate.
Among the first examples of a land survey using mathematical means was in ancient Egypt. THE FANTASTIC Pyramid, built around 2700 BC at Giza, demonstrates Egyptians' understanding of surveying techniques. Ancient Egyptians also redrew boundary lines using basic geometry following the Nile River flooded the plains. An Egyptian land register existed as early as 3000 BC, or five thousand years back, to record the owners of various pieces of land and their locations. These early surveying efforts by the Egyptians were years ahead of other civilizations, as was true in lots of other areas of Egyptian technology aswell. These surveys were predicated on geometry and also simple declarations that they believed these boundaries to be correct.
In Find out more ., the Romans actually established 'land surveyor' as an official position. They were called agrimensores. Texts describing their actions date back to the first century AD. Thorough and precise, they were known for creating impeccably straight lines and right angles using simple tools. After measuring these lines, they might dig a shallow ditch to represent the lines. Amazingly, many of these ditches still exist for this day.
In eleventh century England, William the Conqueror wrote his now-famous Domesday Book. This book, covering all of England, meticulously covered the names of all land owners, the product quality and level of this land, and information on individuals and resources in each area. Even though amount of information contained in this book was quite impressive, this is not just a technical survey, and the maps weren't attracted to scale and weren't very accurate.
Napoleon Bonaparte was the first ever to mandate a cadastre, in 1808. Sometimes, Napoleon even thought that the cadastre would be his greatest contribution to civil law. The cadastre is a thorough register of the property in confirmed county. The information it contains includes ownership details, location (as precisely measured as possible given then-current technology), and as much information about the worthiness and using the land as was available. This cadastre included scale maps at both 1:2500 and 1:1250. Cadastre use spread quickly, and indeed it was the foundation of today's cadastral surveys. However, it had been difficult to make a cadastre in rural areas or those where land was in dispute.
More helpful hints are a lot more accurate than those done in decades or centuries past because of sophisticated means for measuring and recording boundaries and land features. There are lots of more applications of land surveys than recording land ownership