Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Surveying & Beyond: Additional Occupations To Consider

By Carey Bourdier


Surprisingly, there are a few occupations that have been around for centuries that are still quite common today. If you've ever seen a person looking through a theodolite by a road or building site, then you have seen one of these professions. The surveyor is the person that uses this device and surveyors have been necessary since ancient times. There are actually quite a few disciplines of surveying as well as other jobs that are very similar. If you have an interest in mathematics, surveying or perhaps mapmaking or building, the following jobs might be perfect for you.

Cartography & photogrammetry are two branches of science related to surveying. You might be familiar with the term cartography, which is simply the science of creating maps. Of course, maps can be quite complex and there is usually nothing simple about taking the precise measurements needed to craft different types of maps.

Photogrammetry, on the other hand, might be less familiar to most people. This is a science where measurements are taken from photographs. Where a surveyor might use a theodolite or clinometers, a photogrammetrist will use optics, which is a branch of physics, as well as projective geometry to help them make calculations as well as satellites and special types of cameras.

No surveyor, cartographer or photogrammetrist is an island, however, and they have assistants known as mapping technicians or surveying technicians. A surveying technician does not need a great deal of formal training but will need to learn how to use angle measuring tools such as the inclinometer or the theodolite, and much of these skills can be acquired with on-the-job training. On the other hand, a mapping technician will need some level of formal schooling in order to learn how to use the complex technology needed for cartography and photogrammetry projects.

Landscape architecture might conjure up the image of someone who simply decides where to place plants and shrubbery in someone's yard, but this profession is far more complex than that. Landscape architects use all sorts of optical tools, angle measuring tools and software to design land areas for private homeowners, public parks, college campuses, open space in planned communities and much more. They must create plans within a budget and take into consideration factors such as soil condition, water conservation, land usage and much more.

If building is something that sounds exciting to you, it might be a good idea to learn about the tasks given to a civil engineer. This is a person or team of people needed for virtually any kind of major construction project, including roads, bridges, tunnels and dams. Using items such as a total station, clinometer and theodolite to take measurements is one of the first steps of these big projects, so you can see that a civil engineer has many similarities to the profession of surveying.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment