Mapping is the collective term used to describe a range of specialist data capture and observation techniques. These data capture and observation techniques have evolved through the basic need for, as the name suggests, maps, be they very precise 1:50 scale plans for bridge engineers to design bridge improvements or 1:250000 scale mapping used to make road maps so "you" can find your way from A to B.
The core skills under the Mapping umbrella are Land Survey, GNSS & Geodesy, photogrammetry and LiDAR
Land Survey
Land Surveying is a specialist measurement profession that encompasses a wide variety of disciplines. We carry out the full range of survey services using modern servo driven one man total stations with varying degrees of precision from 1", 1mm ± 1ppm to 5", 5mm ± 5ppm.
We can also call on RTK GPS equipment to carry out a range of survey data acquisition exercises in GPS friendly environs, with the system offering up to 0.010m accuracy in the x and y component and 0.020m in the z component.
We also operate high and medium precision digital levels and more traditional automatic levelling equipment. This equipment enables us to offer services including any scale topographic surveys including data capture and modelling with cross/long section extraction, surface and underground railway surveys, river channel cross section surveys, measured building surveys, tunnel surveys, bridge and building elevation surveys using non contact total station options, tree surveys, asset surveys and setting out services. To find out more about each service please see the appropriate topic area.
GPS
GPS and Geodesy are the tools that hold together all the skills within the Mapping Skill Group. Geodesy can be described as the mapping of the earth or large portions of it, the earth's orientation in space and the earth's gravity field. It is a complex subject that enables surveyors to position any type or size of survey anywhere on the planet, on any national or bespoke projection or true scale flat earth grid. It also allows surveyors to give heights to those surveys with respect to any existing datum in the world or to create a bespoke local height datum, again, dependent upon the client's requirements.
Global Positioning System (GPS) and other space bourn GNSS systems such as GLONASS or EGNOS are the tools that allow us to measure our position and height to varying degrees of precision, from a few millimetres to a decimetre or so. The reason we use GPS for positioning and heighting is that the we can measure our position and height on the ground at a survey control station to an accuracy of a few millimetres, or we can measure the position and height of an aircraft every tenth of a second to an accuracy of few centimetres to help compute its track, an essential piece of information when geo-referencing LiDAR laser hits to the OSGB36 national grid system.
