The principles of land surveying date back almost as far as the idea of land ownership. Ever since ancient man determined that certain parcel would participate in one group, and another piece to some other 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 history of the planet has used some form of land surveying, although they have certainly are more sophisticated through the years both with changing laws and improved technologies. Today, GPS and other technologies allow for a much more exact survey than was possible just a couple short decades ago. As you can imagine, ancient maps and land surveys were even less accurate.
One of 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' knowledge 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 ago, to record the owners of various pieces of land and their locations. These early surveying efforts by the Egyptians were years before other civilizations, as was true in lots of the areas of Egyptian technology aswell. These surveys were based on geometry and also simple declarations they believed these boundaries to be correct.
In the Roman Empire., the Romans actually established 'land surveyor' being an official position. These 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, a few of these ditches still exist to the present 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 most land owners, the product quality and level of this land, and home elevators the people and resources in each area. Although the amount of information contained in this book was quite impressive, this is not a technical survey, and the maps weren't attracted to scale and weren't very accurate.
Napoleon Bonaparte was the first to mandate a cadastre, in 1808. Sometimes,
Hop over to this website 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 you possibly can given then-current technology), and as much information about the value 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 was difficult to produce a cadastre in rural areas or those where land was in dispute.
Today's surveys are much more accurate than those done in decades or centuries past because of sophisticated means for measuring and recording boundaries and land features. There are several more applications of land surveys than simply recording land ownership